Fish Hoek Vishoek | |
---|---|
Coordinates: 34°08′10″S18°25′48″E / 34.136°S 18.430°E | |
Country | South Africa |
Province | Western Cape |
Municipality | City of Cape Town |
Area | |
• Total | 13.45 km2 (5.19 sq mi) |
Population (2011) [1] | |
• Total | 11,890 |
• Density | 880/km2 (2,300/sq mi) |
Racial makeup (2011) | |
• Black African | 9.7% |
• Coloured | 5.1% |
• Indian/Asian | 1.2% |
• White | 82.2% |
• Other | 1.9% |
First languages (2011) | |
• English | 83.0% |
• Afrikaans | 12.6% |
• Other | 4.4% |
Time zone | UTC+2 (SAST) |
Postal code (street) | 7975 |
PO box | 7974 |
This article needs additional citations for verification .(November 2024) |
Fish Hoek (Afrikaans : Vishoek, meaning either Fish Corner or Fish Glen) is a coastal suburb of Cape Town at the eastern end of the Fish Hoek Valley on the False Bay side of the Cape Peninsula in the Western Cape, South Africa. Previously a separate municipality, Fish Hoek is now part of the City of Cape Town.
Fish Hoek, Vissers Baay or Visch Hoek appears on the earliest maps of the Cape.
Diplomat Edmund Roberts visited Fish Hoek in 1833. He described it as a "poor village" with a whaling industry. [2]
The first grant of Crown land in Fish Hoek was granted to Andries Bruins in 1818. The land was sold several times before being bought by Hester Sophia de Kock in 1883. She was then a spinster of 51 years old. In 1901, late in life, she married a local farmer, one Jacob Isaac de Villiers, who came to live with her on the farm. Although she farmed wheat and vegetables, she started providing accommodation for people who wanted to stay in Fish Hoek, and so became the first local tourist entrepreneur. Having realized that Fish Hoek was becoming popular, she left instructions in her will that the farm was to be surveyed and the land sold as building plots.
After the deaths of Hester and Jacob, the land was sold off, the first sale taking place in 1918. The oldest house on the bay, now named Uitkyk, was bought as a fisherman's cottage in 1918 by the Mossop family of Mossop Leathers, and is still in the Mossop family. There had been a building on that site since the 1690s; a poshuis or post house and a whaling station office is all that is known of its history.
This was the beginning of the town of Fish Hoek. Initially people built holiday cottages, but as there was a good train service to Cape Town a more permanent community soon arose. By 1940 it was big enough to be declared a municipality and was administered by the Town Council until 1996. Hester and Isaac de Villiers, with other members of their family, are buried in the small graveyard next to the NG Kerk (Dutch Reformed Church) in Kommetjie Road. The farmhouse on the site of the present Homestead Naval Mess near the railway crossing became a hotel. The original building subsequently burned down in 1947. [3]
After being part of the transitional South Peninsula Municipality from 1996 to 2000, Fish Hoek now falls under the City of Cape Town. Today Fish Hoek is regarded as a suburb of greater Cape Town and lies on the railway line from the central business district of that city to Simon's Town in the south. Until recently, Fish Hoek was a "dry" area - one of the conditions placed by the owner who gave the land for development was that there be no alcohol sold there. Nowadays, alcohol is available in restaurants and bars, but only recently have there been bottle stores allowed.
Fish Hoek is situated in a bay at the end of a broad, low valley, between two and three kilometres wide, which runs from east to west across the Cape Peninsula from Fish Hoek on the False Bay side to Noordhoek and Kommetjie on the Atlantic side. When sea levels were higher than they are today, the valley used to be a sea passage that separated the Cape Peninsula into northern and southern islands. The valley is generally sandy and the bedrock is Cape granite. In places this is deeply weathered and in the past the rotted granite was mined for pockets of the mineral kaolinite, which is used to make ceramic goods such as hand basins and bath tubs. The valley is famous for 12,000-year-old paleolithic skeletons discovered in a cave (now called Peers' Cave) by Bertie Peers and his father in 1927. Bertie Peers was a lover and explorer of the great outdoors, a fine amateur scientist and a dedicated naturalist but his enthusiasm eventually cost him his life, when he was fatally struck by a puff adder. [4]
It is approximately 40 kilometres by road from Fish Hoek to Cape Town. Fish Hoek is connected to the city by two road routes: Main Road along the False Bay coast, and Ou Kaapse Weg which passes over the Steenberg mountains. Fish Hoek has a railway station which is served by Metrorail's Southern Line service, with journey times of about an hour to Cape Town and 15 minutes to Simon's Town.
Fish Hoek has a mild mediterranean climate and is spared over hot summer days by the south-easterly wind known locally as "the Cape Doctor". The mountains nearby are famous for large numbers of complex caves in sandstones of the Table Mountain Group. Caves are usually found in limestones and it is not common to find complex cave systems in pure sandstone.
