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| << February13, 2006 - Turtle Essays edition no 163 dated 13th February 2006 |
February27, 2006 - Turtle Essays Essays ezine 165 dated 27.2.2006 >> |
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Turtle Essays Edition no 164 dated 20th February 2006 ** Cape Town tours Turtle SA Tours offers tours to many of the places written about in theTurtle Essays ezine and website. As people like to go off the beaten track occasionally tours visiting the lesser visited attractions can be arranged. To enquire email me at tourinfo@freeautobot.com or tourinfo@turtlesa.com ** Do you enjoy this weekly ezine? Please tell your friends about it and send them to http://www.zinester.com/mpb/ml_fs.cgi?topic=50058 to become regular readers ** In this edition: Editors Blurb Lamberts Bay ** Editor's Blurb Hi there folks. Welcome to all my new and regular readers. Over the past weekend I took the opportunity to visit a number of towns along the West Coast which I had not visited before. Lamberts Bay was of particular interest as I knew that it had a gannet population that was coming under threat from the seals that live in a colony nearby. I was most surprised on arrival in the town to find that all 22000 birds that made up the gannet population had left, not even one bird remained. That birds communicate with one another is known but on such a massive scale that a whole population up and leaves is to me an interesting phenomena. The west coast of the Cape is a very dry area but also very beautiful and is a must see for visitors to the Cape especially when one has to drive over the Piekerniers Kloof Pass to get there. The golden valley that stretches out in front of you is something to behold. Next time you visit the Cape visit the west coast. You'll be glad you did. Geoff Fairman ps To see the photos of Lamberts Bay visit http://www.turtlesa.com/ezine164.html ** Lamberts Bay The west coast of the Cape is steeped in history. Many of the small towns along its shores began when the Dutch and the British surveyed the area and found safe anchorages and harbours for their ships. Lamberts Bay originally known as Otterdam was first surveyed by the the Royal Navy between 1826 and 1840. The town was later named after Sir Robert Lambert who was in charge of the survey of the area. Nothing much happened in the area and then during the Anglo Boer War British ships started visiting the bay. The result of these visits was that the one and only ship to be lost by the British during the war was wrecked on Steenboksfontein near the present day Lamberts bay. Many bits and pieces of the Sybille are today on display at the local museum. Things started to change in 1887 when Joseph Carl Stephan, bought the farm Otterdam. Stephan who had started a shop in a ship near Laaiplek used the natural harbour at Lamberts bay for trading purposes with wheat from neighbouring farms being his main product. Being an entrepreneur Stephan also saw the need for a hotel so in due course he built the Marine Hotel. Having an eye for a profit Stephan even sold off part of his farm to the government and after 1909 other people started to settle in the area. The town of Lamberts Bay was finally proclaimed in 1913 when a number of plots were sold to private individuals. In 1929 the town became a local authority and was declared a Municipality in 1969. With the opening up of the west coastiover the past few years Lamberts Bay has become well known as a tourist destination. The drawcard being the seabird breeding colonies and a seal colony on Bird island which today forms part of the harbour. The main attraction is the gannets which are beautiful seabirds and only breed in a few places along the South African coastline. For gannets to breed succesfully they need a constant supply of fish such as sardines and pilchard and the coastline off Lamberts Bay provides just that. The cold Benguela current which flows along the coastline provides nutrients which combined with upwelling attracts the pelagic fish shoals to the area. This of course makes the area a good hunting ground for seals as well. For many years the birds and seals have lived in harmony with the occasional seal attacking and killing gannet chicks as they follow their parents to sea. Of late however the seals have become far more aggressive and have ventured into the breeding grounds of the gannets during the night and have killed hundreds of birds, adults and chicks. As a result of the attacks the territory once occupied by 22000 gannets is now occupied by other sea birds as the gannets have left the island en masse. The gannets leaving the island could be a tourist disaster for Lamberts Bay. However, nature conservationists are of the opinion that the birds will return when the breeding season begins in August. The whole town is hoping that this will happen. If the gannets should return their first order of business will be to rebuild their nests in the guano on the island and then to lay one blue egg in the nest during October. Once laid the egg will be incubated for 40 days by both parents with their webbed feet. The chick after hatching grows rapidly and is ready to go to sea after about 97 days. Also found on Bird island which is joined to the mainland by a breakwater that was built in 1959, are penguins, terns, and seagulls. Many of them also breed on the island. Lamberts Bay used to be a fishing harbour and has a number of factories built along its waterfront. The crayfish canning factory that was erected in 1918 is still there today but is no longer used for canning crayfish. The potato chip industry has taken over one of the factories and provides raw potato chips for businesses such as Kentucky Fried Chicken and Mc Cains in Cape Town and its surrounding areas, a rather interesting fact as Lamberts Bay is about 290 kilometres from Cape Town by road. Another interesting fact is that Lamberts Bay harbour is used by the diamond mining boats as a base. Offshore diamonds are mined by converted trawlers and other small craft which carry large pumps and hundreds of metres of piping. When the ships go to sea included in the crew are deep sea divers whose job it is to locate diamond bearing gravel on the seabed. When they identify an area of potential diamond bearing gravel they dive down to the seabed and direct the suction hoses into all the crevices and gravelly areas sucking up the gravel. This gravel is pumped onto sorting tables where any diamonds found are removed before the gravel is returned to the sea. For diamond divers life is tough. Sea conditions on average only allow them to work for about six days a month and then they spend eight hours a day underwater in the bitterly cold Atlantic Ocean. Once the day's work has been completed the boats return to the harbour where any diamonds found during the day are brought ashore. Lamberts Bay consists not only of the harbour area but also has a beautiful coastline where one can swim and tan on the pristine beaches. Consequently the area is filled with bed and breakfast establishments and self catering units which are extremely popular on weekends and during school holidays. The town although it no longer has a crayfish factory is still an important crayfishing area. In the town many small restaurants and also open air restaurants have sprung up where one can enjoy the freshest and most delicious seafoods available. Being on the west coast, one of the drier areas in South Africa one would imagine that temperatures would be high during the day. This is in fact not the case. When we visited the area a week ago the temperature in Clanwilliam about 60 kilometres from Lamberts Bay was 42 degrees celsius while the temperature on the coast was a cool 21 degrees. This is one of the main factors why Lamberts Bay is so popular. For visitors it is advisable to make an overnight booking as it takes about three hours to get there through some of the most beautiful scenery one can imagine. Without an overnight stay you will not have enough time to explore the area and to enjoy some of the seafood delicacies available in the town. Turtle SA tours can arrange tours to the west coast. Contact us today to enquire at tourinfo@turtlesa.com Geoff Fairman ** For my personal details, contact address, and warnings regarding products advertised in this ezine please read the disclaimers which can be found at: http://www.turtlesa.com/Disclaimer.html |
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| << February13, 2006 - Turtle Essays edition no 163 dated 13th February 2006 |
February27, 2006 - Turtle Essays Essays ezine 165 dated 27.2.2006 >> |
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