The coastline from Mossel Bay to Buffels Bay is a beautiful stretch of the Garden Route, and is rich in good waves for surfing.
My wife’s 30th birthday happened to coincide with a visit from a few professional surfer friends from Australia who were here with local surfers to enjoy the uncrowded waves.
However, my wife wanted to enjoy her 30th, and not have to spend it with a bunch of single male surfers, so we stayed in Mossel Bay for the first few days of our week-long trip.
We booked into the Point Village Guest House, and asked for the honeymoon suite.
The owner, De Waal, was extremely accommodating, and the honeymoon suite, which was the penthouse, was incredible. We were perched above all the surrounding buildings and had a view of the sea and the waves.
I had a surprise planned for my wife’s birthday. We woke up early and drove to the little car park at Swartvlei, just a few kilometres short of Sedgefield. I had packed a day bag and grabbed my board and off we went walking down the beach, hand in hand.
It takes about 20 minutes to walk to Gerickes Point, but the place is amazing. Empty, desolate and untouched, the headland is broken off from the cliff side and there is a gap to walk through.
On the other side are rock pools and gullies and quiet little tanning nooks and crannies.
It is out of the dreaded easterly wind, thanks to the giant, dog-like rock formation which blocks it completely. There were good waves and very few people around.
‘Follow me’
“Follow me,” I said, as we waded across some quite deep water to get to the best spot to camp for the day.
I looked behind me to see my wife floating on her back in the sea. She had decided to go a different route and had slipped and fallen into a deep hole filled with seawater.
The waves at Gerickes Point were good, and my surfer mates eventually made it down there. The surf was quite big, though, so I was quite content to sit on the beach with my wife and watch some of the best surfers around light it up at one of the most beautiful surf spots in the whole world. The sun was beating down, my wife was going brown and it was good to be in South Africa.
Afterwards, instead of the trek back to Mossel Bay, we headed off to the Bush Camp, accommodation with a difference in Wilderness.
Set up on the hills in thick vegetation, the Bush Camp is an incredible set-up.
Hanging over the Wilderness beach with a view all the way to Victoria Bay in the south and Gerickes Point in the north, the sunrises are unbelievable and reason enough to go and visit.
Owned by the Pfaff family, long time surfers from the area, it has surf memorabilia on the walls, a large braai area and everything you need to have a good time.
Warm water and good waves out front, and beautiful cabins set deep into the vegetation, it is like the most luxurious camping experience, with white sheets and a good night’s sleep guaranteed.
‘You could feel the sharks out there’
The Australians were blown away. Professional surfers travel all over the world, but the Bush Camp was something so unique, so African.
The next day we went surfing again, and we stumbled upon some awesome waves purely by accident.
It was near Buffels Bay, just short of Knysna, and we had struck gold. This part of the coastline is often forgotten by our international visitors, who seem more interested in the warm waters of Durban, the incredible waves of Jeffrey’s Bay or the giant waves of Dungeons in Cape Town.
What we were seeing were world-class waves breaking over a perfect sandbar with no one around.
East London surfer Greg Emslie paddled out with the rest of the crew, and a giant set of waves came through just as he saw the shark. It was a big, thick two-metre long muscle swimming directly for him, with intent.
These waves coming towards him were big and serious, strong enough to break a leash or a surfboard, so he had no choice but to paddle out to meet the waves, to get underneath them, and out to the shark streaking towards him.
He shouted at his Australian friends in the water, but no one heard him above the roar of the ocean.
He ducked under the falling lip of the first wave and braced himself for impact with the shark. Nothing happened. He surfaced and screamed and screamed at his friends. They heard him, and everyone started scrambling.
It was a few moments and they were all safe on the beach, a little bit shaky, but alive.
“You could feel the sharks out there,” said top South African professional surfer Royden Bryson afterwards. “You couldn’t see them but you could feel them.”
“What do you guys usually do when there are sharks around?” asked my mate Tom Whittaker, a clearly spooked Aussie surfer.
“We lift our feet out of the water,” I said, dead-pan. “This is South Africa, and like a Black Label quart, it’s not for beginners.”
If you go…
Bush Camp: www.bushcamp.info; www.boskamp.co.za
Phone/fax 044 877 1168
Point Village Guest House: www.pointvillage.co.za
Office: 044 690 7792
Fax: 044 690 7792
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