False Bay is so named because many sailors returning from the East used to mistake Cape Hangklip (near Hermanus) for Cape Point. As a result of this little navigational error, the ships would turn right, expecting to sail up the Atlantic Seaboard towards Table Bay.
Instead, they found themselves in the broad, watery dead-end of False Bay. Turning a ship around in the prevailing winds that blow across the Bay was not an easy task, so the name ‘False Bay’ was more cautionary than it was affectionate. But, whatever the etymology, it’s a misleading name for a spectacular bay.
False Bay begins at the very tip of Cape Point and leads in a vast, sweeping curve all the way around to Gordon’s Bay at the foot of the Hottentot’s Holland Mountains, 35 k’s to the East. It is a huge and challenging expanse of water, riven with powerful currents and hungry sharks. Only two people have ever succeeded in swimming from one side of False Bay to the other, and both said it was bloody hard.
The main attractions of False Bay are the charming seaside villages on the Western side of the bay, and the extravagantly golden beach that runs unbroken for 30-odd k’s towards the misty mountains in the East. The quintessential seaside resort of Muizenberg is Cape Town’s gateway to this region.
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