Betty's Bay with its perfect sandy beaches, tranquil lagoons and quiet trails through fynbos, is not only home to the Stony Point African Penguin colony and Harold Porter National Botanical Gardens, but also hardy residents who fight continually to keep their natural environment as pure and unspoilt as possible. Ever since it has been established in 1963 by concerned residents, The Hack - a local organisation focused on the monthly task of eradicating the rooikrans and hakea that encroaches on fynbos - has not once cancelled a "hacking" meeting.
The town was named after Betty Youlden, the daughter of the property developer who, together with Harold Porter and Jack Clarence, bought up farms in the area in the 1930's and formed a consortium that laid out the settlements of Betty's Bay, Rooiels and Pringle Bay. This area wasn't always as accessible as it is today and Jack Clarence was mainly responsible for replacing the rough footpath between Gordon's Bay and Rooiels with a proper road built by Italian prisoners of war during World War II. Today Clarence Drive must be one of the most breathtaking drives in South Africa with its towering mountains on one side, the sparkling ocean on the other and majestic views across False Bay to the Cape Peninsula.
Take along a piece of cardboard or plywood and toboggan down the superb sand boarding slopes of Silversands dune. Please remember to take your "toboggan" with you when you leave! Click on the links below Betty's Bay on the left to read more about the penguin breeding colony at Stony Point and the Harold Porter National Botanical Gardens.
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Sandboarding down the Silversands dunes.
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Wander through spectacular cultivated and natural displays of coastal fynbos in the Harold Porter National Botanical Garden.
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Volunteer to be an Oystercatcher nanny during the summer holiday season.
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View one of only two land-based penguin colonies at Stony Point.
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BETTY'S BAY