Fish Hoek has become well known as a tourist resort and as a place where elderly people retire.[ citation needed ]
The beach is about 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) long and quite flat, and the bay is protected from the currents and stronger surf in the rest of False Bay. Swimming is allowed along the entire beach with lifesavers on duty during the summer peak season, and body surfing, boogie boarding, wind surfing and surfski kayaking are popular. The water is far warmer than the Atlantic Seaboard, averaging between just under 17 °C (63 °F) annually (similar to Northern Mediterranean Waters like Monte Carlo or Nice, and peaking at 24 °C (75 °F) in summer months.[ citation needed ] Restaurants and children's play areas are situated at the southern end, and a path known as Jager Walk (also spelled Jaeger or Jagger, and known locally as the Cat Walk) runs past rock pools on the southern side of the bay.
Shark spotters are often on duty, especially during the summer tourist season. Despite this, there have been two fatal encounters on swimmers in the bay in recent years, one in November 2004 and one in January 2010. [5] On September 28, 2011, a 44-year-old British man Michael Cohen lost part of his leg after being bitten by a Great White shark, despite the beach being closed and shark flag flying. The northern parts of the beach are less developed, and are used by trek fishermen to launch their boats and clean nets. Seasonal visits from Southern Right Whales occur from June to November each year. There is also a shark net usually deployed in the early mornings. [6]
Schools include Bay Primary, Fish Hoek Primary, Fish Hoek High School, Paul Greyling Primary, Sun Valley Primary, Silvermine Academy, The Rock Academy, Peak academy international school, iThemba School and EduExcellence private school. Although not in Fish Hoek, many travel to Star of the Sea Convent School, a historic primary school established in 1908. [7]
Fish Hoek and its surrounding suburbs are served by the local False Bay Echo newspaper, originally the Fish Hoek Echo, and the Peoples Post.
The Fish Hoek municipal council adopted a coat of arms, designed by R. McNee Tait, in April 1941. [10]
The shield was gold, displaying a silver rampant lion behind a red horizontal stripe. The crest was an arm in armour, holding a sword, emerging from a coronet. The shield was supposed to represent Andries Bruins, while the crest was taken from the arms borne by some members of the De Villiers family. Whether Andries Bruins or Jacob de Villiers ever used these designs is unclear.
The Oregon Coast is a coastal region of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to its west and the Oregon Coast Range to the east, and stretches approximately 362 miles (583 km) from the California state border in the south to the Columbia River in the north. The region is not a specific geological, environmental, or political entity, and includes the Columbia River Estuary.
Plettenberg Bay, nicknamed Plett, is the primary town of the Bitou Local Municipality in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. According to the census of 2001, the town had a population of 29,149. It was originally named Bahia Formosa by early Portuguese explorers and lies on South Africa's Garden Route 210 km from Port Elizabeth and about 600 km from Cape Town.
Strand is a seaside resort town in the Western Cape, South Africa. It forms part of the Eastern Suburbs of the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality, situated on the north-eastern edge of False Bay and near the foot of the Helderberg Mountains. Its geographical position is between Somerset West and Gordon's Bay, and is about 50 km southeast of Cape Town City Bowl. Strand has a population of approximately 50,000. Strand's main attraction is the beach; 5 km of white sandy beach off False Bay.
The Cape Peninsula is a generally mountainous peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean at the south-western extremity of the African continent. At the southern end of the peninsula are Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. On the northern end is Table Mountain, overlooking Table Bay and the City Bowl of Cape Town, South Africa. The peninsula is 52 km long from Mouille point in the north to Cape Point in the south. The Peninsula has been an island on and off for the past 5 million years, as sea levels fell and rose with the ice age and interglacial global warming cycles of, particularly, the Pleistocene. The last time that the Peninsula was an island was about 1.5 million years ago. Soon afterwards it was joined to the mainland by the emergence from the sea of the sandy area now known as the Cape Flats. The towns and villages of the Cape Peninsula and Cape Flats, and the undeveloped land of the rest of the peninsula now form part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality. The Cape Peninsula is bounded to the north by Table Bay, to the west by the open Atlantic Ocean, and to the east by False Bay in the south and the Cape Flats in the north.
Gansbaai is a fishing town and popular tourist destination in the Overberg District Municipality, Western Cape, South Africa. It is known for its dense population of great white sharks and as a whale-watching location.
False Bay is a body of water in the Atlantic Ocean between the mountainous Cape Peninsula and the Hottentots Holland Mountains in the extreme south-west of South Africa. The mouth of the bay faces south and is demarcated by Cape Point to the west and Cape Hangklip to the east. The north side of the bay is the low-lying Cape Flats, and the east side is the foot of the Hottentots Holland Mountains to Cape Hangklip which is at nearly the same latitude as Cape Point. In plan the bay is approximately square, being roughly the same extent from north to south as east to west, with the southern side open to the ocean. The seabed generally slopes gradually down from north to south, and is mostly fairly flat unconsolidated sediments. Much of the bay is off the coast of the City of Cape Town, and it includes part of the Table Mountain National Park Marine Protected Area and the whole of the Helderberg Marine Protected Area. The name "False Bay" was applied at least three hundred years ago by sailors returning from the east who confused Cape Point and Cape Hangklip, which are somewhat similar in profile when approached from the southeast.
