Hout Bay

Hout Bay is a deep bay behind a mountain wall on the Atlantic side of the peninsula, and its harbour still works - trawlers, snoek boats and a fish processing industry, alongside the tourist quay. Small boats run out to Duiker Island, a low rock a few hundred metres offshore carrying a Cape fur seal colony in the low thousands; the trip takes under an hour and the smell arrives before the island does. The harbour has fish and chips stalls, a craft market and a sculpture of a leopard on the rocks at the harbour mouth. Chapman's Peak Drive, the toll road cut into the cliff towards Noordhoek, begins at the southern end of the bay and is one of the finest coast roads anywhere. The suburb itself contains sharp contrasts of wealth and poverty within a few hundred metres.

History

People lived in a cave here between 100 AD and 500 AD. The first written account dates from 1607, when John Chapman of the English ship Consent was sent ashore, and in 1614 an English sailor took wood from the forest here to mend his ship; after the Dutch settled Table Bay in 1652 the valley's forests supplied timber, and the name means wood bay (Wikipedia, Hout Bay).

What's there

• A working harbour - trawlers and fish processing alongside the visitor quay.
• Duiker Island - a seal colony on a rock a few hundred metres offshore.
• Chapman's Peak Drive - the cliff road south, beginning at the bay.
• The harbour market - fish stalls and craft under the mountain wall.

When to go

All year; mornings for the boat trips before the wind. Half a day.

Good to know

The harbour smells strongly of fish - that is the point, but people are surprised. Boat trips are cancelled in swell and the small boats are rough. Chapman's Peak closes in rockfall and high wind, sometimes for extended periods. The craft market is repetitive.

Nearby

Chapman's Peak Drive runs south; Camps Bay is north over the pass.