Gordon’s Bay is a coastal town in the Western Cape of South Africa. The bay was named after the Dutch explorer Robert Jacob Gordon, but before that, it was named “Fish Hoek” (a name that would later belong to a different town).
The main beach is called Bikini Beach and it’s a Blue Flag beach, which means it’s well maintained. Usually there are plenty of shells (both empty and occupied) as well as fish, sea stars and urchins to be seen in the tidal pools. There’s also a family of Egyptian Geese who like to hang out in the shallow water (apparently these geese were considered sacred by the Ancient Egyptians – but that’s something for another post).
If anyone knows something about what kind of shells these are, please let me know!
This is sea bamboo (Afrikaans: seebamboes), proper name Ecklonia maxima.
It’s a species of kelp native to South Africa and Namibia. The kelp holds onto rocks using a root-like foot and photosynthesizes by sticking out its “leaves” near the surface of the water.
It’s sort of a tradition to browse the second hand bookstore aptly named Bikini Books after a walk, either to find books on all the natural phenomena observed on the walk, or if you’re a proper bookworm like me, to spend hours just sifting through the titles.
Photographs are my own.
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Gordon's Bay
Sea bamboo