Muizenberg is a beach-side town in the Western Cape, South Africa. It is situated where the shore of the Cape Peninsula curves round to the east on the False Bay coast. It is considered to be the main surfing spot in Cape Town and is currently home to a surfing community, centered on the popular 'Surfer's Corner'.
A surf ski is a type of kayak in the kayaking family of paddling craft. It is generally the longest of all kayaks and is a performance oriented kayak designed for speed on open water, most commonly the ocean, although it is well suited to all bodies of water and recreational paddling.
Noordhoek is a seaside town in the Western Cape, South Africa, located below Chapman's Peak on the west coast of the Cape Peninsula and is approximately 35 kilometres (22 mi) to the south of Cape Town. The name "Noordhoek" was taken from Dutch and literally means "north corner". It was given this name in 1743 as being the northern corner of the Slangkop farm. The first permanent resident of European origin is Jaco Malan who built his house there. In 1857, the region was divided into six plots, most of which were bought by a single family, that of the de Villiers. Noordhoek nevertheless remains a predominantly rural area where farmers grow vegetables to supply ships calling at Simon's Town. It is best known for its shoreline and its long, wide, sandy beach, which stretches south to the neighbouring village of Kommetjie. Near the southern end of this beach is the wreck of the steamship "Kakapo", which ran aground in 1900, when the captain mistook Chapman's Peak for the Cape of Good Hope and put the helm over to port.
The Cape Metropole has a wide variety of beaches divided into three regions by the Cape Peninsula:
Kalk Bay is a fishing village and suburb of Cape Town. It lies on the west coast of False Bay. Much of the town is built on the slopes of mountains which border the sea, with peaks of Table Mountain Sandstone forming valleys. The railway from Cape Town to Simon's Town passes through Kalk Bay, which has one station near the harbour.
Cape Paterson is a cape and seaside village located near the town of Wonthaggi, 132 kilometres (82 mi) south-east of Melbourne via the South Gippsland and Bass Highways, in the Bass Coast Shire of Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. Known originally for the discovery of coal by William Hovell in 1826, it is now extremely popular for its beaches and rockpool and at the 2011 census, it had a population of 718.
The Fish Hoek Valley is situated in the Cape Peninsula, eighteen miles south of Cape Town, South Africa. It takes its name from the town of Fish Hoek on the False Bay coast.
St James is a seaside village on the Cape Peninsula, South Africa, situated on the False Bay coast between Muizenberg and Kalk Bay. The village is situated between the rocky shore and a steep mountain, and measures about 200m by 2 km. Its name derives from the early St James Catholic Church, built circa 1880. Most of the suburb was built between 1910 and 1950, after the railway line was built connecting Cape Town to False Bay.
Miller's Point is a headland and stretch of protected coastline in South Africa. It is located about 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) south of Simon's Town on the road to Cape Point.
Glencairn is a small seaside village located on the Cape Peninsula, South Africa. It is situated about 4 km north of Simonstown, on the shore of False Bay. Access can be made from Fish Hoek or Simonstown via the M4, or from Noordhoek via the M6. Glencairn is made up of Glencairn Heights, Glen Ridge and Welcome Glen. There is a train stop at the south end of the suburb, with views across False Bay. The beach is actively utilised for leisure activities such as swimming, surfing, kayaking and snorkeling. The Glencairn tidal pool can be enjoyed on a high tide at the south end of the beach. The Glencairn Wetland conserves the lower Else River.
Ou Kaapse Weg, numbered as route M64, is a mountain pass in the Cape Peninsula that connects the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town with the Fish Hoek Valley. It traverses the Steenberg mountains and passes through the Silvermine Nature Reserve. Ou Kaapse Weg is one of three routes to the Fish Hoek Valley: the others are Chapman's Peak Drive along the Atlantic coast and Main Road along the False Bay coast.
Fish Hoek Library is a public library in the seaside suburb of Fish Hoek in Cape Town, South Africa. It was ranked 5th in the City of Cape Town's top circulating libraries in 2015
Dawid John Steyn Mocke is a South African surf ski athlete, entrepreneur and sports personality. During his athletic career he represented South Africa internationally and has won multiple World and South African surf ski and kayaking titles.
De Oude Weg is a small residential area of Cape Town on the Cape Peninsula, South Africa, situated between Kommetjie, Fish Hoek and Capri Village. It is in the suburb of Sunnydale and is situated midway between Kommetjie and Fish Hoek. Translated from Dutch, "de oude weg" means "the old road" which refers to the old dirt wagon track which, in bye gone days, passed through there.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite web}}
: Check |url=
value (help)