Adventures on Diamond Coast: Hondeklip Bay

In 2004, Mynderd Vosloo attended a braai at his youngest son’s prep school in Heidelberg, Gauteng, and one of the other parents began talking about Hondeklip Bay. He was intrigued and the next day bought the Automobile Association’s touring atlas of South Africa.

Vosloo had no idea where Hondeklip Bay was. In this regard, someone said to me once, Hondeklip Bay is like the G-spot; many people have heard of it and know its approximate location but only a tremendous few  have actually been there.

Welcome to Hondeklip Bay. Picture: Jim Freeman

“I got a number for the owner of Honnehokke accommodation and came down for a visit. I fell in love with the place immediately,” says Vosloo from his studio adjunct to Die Baai se Bek (enquires, 072- 219- 2452), the small guesthouse he runs in conjunction with wife Ina.

“We bought the place as a holiday home but made the move permanent in 2010.” It’s hard to describe Hondeklip Bay: picture a remote Paternoster at an eighth of the size and sprawl without the gentrification, commercialization and swish restaurants, and all its rugged beauty and charm.

The famed Namaqualand hospitality is much in evidence but can become a bit much – for the locals.
“All our guests want me to braai and kuier with them,” sighs the in demand freelance artist and illustrator. “They don’t realize I have to work with a steady hand.”

The village gets its name from a dog-shaped rock spotted in 1846 by ship’s captain Thomas Grace,
who found it overlooked a small natural harbor. Rich copper deposits had been found around Okiep (near Springbok, about 100km away) some 160 years before but these were unworkable as there was nowhere nearby from which to ship ore.

At anchor at Honderklip Bay. Picture: Jim Freeman

While interest was rekindled in 1843, attempts to transport ore 200km by wagon to the harbor at Alexander Bay at the mouth of the Orange River in the north or 400km directly to the Cape of Good Hope were unsuccessful.

Grace’s discovery of Hondeklip Bay changed all that. The first mines opened in 1850 and, in August 1852, the first cargo of ore was shipped from Hondeklip Bay to Wales. Hondeklip Bay thrived and one local history quotes a visitor to the port as saying “five or six trading stores run parallel to a road which, for a little distance, is contiguous to the beach, then curves off and leaves room for a row of outhouses at one end.

The buildings mostly, if not entirely, belong to The Cape Copper Mining Company and they occupy a considerable number as receiving stores”. “A rude sort of square or marketplace is formed in one part, on one side of which is situated the courthouse and customhouse, a building of one room, used also as a church.”

Hondeklip Bay was declared a magisterial district in 1862 … apparently a very necessary step since, without much in the way of distraction, the miners and matelots were a boozy, rambunctious lot.
SANParks’ official information guide for the nearby Namaqua National Park expounds: “In an effort to prevent the misuse of alcohol, there was no hotel or canteen in the town. However, it made no difference at all, as Cape brandy, stored in barrels of 16 gallons (80 liters) was obtained from the ships’ captains and was consumed within a few days.

“The drinkers partied with unruly sailors and rough fortune hunters on the beach. It got so bad that, on a certain Sunday, a notice was put up in town to say that the jails were all full and, if any further
arrests were made, those arrested would be tied up against pillars in the harbor.”

Boom turned to bust in 1871 when the government of the Cape Colony decided to develop nearby Port Nolloth as the preferred port of export, facilitating the transport of ore by building a railway line to Springbok.

Port Nolloth diamond boats. Picture: Jim Freeman

Hondeklip Bay struggled on with a population of 100 people until a rock lobster (crayfish) and white fish-processing factory opened in 1925. This was the mainstay of the local economy until the facility was mothballed in 1997 as a result of over-fishing.

The buildings were taken over six years later as part of an experimental abalone farming project
initiated by Stellenbosch University but this died in 2018. There was a flurry of excitement when De Beers started mining diamonds at Koingnaas, 25km inland, in 1970. Operations got into full swing a decade later and the industry flourished until 2003, when it rather abruptly shut down.

All that remains are some imposing mine dumps and the only petrol station in the area … a rather threadbare legacy. Today, Hondeklip Bay owes its existence to overland tourism but – especially given current restrictive circumstances – this is a precarious existence.

Despite the distances involved, it’s surprisingly easy to get to Hondeklip Bay and well worth adding two days on to any visit to either the Richtersveld or Namaqua National Parks. I would, however, strongly recommend that you refuel your vehicle and stock up on supplies in Port Nolloth (there is a very good butchery in the town centre) if you want to braai or self-cater.

There are few shops in Hondeklip Bay other than The Ark general dealer and a surprisingly well-stocked bottle store next door to the Vosloos at Dop en Kreef.

If you’re in Port Nolloth at lunchtime, pop in to the Scotia Inn Hotel for fish and chips or calamari; locals swear by the place! The road to Port Nolloth from Steinkopf (R382) is a hardtop in good condition.

There is an hour’s drive on gravel (slightly corrugated between Port Nolloth and Kleinzee but nothing that would even remotely challenge the family sedan. The road from Kleinzee to Hondeklip Bay is again, for the most part, tar.

The two direct routes into the village are via Garies or Kamieskroon, the latter over the wonderful
Grootvlei Pass, but these are gravel all the way. The bay at the entrance to Hondeklip is dominated by an incongruous stone blockhouse that would be some meters out to sea at high tide. This is the disused refrigeration house from the days when the lobster factory was in operation.

Hondeklip still life. Picture: Jim Freeman

There are several basic eateries in the village – the intriguingly named Die Rooi Spinnekop (“The
Red Spider”) is apparently vernacular for crayfish – that specialize in seafood and traditional Namaqua dishes. I spent only one night in Hondeklip Bay and did not get the chance to dine out but, rest assured, I will do so on my next visit.

That there will be another trip to the so-called Diamond Coast is beyond question. I made that decision while spending the better part of a morning watching huge waves breaking over Spitfire Rock, admiring the weathered fishermen’s shacks and checking out  kreefskutte moored in the bayRight at the top of my Namaqualand bucket list, though, is the Namaqua Camino’s Camini, a four to seven-day slack-pack walk organised by Ina Vosloo.

Spitfire Rock. Picture: Jim Freeman

It’s the“lite” version of the 10-day / 260km Namaqua Camino (www.namaquacamino.co.za) supported hike that follows a circular route from Hondeklip Bay to the Namaqua National Park.