History of the town

In 1881 Johannes Cornelius Wessels, an eighteen year old fisherman walked all the way accross the dunes from Stanford to the coast and found a sheltered cove with a spring surounded by reeds where a colony of Egyptian geese and Mountain geese had their nesting grounds.

The fishermen who used this this protected bay during North-Westerly storms called this place "Gansgat" (goosehole). Fishing was good in this area and Wessels decided to build himself a shack out of stone and reeds. Very soon other families followed and built primitive dwellings amongst the dunes. The inhabitants then decided that the name had an rather ugly meaning and then changed it to Gansbaai(goosebay).

The cove that once protected the fishing boats has now developed into a modern harbour from where pilchard trawlers operate on a daily basis. A modern canning factory and fishmeal factory was established in the harbour area. Other factories packing sardines for the fishing industry and providing sharkfins for the export market has been established

Today the small fishing village of Gansbaai has exploded into a town with shopping centres and industries and all because of the Great White shark. The adjacent areas of De Kelders, Stanford's Baai, Kleinbaai and Franskraal have developed in a saught-after holiday resorts with a growth rate unequalled in South Africa. This area still has a very low crime rate and the peacefull atmosphere is drawing people from all over the world to invest here.

De Kelders

3 km from Gansbaai De Kelders lies spread out along a rocky coastline to De Plaat with its stretches of sandy beaches and is well known for its rock and shore angling. This coastline also has quite a few caves of which Klipgat is known for the archaeological find indicating the presence of the middle stone age people about 90 000 years ago as well as the Khoi-Khoi who inhabited this cave about 2000 years ago. Close to the cave is a freshwater spring, so close to the sea that it had to be concreted in to prevent the seawater from entering . This was once used by the Khoi-Khoi and now supplies 1 000 000 litres of water for consumption of the inhabitants of the area.

The impressive rocky cliffs of De Kelders provides some of the best vantage points in the world to observe the Southern Right whale that come to Walker Bay every year between June and December. These gentle creatures come from the antarctic to these sheltered waters to calve and mate and they can be seen close to the side where they laze in the calm waters, or spy-hop, breach or tail-slap.

Stanford's Bay

Closely hugged between Gansbaai and De Kelders lies this marvellous little cove, which Captain Robert Stanford once used to export his fresh produce, has now developed into a local pleasure resort with milkwood trees surrounding the bay in a semicircle and swimming is absolutely safe. Fig trees dating back some 150 years can be seen near the freshwater spring at Flentergat

Kleinbaai

Kleinbaai is a picturesque little village on the Southern side of Danger Point and has a tidal pool, golfcourse, sports center and a small fishing harbour which becomes a beehive of activity in the summer peak season. The harbour is mainly used by the fishermen and abalone divers.

Franskraal

Franskraal is a modern village and a botanist's dream and the cluster upon cluster of milkwood trees are one of the splendid wonders of creation at Franskraal. The adjacent Uilenskraal holiday resort has a large caravan park with supertube, putt-putt course and trampoline. Its lagoon and beach provides safe swimming and other water sport.