Beauty and the Quirky - a wander around Kalk Bay

Little fishing boats bobbing in Kalk Bay harbour

At the risk of causing you all to fall off your chairs in shock – yes, yes, it’s true, another blog post! The second in one week. Gasp! I know, it may yet snow at the equator! Stranger things have indeed happened.

It was a public holiday on Thursday and D decided to take Friday off as well – as did most of South Africa. Bah! sucks! humbug! to productivity, right? Given that it was a lovely day yesterday, though rain was threatened, we decided to wander down to Kalk Bay.

Harbour Lights - do you know your port from your starboard?

Fishing boats

The railway line runs from the city, through the suburbs and all the way down the coast

I suppose you might call it a village, but for us it’s just another suburb of Cape Town – quite far south and a bit out of the way, but a quirky little seaside place. The name means Lime Bay in English, though it’s never been called that - the name having been given to it by the early Dutch settlers. (Kalk means lime – and no, not limes as in citrus fruit, but as in the stuff you quarry.) The history of the place is quite interesting, it was variously a mini port for the Dutch East India Company and later became a small whaling station and then became home to a growing population of Filipinos. You can read more about the history and take a “tour” on the official Kalk Bay website.

The view from the harbour wall, looking across to Simonstown in the far distance

Mucking around in boats

For the past few years, it’s been quite a trendy, quirky spot, with lots of generally overpriced (yes, we know how to mug tourists in more ways than one) junk/bric-a-brac and antique shops and several decent restaurants. It’s very touristy in summer, and getting there and back in the high season can be a real nightmare. The narrow main road gets clogged with traffic moving at pace which would make a snail proud. I noticed though, as we wandered around yesterday, that a lot of the shops have closed down and new whacky boutiques have opened – sign of the times, or recession, who knows.

The "branding" at Quagga Trading

Kalk Bay Trading Post - all the junk you never knew you needed

Of course you always wanted a broken gumball machine. Of course you did!

And an old garden chair

And horns and horseshoes. Oh go on, admit it, you can't resist such a purchase!

I shouldn’t comment on the food, given I’ve nothing polite to say about it. Suffice it to say we opted for fish and chips down at the harbour – and have both been struck by very unhappy guts. There you go, another bad review for me to write (I’ve been making a habit of it of late…).

Filleting fish, fresh off the boats

Still, before the bug struck it was lovely wandering around in the mild spring sunshine, camera in hand, snapping the beauty and the quirky.

The wall of sweets at the general dealer/postal service/bait shop

The general dealer's sign, all things to all men - and women.

The local nursery, oozing colour

And because I just know you love to go "oooh" and "aw", some local residents...

Cape Fur Seals, only too happy to pose, in the hope you might throw them a fish!