Hout Bay: A wonderful place to stay for a couple of nights

If ever there was a spot on the idyllic Atlantic seaboard of the Western Cape that has had its tourism potential strangled by bad press, it’s Hout Bay. The little enclave – nestled between mountains and sea and bordered by the residential areas of Llandudno, Constantia and Noordhoek – is jocularly referred to as the “Republic of Hout Bay”. The reason, say Cape Town residents, is that its “inhabitants” are in the Western Cape but not really a part of it.

I experienced a pleasant little shiver of memory when I descended into Hout Bay via Constantia Nek recently, having lived there for several years in the ’90s. One of the most pleasant recollections centred around my destination, the Hout Bay Manor, which was where I watched Francois Pienaar’s Springboks win the 1995 Rugby World Cup. Hout Bay was where I drank whisky in the moonlight with Sir Sean Connery and slalomed through thick beach sand in a Subaru WRX, proving to a bunch of cops I hadn’t lied when I told them it was an all-wheel drive sports car. (They’d earlier stopped to ask how the hell I’d managed to strand it atop a sharp-edged dune … it being well after midnight and all.)

Picture: Jim Freeman

It was also ground zero for a turbulent but way-too-brief fling with an English blue-blood. Hout Bay seems to cram a heck of a lot of activity into an area less than 30km² in extent, perhaps because it is densely populated; 42 000 people live there according to the most recent census.

“Haves” and “have-nots” live in close proximity and socioeconomic frustrations often boil over, sometimes violently. Confrontations are invariably widely reported and the fragile tourism industry generally eschews Hout Bay except as a way-station at the beginning or end of Chapman’s Peak Drive. It’s a huge pity: Hout Bay suffers a bum rap from the media and it is, actually, a wonderful place to stay for a couple of nights if you’re a visitor seeking to acquaint yourself with the Western Cape’s lotus-eating culture.

Hout Bay is regarded as a suburb of Cape Town though it is in fact an agglomeration of 28 distinct neighbourhoods. A village was established shortly after Van Riebeeck’s arrival in the Cape in 1652 when it was discovered that the timber that was necessary for both construction and shipbuilding was plentiful in a little bay just 20km away. Logging gave the village its name. A harbour was built and for three centuries Hout Bay remained a fairly remote working village. It expanded rapidly from the ’80s to become an affluent dormitory suburb which, due to its isolation, had to be self-contained.

Picture: Jim Freeman

The densely populated informal settlement of Imizamo Yethu (20 000 people crammed into 18ha) was established to accommodate mainly migrant families from the Eastern Cape and elsewhere. Though there is an abundance of bed-and-breakfast and self-catering establishments, there are only three small hotels in Hout Bay. These include the rambunctious but legendary Chapman’s Peak Hotel and two five-star boutique facilities; Tintswalo Atlantic – which has just reopened for the third time after being twice ravaged by fire – and the Hout Bay Manor.

The latter is well remembered by long-time Cape Town residents as one of the homes of jazz in the Mother City. Capetonians would drive out to listen to live music in the gardens over weekends, while bikers used the place as destination for their Sunday morning breakfast runs … an altogether rowdier experience and one biker drowned in the fountain in front of the place. The Manor (www.houtbaymanor.com) has maintained its original Cape-Dutch façade but the interior and garden were thoroughly revamped in the mid-90s by Rick and Colette Taylor.

Further renovations have been done by the current owners, Andreas and Susan Struengmann, who took over the property just more than a decade ago and refurbished the 17 rooms and communal areas to another level of luxury.

“The main building was erected in 1871,” relates marketing manager Michelle Fourie, “but, unlike many manor houses that were later converted into boutique hotels, this one was built to be an overnight stop for travellers who would do the day-long trip from Cape Town for business.

“Mrs Struengmann stayed here in 2007, fell in love with the place … and with Hout Bay … and persuaded her husband to buy the place. There then followed an 18-month redevelopment programme that included a complete redecoration of the interior, much of it in an ode to African culture and tradition.”

