My fascination with West Coast National Park started with a story featuring a charming old cottage overlooking turquoise waters and unspoilt beaches. A cosy place with a stoep for hot summer afternoons and a fire roaring in the grate on chilly autumn and winter evenings. A place of unrivalled beauty and tranquillity in the lap of nature where time seems to stand still. The place is Churchhaven on the narrow peninsula which juts out between Langebaan Lagoon and the Atlantic Ocean, a mere 120 km north of bust-ling Cape Town.
There are other intriguing names in West Coast National Park (WCNP). Soon after passing the entrance gate off the R27 we come to a sign pointing to Abrahamskraal. A lovely Cape Dutch cottage sits in the fynbos, with not a soul in sight. Several ostriches are watching us, and then we notice a plank way to a wooden structure which turns out to be a bird hide at a small pond. Redknobbed coot with small chicks are lazily paddling about and a tiny sunbird feeds from the big yellow flowers on a carpet of succulents. If you are into birding, this must be one of your favourite spots. The cottage is fully equipped for six.
We watch a tortoise resolutely stomping from one patch of green to the next, and then we are on our way to the Atlantic View Point, an elevated spot a few metres off the ‘main road’. The view is indeed fantastic: stretched out below are dunes, the blue ocean and 16 Mile Beach, seemingly extending all the way to
Yzerfontein in the south. The bulky remains of a ship, wrecked 30 years ago, rise from the sea a few kilometres to the north.
Our next stop: Churchhaven! At last! About two dozen cottages and houses are scattered between palms and other trees and shrubs on a gentle slope down to the lagoon’s southern shore. Private property in a national park? “It does not pose a problem”, says Pierre Nel, a WCNP nature conservation official. “The park consists of many pieces of privately owned land and there are more cottages in other places around the lagoon, about 60 in total. We look after nature and the homeowners abide by the rules of their Home Owners’ Association.” Sett-lements around the lagoon existed long before the park was proclaimed in 1985. Langebaan and the sheltered lagoon were already known to European seafarers at Jan van Riebeeck’s times in the late 17 century. The Dutch East India Company had its ships repaired in the lagoon. Churchhaven is as tranquil and beautiful as expected. Some of the cottages are available as holiday accommodation. A family by the name of Church seems to have given this little haven its name.
The most amazing accommodation, by any national park’s standards, must be the two houseboats which are securely and permanently moored at Kraalbaai in the south-western corner of the lagoon. Imagine a luxurious floating mansion with nine bedrooms on two decks, or a cosy smaller one with two bedrooms. Kraalbaai has braai places with glorious views next to the road, and steps lead down to the beach, hidden from sight, to reveal wondrous rock formations like the enormous ‘preekstoel’ (the pulpit). There are more picnic spots a little further on, right next to the ocean, at Tsaarsbank where the terrain is flat and covered with flowers in spring. This is also the prime lookout spot for whales during winter. Tsaarsbank is the furthest you can go – unless you happen to visit the park in August or September. Then the Postberg section is open to the public, and to be able to see this privately owned part of the park really is the proverbial cherry on top of an experience which makes you want to come back again and again.
While driving through dense fynbos with just ostriches in sight and tortoises attempting to cross the road behind every bend you start to wonder where the antelope might be hiding of which the park is supposed to have several hundred. Pass the Postberg gate, drive up the first little hill and all of a sudden there they are, the whole lot of them, grazing on an open plain. There are 250 eland, 80 red hartebeest and smaller numbers of blue wildebeest, grysbok, bontebok and steenbok. Unexpectedly we count four bat-eared foxes frolicking among them. “Yes, we have quite a large number of bat-eared foxes”, says Pierre Nel. The omnipresent ostriches, by the way, number 800 in total.
The last stretch to the top of Postberg is a washed out bumpy one-way track, but an ordinary city car will make it without harm, and it is absolutely worth the effort. From the parking area on top you look down on Langebaan and the entire lagoon, and to the north you can see Columbine lighthouse at Paternoster!
This park has so much to offer. It also has an educational centre and accommodation facilities for school classes or other groups. And even though visitors arrive by the busload during the flower season it is a far cry from the milling crowds at Cape Point. Spring flowers and birding are considered to be the biggest attractions of West Coast National Park. With the exception of Langebaan proper, the park surrounds Langebaan lagoon for good reason: the lagoon is a world Ramsar site. Many of the wader species are Palaearctic migrants and are best observed from the Geelbek hide near the restaurant when the tide comes in.
No visit to the park can be complete without stopping at Geelbek Restaurant which - among other accolades - has been voted Best Restaurant in the West Coast Region. But hurry, the wonderful place with its culinary temptations closes at 17h00 every day. This grand former farmhouse is a national monument. Its heyday was probably in the 1920s when Geelbek was owned by Governor-General Henry Steytler who bred mules for the British army and was otherwise famous for his extensive parties. Totally oblivious of the environment he had the lagoon dredged to allow boats to come closer to the homestead. His wine cellar was reputed to be the largest in the country. These days Geelbek is a popular wedding venue.
On the way back to the main gate we pass the turn-off to the Duinepos Chalets, another accommodation facility in the park. These eight chalets are well hidden in the fynbos and sport a swimming pool. They are the result of the Duinepos community based tourism project which was started by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism in 2004 to alleviate poverty in the Langebaan community. Unused staff houses at Duinepos were restored and refurbished to full tourism standard and members of the community were trained to run the chalets. Part of the profit is paid into a selected community project.
The park has two gates. On the way to the Langebaan exit we pass Flamingo Joe’s Beach Camp, named for the many flamingos which congregate in the shallows. Just metres from the wilderness zone, on a stretch of pristine private beach, there are walk-in safari tents on decks. This is an eco friendly camp where paraffin lamps are provided and water is pumped by hand from a borehole. Time has not stood still in West Coast National Park, despite paraffin lamps and hand-pumped water (other accommodation facilities have solar energy and tap water). On the contrary, this is a park which embodies the ideal of involving the community and the public at large in conservation and the sustainable use of natural resources.
