Gansbaai

The Gansbaai coast is known as the “Coast of Contrasts” and the town of Gansbaai as “Big 2 Town” as you can see both the Southern Right Whale AND the Great White Shark here.

In 1881 Johannes Cornelis walked across the dunes to Gansgat from Stanford. Fisherman called it Gansgat because of a colony of Egyptian Geese (Kolganse) who nested in the rushes surrounding a fresh water fountain in a cove on the bay. Mr Cornelis found the fishing to be so good that he settled there and was soon followed by other families.

Some of the Afrikaans-speaking locals with English surnames are accounted for by the settlement in the area of the survivors of the British troopship, the Birkenhead, which was wrecked at nearby Danger Point in 1852. Danger Point juts out 8 km into the sea.  It has a lighthouse at its tip.

The Byeneskrans Hiking Trail gives beautiful views of the sea and the landscape and leads hikers through fynbos, milkwoods and Khoisan caves.

Stanford’s Bay, used by Sir Robert Stanford for shipping his farm produce to Cape Town, is an inlet between De Kelders and Gansbaai. It is a tranquil holiday resort with a small beach and a freshwater fountain, Flentergat, lined with fig trees that are thought to be over 150 years old.

Life in Gansbaai is still intrinsic to the ocean. The cove that provided a safe landing spot for the fishing boats of yesteryear has been developed into a modern harbour where fishing trawlers come and go. Gansbaai in fact boasts two harbours. In 1990 South Africa was the first country in the world to protect the Great White Shark and Gansbaai has become renowned as the Great White Shark capital of the world.

Nearby hamlets include Kleinbaai, Baardskeerdersbos, Franskraal and Pearly Beach.