The preponderance of African art and décor as well as the use of vibrant colour throughout the hotel indicates – and Fourie confirms this – that European visitors constitute its primary target market. This is a curse as much as a blessing because the hotel has made little effort to attract locals who studiously ignore the pub, gardens and lovely EAT restaurant. This is a great pity because the public facilities constitute an unmatched haven of tranquillity in Hout Bay. The manor was built on Kronendal, one of the two original farms, in what is now known as Baviaanskloof. The Kloof is home to one of Hout Bay’s most endearing legends, that of the “blue leopard”.

The forests that used to cover the valley floor teemed with wild animals including the Cape Mountain Leopard. One animal, according to local lore, used to come out of the bush every evening and climb a rock pinnacle from which it would watch fishing vessels return to harbour. This leopard became something of a good luck charm and a 295kg bronze statue, sculpted by Ivan Mitford-Barberton, was mounted on that same rocky pedestal in 1963. Fifty years of verdigris has turned the sculpture blue. The last live leopard was seen on the slopes of Klein Leeukoppie (Little Lion’s Head) – at the Llandudno entrance to the valley – in 1937.

Picture: Jim Freeman

Hout Bay would probably have remained a Peninsula idiosyncrasy and never have featured on anything but the quirkiest tourist map if it hadn’t been for the construction of Chapman’s Peak Drive, a 9km mountainside drive featuring 114 curves that was opened to traffic in 1922. The “Chappies” toll road is regarded as one of the world’s top coastal drives and is a critical stretch in the tourist trek from central Cape Town to Cape Point. This would have counted for nought, however, had the road not been repeatedly widened and then substantially rebuilt for safety reasons between January 2000 and December 2003.

Road-widening, mountain-stabilisation and the construction of multiple lookout points opened the road to tour busses and the traffic through Hout Bay – always a nightmare during peak working hours – has increased dramatically. Add to that the red open-top “hop-on, hop-off ” shuttle that stops several times a day at Constantia Nek, World of Birds and Mariners’ Wharf before going up Suikerbossie to Camps Bay and Clifton, and you’re talking serious tourist exposure.

You don’t have to travel far into Hout Bay – regardless which of the access points you use – to find good restaurants.

Enter via Constantia Nek and you almost immediately encounter La Parada and the unforgettable La Colombe (www.lacolombe.co.za). Come in on Victoria Drive – another magnificent coastal road – on a Sunday and you can hook a sharp left to Suikerbossie (www. suikerbossie.co.za) for what celebrity chef Pete Goffe-Wood maintains is the best Sunday roast anywhere in Cape Town. Booking for all is essential. The afore-mentioned Chapman’s Peak Hotel (http://www. chapmanspeakhotel.co.za) is world renowned for beef trinchado as well as its calamari and prawn pans.

Picture: Jim Freeman

In the “old days”, ebullient owner Carlos de Nobrega used to throw plates around for the entertainment of guests and I’m assured the tradition continues though he has retired and left the hotel in the hands of his daughters. Off the beaten track (except for those in the know) are Cheynes, Massimo’s and Fish on the Rocks. Massimo’s (www.massimos. co.za) was recently named as the top pizzeria in Africa by 50 Top Pizza – referred to popularly as the pizza-lover’s equivalent of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences – for the first flatbread Oscar to be awarded to the continent. Fish on the Rocks is the best “chippie” in South Africa.

Fact: just ask the hordes of seagulls that hang around the place hoping for a morsel of hake, snoek or calamari from a gullible patron.

The best places for sundowners are Tintswalo Atlantic and Dunes, poles apart in terms of stylishness and service but both offering stunning views of Hout Bay’s “other” guardian. The Sentinel is a man-faced peak – the rest of this petrified giant’s body is reputed to lie under the bay, with his feet sticking up at Noordhoek – whose presence dominates the littoral. His craggy majesty increases immeasurably as the sun descends … and the more sundowners you imbibe.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.