Lambert’s Bay travel guide

Once a small fishing village, Lambert’s Bay is now a popular holiday town and gets very busy in summer. Between July and November you have a good chance of seeing the southern right whale migrating north. The excellent Muisbosskerm restaurant played an important role in drawing visitors to the region, but the bay has appeared on maps for many years – it was the last point at which Bartholomew Diaz went ashore before sailing around the Cape in 1487. The village is named after the British admiral, Sir Robert Lambert, who produced detailed charts of this coastline between 1826 and 1840. In 1918 Axel Lindstrom established the Lambert’s Bay Canning Co and the future of the fishing community was assured. Lambert’s Bay Tourism Bureau Main St, T027-432 1000, http://www.lambertsbay.co.za, Mon-Fri 0900-1300, 1400-1700, Sat 0900-1230 (open Sun during the flower season).

The town itself is modern and rather unattractive, although it has one absorbing, if pungent, attraction – Bird Island. No longer an island, this 3-ha rock outcrop is now joined to the land by a concrete jetty. It is an important breeding ground for Cape gannets and, to a lesser extent, cormorants, and it attracts Cape fur seals. Although the birds make for interesting viewing, their cantankerous screeching and overpowering smell leaves a rather longer-lasting impression. Quite unexpectedly during the 2005 gannet breeding period, seals began to attack gannets on the island (although not unheard of, it’s very unusual for seals to attack birds on dry land). Cape Nature estimated that they found over 2000 gannet carcasses and the gannets all but abandoned the island, their nests and eggs. In an attempt to entice them back, the Lamberts Bay Bird Island Action Committee commissioned 50 plaster of paris decoys from local artist Gerrit Burger – these are sort of half-moon-shaped protective shelters under which the birds can build their nests. Within an hour of placing the decoys the gannets started coming back. From the end of the jetty there are good views of the fishing fleet and more sea birds. Note that around high tide, breakers crash across the jetty as you walk out to the island. Wear shoes with grip, as the surface is very slippery and uneven. The Bird Island Interpretation Centre T022-931 2900, daily 0800-1700, has exhibits on the birds and a feature on the history of collecting guano, traditionally used as fertilizer, plus a mini aquarium, and a rather sad-looking penguin pool. There’s also a hide to watch the gannets from a little further inland....read more