Betty’s Bay travel guide

This small holiday village, midway between Strand and Hermanus, is known for its penguin colony and botanical garden. The community was named after Betty Youlden, the daughter of a local businessman who had plans to develop the Cape Hangklip area in the 1930s. Fortunately little came of the idea and today the village remains an untidy collection of holiday homes in a beautiful location. At Stoney Point there is a reserve 0900-1700, R5, to protect a small breeding colony of African jackass penguins, one of the few places where you are guaranteed to see these birds breeding on the mainland. A boardwalk has been constructed to allow visitors good views of the penguins without disturbing them. Also here are the remains of a whaling station plus the hulk of a whaler, the Balena. Behind the village are the well-known Harold Porter Botanic Gardens, worth a visit if time permits. Along the main beach is another area of protected land, the HF Verwoerd Coastal Reserve. There is safe swimming close to the kelp beds, and the dunes above Silver Sands are a popular spot for sandboarding.

WAfrican jackass penguins mate for life and return to the same nest each year to breed.