Stone Fish Traps
Thousands of years ago Strandloper beachcombers constructed fish traps along the shore of various bays on the Cape south coast.
Boulders were used to build swimming-pool-sized enclosures, like artificial tidal pools. Fish would swim in on the high tide, and be collected at low tide to become a Strandloper's next meal.
It is an amazingly efficient, low-maintenance system. Even less work than throwing a line into the water and waiting for a bite. Apparently, some of the traps at Stilbaai were still in use until a few years ago.
Then they were declared a restricted zone, supposedly to protect them; ironically this 'protection' will see them slowly falling apart due to storm wave action.
Blombos Cave
Blombos Cave is near Stilbaai, some 100 metres away from the coastline and 35 metres above sea level. The site was almost completely hidden by a dune when its archaeological importance was discovered in 1991 by Prof. Chris Henshilwood of the African Heritage Research Institute. The site has achieved world fame for the discovery of artefacts from Africa’s Middle and Later Stone Age - especially a selection of shell beads dated to 75 000 years before present.