Advertisement
St Sebastian Point
At the Point: Intrepid trampers: Jurie,Lizzi and Cilla Sometimes, even in retirement, the business of life just catches up with you and despite ivy clippings waiting to be added to the compost heap, admin begging attention (any excuse not to do the admin) and windows streaked with snail visiting cards it becomes necessary to push it all aside and go ‘tramping’. Tramping is the New Zealand equivalent for our ‘hiking’, so descriptive, I just love using it.
Lizziluv is visiting us from Indonesia for a week and she has been dying to go walking freely, inspecting all creatures, great and small, like only Lizzi can, especially the birds, something pretty much impossible in busy Djakarta. We also have the new Garmin GPS to test out (it seems so different to the old one) before we leave for Aus in June.
So we packed a picnic lunch, bird books, binocs and rain jackets and headed off in the Prado on the R234, that’s the dirt road running along the east bank of the Breede River to the ferry at Malagas and back along the river to the tiny village of Cape Infanta at the coast, exactly 1.3 km as the crow flies across the
St Sebastian Point
Looking north towards Witsand river mouth from where we live in Witsand. That’s about 130 km detour (round trip), but we were too lazy to take the boat and besides Witsand is crowded with holiday weekend visitors who selfishly spread their trailers and vehicles all over the government slipway instead parking somewhere along the road; making launching very difficult.
It was an exquisitely beautiful autumn day, one of those blue, blue skies, snowy-white clouds, green, green grass days. The rolling farmlands always set me a-dreaming; what if I had been a farmer, not a farmer’s wife that would mean baking and prepping the men’s meals, I already do that! A proper farmer, in charge of operating the farms we pass along the way, my way. I guess many a farmer would shake his head at the impracticality of my re-arranging of his farm and activities. It’s good to dream. Despite it being at the end of supposedly dry summer months the surroundings are surprisingly green.
We stopped at regular intervals for fauna and flora inspections. Several species made it on to our list; Baboons; bontebok; tortoises; even a lost emu or two; ostriches; the usual sheep and cattle;
Malagas Ferry
Approaching us before we cross donkeys and horses; an abundance of birdlife; when Lizzi is around that birdlife seems to triple, she has such a good eye. And I do not have a good enough camera, sadly.
We immediately ate half our picnic, sitting on the wooden benches overlooking the slipway, kids playing, dogs socialising, swimmers and snorkelers braving the cold water; a sleepy, happy village without Witsand’s tension and fishermen antagonisms. I was particularly fascinated by the SUP-ping going on, probably because I am dying to try it myself, one of the activities I have not got around to.
It was pretty much a boulder hopping exercise to get to St Sebastian Point as the pics will show. Halfway there, Jurie decided to clamber upwards and we stayed on the path at the top of the cliffs. I was surprised at how many flowers were in bloom for this time of the year. We’ve been there before and have pics to show a riot of colour, but yesterday’s flowers were not much less. The proteas were particularly beautiful.
At the point, we paused at Lizelle’s memorial stone at the top of
Malagas Ferry
Travelling back towards the north bank the cliff and wondered once again what her story could be, only 19 years old. I have created some stories about her; perhaps I should share them and see how they are received. J
Back at the camping grounds, we finished off our lunch; and headed home. Happy, relaxed and recharged.
Some educational stuff:
St Sebastian Point: S34deg 25.8 min E20deg 52.1min 66.2 m above sea level
Marcel says (and he should know being the Lower Breede River Conservancy conservator) what we did was illegal. We are not allowed to walk in the reserve without permits. Huh? We have done it so many times already. ???
SUP: Stand Up Paddling
Malagas Pont:
The last pontoon still is operation in South Africa is across the Breede River at Malagas and is a great tourist attraction in Swellendam. It was described by James Holman, a blind traveller as a floating bridge 15 metres long and 4 metres wide drawn along by ropes, providing work for locals.
The pontoon was built
in the middle of the eighteenth century, much used by farmers for transportation of produce, some of which was used as barter payment to Gideon van Zyl an 18
th century operator. The (reigning) Barry family had stores on the banks of the river, enabling clients to bring their wagons right up to the counter after the pontoon-crossing. There were a few accidents with wagons slipping off the floating bridge until retaining rails were built. More recently, the workers omitted to close the gate and two elderly ladies were chatting merrily in their fancy 4 x 4 brand new vehicle, they did not switch off the engine or even take it out of gear, the driver’s foot slipped of the clutch and their vehicle rushed into the river. Vehicle ruined, ladies saved; but oh how I wish I could have seen that happen!
St Sebastian Bay:
The Breede River widens into a beautiful estuary flowing directly into the sea at the western end of St Sebastian Bay, with Witsand; aptly so-named with its vast sandy beach on its north shore and Infanta lying south of the river.
You
can find out more about Witsand here:
http://www.witsand.com/ According to Wikipedia; Infanta takes its name from Cape Infanta; in turn named after captain Joao Infante, commander of one of Bartolomeu Dias’s caravels.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.18s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 10; qc: 51; dbt: 0.1192s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Bruce Gamble
non-member comment
Visit to Malagas
Thanks for the blog post. It brought back good memories of our river trip, even though we didn't quite make it all the way to the pont because of the low river levels. Next time, make you you get those permits before you "tramp" in the reserve!