Nov 21 2013
Surfing on the Wild West Coast of South Africa
Last weekend a group of MBC volunteers, one of the Learn 2 Surf instructors plus some of the Muizenberg crew headed on a road trip along the west coast of South Africa! The wave forecast looked promising along this stretch of the Western Cape and we certainly weren’t disappointed! We camped pretty much on the beach for three nights and surfed at Elands Bay (Elandsbaai) and Lambert’s Bay (Lambertsbaai). The waves were more challenging than at Muizenberg and considerably larger, which was good experience! It was quite awesome to watch the more advanced surfers do their tricks out at the point at Elands.
Surfing the point at Elands
During our trip we had braais (South African BBQs) overlooking the beach and an incredible all-you-can-eat seafood dinner at Muisbosskerm, the famous open-air restaurant right on the shore that was featured in the cult surf film ‘The Endless Summer II’ – a perfect place to watch the sun go down and refuel for surfing the next day.
Road tripping!
We had some impromptu yoga sessions at sunset and dusk – it was pretty special looking up at the darkening sky and watching the full moon and the stars come out one by one over the sea, especially as there’s so little light pollution there.
Surfer at Elands
This particular section of coastline has a rather wild, untamed beauty which is quite stunning. Ancient rock paintings, dating back to the San Bushmen, are located in a nearby cave up in a cliff face and we did a mini hike up to the cave to see them. The rock art includes paintings of elands and hundreds of red handprints thought to be connected to ancient rites of passage. We also saw some cool wildlife during our trip – seals, dassies, flamingos, ostriches, baboons, lizards . . .
Ancient rock art at Elands Bay
Muizenberg is a perfect and safe beach for learning to surf and for practising your skills while you’re working on the MBC project but there are so many good surf spots here in South Africa and Elands Bay makes an amazing surf trip from the Cape Town area for MBC volunteers.
Spot the birdie at Elands
Maddy, volunteer from England