Community hub
Recent from talks
Contribute something to knowledge base
Content stats: 0 posts, 0 articles, 1 media, 0 notes
Members stats: 0 subscribers, 0 contributors, 0 moderators, 0 supporters
Subscribers
Supporters
Contributors
Moderators
Hub AI
Gansbaai AI simulator
(@Gansbaai_simulator)
Hub AI
Gansbaai AI simulator
(@Gansbaai_simulator)
Gansbaai
Gansbaai (Dutch/Afrikaans for "bay of geese," sometimes referred to as Gans Bay) is a fishing town and tourist destination in the Overberg District Municipality, Western Cape, South Africa. It is known for its dense population of great white sharks and as a whale watching location.
The main tourist attraction in Gansbaai since approximately 1995 has been cage diving with great white sharks. It is said [who?] that after Kruger National Park, the great white sharks attract some of the highest numbers of tourists to South Africa for any single activity.
Klipgat Cave is located in the Walker Bay Nature Reserve, next to De Kelders, the residential shore area of Gansbaai. As one of only three places in South Africa where such old remains have been excavated, Klipgat Cave is an important historical sites in the Western Cape. The reserve and the cave are open to the public.
The earliest evidence of the presence of sheep-herding Khoi people (after the hunter-gatherer-"San", the original indigenous population of the Western Cape) in the Western Cape has been found in Klipgat Cave. Until the first white settlers arrived at the end of the 18th century, the Khoi people thrived in this region. An expedition sent by Jan van Riebeeck to the area, described meeting people of the so-called Chainouqua-tribe near Baardskeerdersbos, a rural hamlet, 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) from Gansbaai. The river flowing through the Baardskeerdersbos Valley is still called "Boesmansrivier" (Afrikaans for Bushman's river). "Bushman" is a name commonly used for the San-people, but will in this case have reflected Khoi-people.
It was the people of Khoi-descent that erected the first permanent settlement in the Gansbaai vicinity. In 1811 fishing cottages were built under the dense Milkwood Forests in Stanfords Bay near De Kelders.
The first white settlers in the area were "trekboers" (nomadic farmers). They copied the Khoi herding techniques of using a grazing area until it was exhausted, then moving on to greener pastures. The area was big and fertile enough for such purposes. On many of the large farms around Gansbaai, the old and original homesteads and mudstone houses tell of the days when the white farmers settled down.
The troopship HMS Birkenhead was wrecked off Danger Point in 1852. A barely visible rock 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) from Danger Point (now aptly called "Birkenhead Rock") was fatal for the troopship carrying young Welsh, Scottish and English soldiers and their officers and family on their way to Eastern Cape to fight the Xhosa. The Birkenhead became famous because it was the first shipwreck where the "women and children first" protocol was applied. All women and children were saved but 445 of the men, mostly soldiers, perished. Most of the horses swam ashore and were the ancestors of a feral herd that roamed the plains east of Gansbaai until late in the 20th century.[citation needed]
More than 140 ships have been wrecked and thousands of lives lost between Danger Point and Cape Infanta, to the east of Gansbaai. In 1895, the Danger Point Lighthouse was built, providing more security for the ships in these dangerous waters.
Gansbaai
Gansbaai (Dutch/Afrikaans for "bay of geese," sometimes referred to as Gans Bay) is a fishing town and tourist destination in the Overberg District Municipality, Western Cape, South Africa. It is known for its dense population of great white sharks and as a whale watching location.
The main tourist attraction in Gansbaai since approximately 1995 has been cage diving with great white sharks. It is said [who?] that after Kruger National Park, the great white sharks attract some of the highest numbers of tourists to South Africa for any single activity.
Klipgat Cave is located in the Walker Bay Nature Reserve, next to De Kelders, the residential shore area of Gansbaai. As one of only three places in South Africa where such old remains have been excavated, Klipgat Cave is an important historical sites in the Western Cape. The reserve and the cave are open to the public.
The earliest evidence of the presence of sheep-herding Khoi people (after the hunter-gatherer-"San", the original indigenous population of the Western Cape) in the Western Cape has been found in Klipgat Cave. Until the first white settlers arrived at the end of the 18th century, the Khoi people thrived in this region. An expedition sent by Jan van Riebeeck to the area, described meeting people of the so-called Chainouqua-tribe near Baardskeerdersbos, a rural hamlet, 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) from Gansbaai. The river flowing through the Baardskeerdersbos Valley is still called "Boesmansrivier" (Afrikaans for Bushman's river). "Bushman" is a name commonly used for the San-people, but will in this case have reflected Khoi-people.
It was the people of Khoi-descent that erected the first permanent settlement in the Gansbaai vicinity. In 1811 fishing cottages were built under the dense Milkwood Forests in Stanfords Bay near De Kelders.
The first white settlers in the area were "trekboers" (nomadic farmers). They copied the Khoi herding techniques of using a grazing area until it was exhausted, then moving on to greener pastures. The area was big and fertile enough for such purposes. On many of the large farms around Gansbaai, the old and original homesteads and mudstone houses tell of the days when the white farmers settled down.
The troopship HMS Birkenhead was wrecked off Danger Point in 1852. A barely visible rock 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) from Danger Point (now aptly called "Birkenhead Rock") was fatal for the troopship carrying young Welsh, Scottish and English soldiers and their officers and family on their way to Eastern Cape to fight the Xhosa. The Birkenhead became famous because it was the first shipwreck where the "women and children first" protocol was applied. All women and children were saved but 445 of the men, mostly soldiers, perished. Most of the horses swam ashore and were the ancestors of a feral herd that roamed the plains east of Gansbaai until late in the 20th century.[citation needed]
More than 140 ships have been wrecked and thousands of lives lost between Danger Point and Cape Infanta, to the east of Gansbaai. In 1895, the Danger Point Lighthouse was built, providing more security for the ships in these dangerous waters.
Recent media
Recent media