Seaside splendour in a very rare form … Saldanha bay is the largest and deepest natural bay in South Africa, and in its most northern corner lays the seaside town of Saldanha. About 110 kilometres up the West Coast from Cape Town, this picturesque harbour town offers a largely unspoilt stretch of land home to seagulls, cormorants, Cape gannets, duikers and terns that tend to outnumber humans by about a million to one.
When referring to the harbour town of Saldanha, it should not be confused with the whole of the Saldanha Bay local municipality (SBM). The SBM’s seat is situated in its largest town, Vredenburg, in the centre of the West Coast Peninsula, also called the Vredenburg Peninsula. The SBM covers an area of more than two thousand square kilometres and a total population of around one hundred thousand people. Vredenburg’s residents amount to approximately 40% and Saldanha’s to about 30% of this total. The two smaller towns of Langebaan and Hopefield, as well as the rest of the much smaller villages of Jacobsbai, Paternoster and St Helena Bay, and the air force base at Langebaanweg make up the rest. It is a region rich in history and a diverse mix of cultures that draws tourists and visitors from all over the country and across the world. Job creation and building the population’s pride in what the peninsula has to offer, as well as eco-tourism, are its top priorities.
Saldanha was named after Antonio de Saldanha who visited South Africa in 1503, but there is fossilised evidence in the West Coast Fossil park that man may have been present here as many as 117 000 years ago. The town is known for its Naval Training Base, the South African Military Academy and a whole fleet of fishing vessels that add character to the bay. Today we also recognise the name Saldanha from the branding that its several fish canning operations use. The town’s economy is driven by export and the fishing industry (crayfish, fish e.g. snoek, yellowtail and tuna, mussels, oysters from its very successful oyster farm, as well as seaweed processing plants). The port developed into a modern harbour when it became necessary to facilitate the export of iron ore from Sishen in the Northern Cape. This not only required the construction of a railway of more than 800 kilometres to the mines at Sishen, but also the construction of a deepwater jetty in Saldanha Bay to accommodate ore carrier ships.
This semi-bustling seaside town still maintains the ideal of slow living and has a Mediterranean climate characterised by dry summers and mild, wet winters with a low rainfall. It makes the bay ideal for water sports and the beaches are not crowded.
