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Immediately to your right (north) on the rocks surrounding a small bay,<br />
you may still see some ruins of some of the original farmers’ holiday<br />
homes. On my last visit, however, vandals had done their part and<br />
had carried off most of what was left of these bungalows. Follow the<br />
footpaths going north from here and descend back to the beach. After<br />
a short hike you’ll arrive at what was the main farmers’ holiday beach<br />
in years gone by. Here you will still find the ruins of about six or seven<br />
holiday homes standing right on the beach. With my last visit only one<br />
home remained intact and liveable, its windows and doors shuttered<br />
with steel plates to keep the vandals out. Right behind this house is a<br />
fresh water spring and the cave that gave this place its name.<br />
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The story of the farmers’ cottages goes back several generations, when<br />
farmers from the nearby Boland region used to travel down to Grotto<br />
Bay with their ox wagons, bringing everything they needed for their<br />
annual Christmas holiday with them. The cave was used as a natural<br />
hold for their oxen and horses, and there was of course water there for<br />
them as well. As the years passed some of the farmers began erecting<br />
permanent holiday cottages on the beach.<br />
It is said that because these houses had been built in what was later<br />
declared Admiralty Reserve and, in some parts on land below the highwater<br />
mark, permission was given to the farmers to retain their holiday<br />
homes on certain conditions: (a) it had to stay within the family that<br />
had built it and could not be sold; (b) they were not allowed to build<br />
any extensions or new structures; and (c) if it was destroyed by the sea<br />
or fire or some other event, they would not be allowed to rebuild these<br />
cottages and would forfeit the privilege. It certainly must have been<br />
one of the most exclusive beach holiday resorts in its day!<br />
Continue on your hike going north from here, and the wild and<br />
craggy coastline soon changes into a wide and very long beach, aptly<br />
named Long Beach. Some 500m from the beginning of this beach the<br />
Modderrivier (Mud River) reaches the sea, making for a lovely cooling<br />
swim if you find the icy Atlantic too daunting. Should you continue<br />
all the way along Long Beach, you will eventually reach the town of<br />
Yzerfontein, passing the Rondeberg and Jakkalsfontein Private Nature<br />
Reserves along the way.<br />
Behind Grotto Bay village is the Grotto Bay Private Coastal Nature<br />
Reserve. On the south side of the parking area are some fine surfing<br />
and snorkelling spots, where you will be able to dive for crayfish in the<br />
open season. A short distance further south is the popular Ganzekraal<br />
Coastal Resort. Also nearby are the historical Moravian mission station<br />
Mamre, the town of Darling with its accessible wine estates and<br />
the railway station theatre run by famous satirist-performer/writer<br />
Pieter Dirk Uys, as well as the quaint hidden little village of village of<br />
Philadelphia with its cosy restaurants and unusual shops.<br />
The area around Grotto Bay forms part of the Cape West Coast<br />
Biosphere Reserve, proclaimed by UNESCO in 2000, and stretches<br />
north from Diep River in Cape Town, all the way to the Berg River<br />
near Velddrif. It also forms part of the Cape Floristic Region, declared<br />
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