'Beautiful Bay'
Whether it was during the day or around sunset that the Portuguese sailors of old named Plettenberg Bay the 'beautiful bay', is not recorded. It certainly is spectacular when the sun is eaten up by the saw-tooth Tsitsikamma Mountains, and the sky is slashed with blood-tinged clouds, spreading an oil-slick glaze on the sea.
You can decide for yourself, though, at one of several outdoor venues that take advantage of the world's best weather in this perfect holiday town of Plettenberg Bay (Plett).
Mindful of the razzle-dazzle prices at some places, savvy locals head for the ski-boat club on Central Beach (just avoid Friday nights if there's a big game on).
Lookout Beach
If you only had 30 minutes in Plettenberg Bay, spend them at the lookout point above Lookout Beach. To be more precise: sit yourself down on the bench in the shape of a whale tale and take in the scene before you.
To your left, moody-blue Tsitsikamma Mountains with Keurbooms lagoon and mouth in the foreground flecked with sails, kites or boats at play; a tongue of beach sand below packed with umbrellas and a restaurant above the rocks. In the warm green waters there’ll be bathers and surfers; beyond the breakers you might spot the dipping fins of dolphins and further out, perhaps, the fluke of a whale.
A glider passes overhead, chokka boats chug out to sea, a surf angler casts his line from the rocks below you. This is Plettenberg Bay, bay of plenty.
Many guests staying at their accommodation in Plettenberg Bay spend the whole day on the terrace, with there being little incentive to mov...
Bounded by Robberg Peninsula in the east and the Keurbooms River to the west, with the Outeniqua and Tsitsikamma Mountains as interior backd...