It may not be the best known of our parks, but the West Coast National Park is full of historical and wildlife wonder, and is just waiting to be discovered
When sailor and self-confessed hermit Frank Wightman discovered the sanctity of Kraalbaai on the Langebaan Lagoon in the 1940s, he knew he’d found the natural hidey-hole he’d been looking for his whole life. Long-time friend and author Lawrence Green, who wrote a biography on Wightman (A Giant in Hiding, Timmins, 1970), described what this discovery meant to him:
“Here the tyranny of time would be annihilated. The sweep of the tides would clean the beaches at the appointed hours but never would the sounds of the lagoon jar on him like a factory hooter. Here he could live by the values of remote ancestors… This was the way of life to which he had always been destined and he had reached it after many years of groping.”
Studying the map after entering the West Coast National Park, I knew Frank Wightman would have been well-pleased that his beloved Kraalbaai now forms part of the 33 000 hectares in the protective hands of SANParks. Proclaimed in 1985, the West Coast National Park is currently the only national park that incorporates a portion of the ecologically sensitive West Coast. The park showcases three main types of veld – West Coast Strandveld, Coastal Renosterbosveld and Coastal Macchia, better known to most as Fynbos. It is also home to more than 40 land-based mammals (22 sea-based mammals have been recorded as well), over 50 reptile species and nearly 300 birds. And birds, especially the migrants that arrive in their thousands (around 60 000 per annum) to escape the harsh Arctic winters and feed off the organism-rich lagoon and marsh beds, were probably the most important reason for the park’s proclamation. This is because the Langebaan Lagoon – especially the salt and fresh-water marshes that fringe its southern edges (30% of South Africa’s total salt water marshes are found here) – marks the southernmost point for these multitudinous flocks to rest-up and gain weight before attempting the long flight back north. For some this is a journey of up to 15 000 kilometres, to the Taimyr Peninsula in Siberia.
One of Wightman’s favourite vantage points from which to view ‘his domain’ and his long-time travelling companion, Wylo (the yawl-rigged yacht Wightman built himself), anchored in Kraalbaai, was atop Constable Hill on the south-eastern edge of the granite-topped Postberg Peninsula. Having travelled up here to view the spring flowers (a little reticent in showing themselves this year) and the views across the bay, my friend Grant and I mused how different the vista must have looked to Wightman when he first arrived here around 70 years ago. For instance, the only building he would have seen to the south would have been the classic Dutch-gabled farmstead of Geelbek – and, of course, there would have been few roads, and even fewer cars, in that direction.
Originally called Geelbekkefontein, the property was first granted as a quit-rent farm to one Steven Verwey towards the end of the 18th century, Alexandra van Breda rebuilt the classic homestead in 1860 (his initials can still be seen above the front door) after it burnt down, and it has been home to various other interesting characters over the years. According to Arne and Pat Schaeffer in their highly informative book, Lagoon (Yoshi Publishing, 1993), one of the more colourful of these was Henry de Villiers Steytlen He was said to have one of the best-stocked wine cellars in the region, and this, combined with the purpose-dug channel that allowed the Cape Town boating set to drop anchor close to the house, meant that he was never short of party guests. The bashes he threw were legendary and some of them were said to have gone on for weeks.
While most of the significant fossil finds to date have been discovered just outside its borders, the West Coast National Park is also thought to be rich in traces of prehistoric life, going back some 20 million years. The reason for this is because the park hosts the same sort of deposits found on the fossil-rich farm of Elandsfontein, adjacent to its eastern edge. And it was while walking between the pristine dunes (they form part of the Daniel Bester trail, which starts near the community-driven chalet project at Duinepos) that we scanned the valleys, hoping for a chance sighting of some old bones, part of the remains of the numerous ancient animal skeletons that are said to be lying here. It is claimed that among these are the now extinct giant zebras, as well as the more anatomically-modern skeletons of elephants, rhinoceroses, elephants and even buffaloes.
He stumbled across a flat slab of rock with a human figure painted on it in red ochre
Apparently, fossils of their predecessors – enigmatic-sounding beasts with names like wolverines, bear-dogs, musk-oxen and even a three-toed horse – have also been found in the vicinity.
But animal remnants are only part of the prehistoric story here. In 1953 the skullcap and partial jaw of the so-called ‘Saldanha Man were found nearby and are thought to date from between 400 to 700 thousand years ago (the oldest recorded human fossil south of the Orange or Gariep River), examples of which have been found in other African and European countries as well. Remains of modern man are also prevalent in the region. One day, when Frank Wightman was walking along what he called Sixteen Mile Beach, the unbroken stretch of sand linking Yzerfontein with the south-western corner of the Postberg Peninsula, he stumbled across a flat slab of rock with a human figure painted on it in red ochre. Lawrence Green sums up what followed:
“Curiously he had lifted the stone and there lay the hunter; a tiny skeleton lying on one side, knees drawn up to the breast, hands covering the face. All the man’s worldly possessions lay beside him; bow and arrows, skinning blade, bored digging stone, fish spear and clay pot.”
But some of the most unusual traces of early human life in the park are the extremely rare fossilised footprints of a woman dubbed ‘Eve’. They were uncovered in the soft dune rock near Preekstoel on the southern edge of Kraalbaai in 1995 by Dr Dave Roberts of the council for Geosciences. Dated using a technique called ‘luminescence’, the footprints are said to be 120 000 years old. Unfortunately the threat of erosion and vandals damaging these rare imprints necessitated their being moved to the Iziko Museum in Cape Town. A cast of the prints, however is on show at the park’s Geelbek information centre.
We spent less than 24 hours in the park. All told, Frank Wightman spent nearly 24 years here. But even though our time was short, we crammed in a number of the many things on offer – a tour of the informative visitors’ centre and historic homestead at Geelbek, a brief trip to one of the bird hides, two trips around the spring flower-bedecked hills and ungulate-covered plains of the Postberg Peninsula, a walk up and over the dunes near Duinepos, a tea stop near the wave-busting rocks of Tsaarsbank bird-watching at rest and on the fly – and after all that, we both knew we’d not even experienced half of it. Truth is, although the merits of the West Coast National Park may not be that well known, especially to upcountry visitors to the Cape, as far as pristine wilderness destinations go, it certainly is a giant in hiding.
Best time of the year to visit August to March.
Accommodation: Duinepos chalets 022707 9900
Footnotes
As well as a sailor and amateur archaeologist, Frank Armstrong Wightman was also an author, his work including The Wind and Wylo Sails Again.
Text and Pictures by Nicholas Yell. Article was taken from the November 2010 edition of Country life magazine.
| More info on the town of Langebaan | More info on The West Coast area |
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