Tag Archives: Gordon’s Bay

Banana and Ice Cream at The Waffle Cafe in Gordon’s Bay (2021-03-09) Food and Drink | Photo Gallery 22 MAR 2021

You could of course have waffles and ice cream as a dessert when eating out at Spur – but generally speaking, that is taking away from what the humble waffle truly could be. For the last couple of years now, the Belgian Waffle House in Strand has been delighting us with their light and fluffy Belgian waffle combinations, but pleasingly, Gordon’s Bay too now has its very own local purveyor of all things waffle – and it is situated right here on Beach Road!

Sitting right on the beachfront, The Waffle Cafe has taken over Dock on the Bay’s spot in the Old Cape Mall, transforming the former pub into an explosion of geometric pastel colours and ice cream. Shaded outside tables, a spacious dining room, lounge area by the fireplace, and a quirky gift shop, The Waffle Cafe presents itself as a lighthearted family friendly sweet tooth stop, and pleasingly, that is precisely what it is.

With a menu that takes both waffle and pancake combinations across the spectrum from sweet to savoury, not to mention more conventional breakfast options for those dull people who can’t quite bring themselves to start the day off with waffles and pancakes, The Waffle Cafe understandably has quickly become quite the hit with all our local families with kids – my girls obviously included!

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A Seal at Harbour Island in Gordon’s Bay (2020-10-24) Photo Gallery | Travel Attractions 26 FEB 2021

Back in October Jessica took the rare opportunity to join one of her besties for a little birthday celebration lunch, to be held at the lovely Gordon’s Bay branch of Ocean Basket, which is perched in a corner on the edge of the water next to the sea wall of the new harbour. Dragging Emily with for the drop-off on what was quite a misty, overcast day, we dutifully dropped Jessica off with Lisa and her dads and then promptly strolled out along the harbour wall.

Mind you, Emily was very keen not for us too dawdle to much on this particular stretch of our mini walk thanks to all the water routinely splashing over the tops of the dolosse guarding the boats moored in the harbour. There were one or two souls trying their hand at catching a fish in the water, but whether or not they had any luck given that seal happily cruising around the still harbour water is anyone’s guess.

The new harbour (Gordon’s Bay has two functional harbours), if you aren’t familiar with it, is encompassed by the upmarket Harbour Island development, a residential marina that offers homes, apartments and both land, sea and beach recreational facilities, rounding it all out with a commercial section that features a couple of restaurants and small businesses like Bertie’s Moorings and Antonio’s Pizza Place, as well as a hotel with convention facilities in the form of the surprisingly nice Krystal Beach hotel (which for the record is also home to two restaurants, a cocktail lounge and a wine emporium).

Apart from all the pretty sailboats and beautiful catamarans (like the DreamCatcher) to look at, Krystal Beach hotel is itself actually rather nice to meander through. Some pleasant architecture and the always very interesting to browse Ndiza art gallery (not to mention the always possible prospect of maybe some cake and tea from the downstairs bar/eatery) means that this probably isn’t the worst of places to be dropping your kid off for a birthday party at.

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Eggs Benedict and Coffee at Famous Bean in Gordon’s Bay (2021-02-15) Food and Drink | Photo Gallery 21 FEB 2021

Monday saw the girls finally return to Gordon’s Bay Primary School after an INCREDIBLY long December school holiday break thanks to the current Covid-19 pandemic. Of course it is safe to say that we DEFINITELY weren’t the only parents to celebrate this return to relative normality by immediately heading out for a breakfast bite following the big 1st day of school drop-off. (Also, to add to the fun, it just so happened to be Emily’s first day of Grade 1, meaning that we are now officially released from the baby school phase of our parenting lives. In other words, even more reason to celebrate!)

Sadly, the popular Gordon’s Bay eatery that was the Old Cape Café (situated across Gordon’s Bay main beach in the Old Cape Café Mall) didn’t survive the devastating Coronavirus Lockdowns of 2019, but fortunately an eager newcomer has stepped in to fill its shoes in the form of a Famous Bean franchise trading under the name of Famous Bean @ Cape Café.

Naturally, as part of the Famous Bean company, the freshly roasted coffee on offer is fantastic, and pleasingly the food offering is pretty good too. On this particular morning both Chantelle and I indulged in some lovely eggs benedict with coffee for breakfast, and I am happy to report that all was good. Sadly the wind was a little too nippy to encourage us to sit out on the deck, but seeing as we live right here in Gordon’s Bay, its not like we don’t already know the view! ;)

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Carnival Weekend at the Winter Wonderland Festival in Gordon’s Bay (2019-06-15) Family Attractions | Photo Gallery 15 SEP 2020

So clearly 2020, the year in which, thanks to Covid-19 and the ensuing pandemic, everything got turned upside down right across the world, did not feature the return of our little town’s now annual festival of lights. Having been running since 2010, the locally organized Gordon’s Bay Winter Wonderland Festival has done a fantastic job of injecting fun and life into our small economy during the quiet winter months, so not having it happen this year on what would have been its 10th birthday was a little disappointing to say the least.

The 2019 edition of the Winter Wonderland was a great success, with the formula now well and truly locked down. Spread over two weekends to mitigate any weather related disasters (of which this time around there were none), the festival kicked off like it always does with a small procession of local clubs and groups down Beach road and through to the festival grounds at Hendon Park (where the carnival has now been based for the last couple of years). As part of Moxy Movement’s dance classes at school, Jessica got to be a part of the fun, swathed from head to toe in LED lights and neon coloured accessories!

Hearty food stalls, fun and games for the kids, live music and even an enthralling laser show were the order for the first evening of the festival, though of course come daybreak we had to be back again in order to take full advantage of the live entertainment, food stalls, arts and craft exhibitors, candy floss, and most important of all, the fun fair rides set up and operated by Funland Amusements.

If you have small children like we do then pretty much 90% of the time spent at the festival involves buying strings of tickets and watching the kids spin round through the air through a cacophony of light and sound, but seeing those massive smiles stretched across each of their faces is definitely more than worth it!

So hopefully with all the good news currently swirling around successful vaccines against Covid-19 and the all-encompassing pandemic, 2021 takes on a bit of a more normal shape and with it sees our little town festival make an enthusiastic return.

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A Year of Beach Walks in Gordon’s Bay (2019-12-31) Nature and Animal Attractions | Photo Gallery 15 MAY 2020

So clearly thanks to the current COVID-19 global pandemic and South Africa’s quickly (and rightfully) imposed lockdown, there hasn’t been much traipsing outside at all, never mind actually getting to properly celebrate the big 40 that rolled in for me on the 11th of May. A few morning strolls during our mandated exercise hours here and there, but for the most part it has just been us and the walls of our tiny (but thankfully larger than an apartment) house.

So in looking forward to the day when things somewhat return to normal (which is probably a very, very long way off), cue a bunch of photos that I snapped while ambling about the beaches of Gordon’s Bay in 2019. (Yes, this is another one of those “attempt to clear out my far too large Unposted Photos desktop folder” entries. Sorry.)

As you might recall, our diminutive little home town named after the Dutch explorer (of Scottish descent) Robert Jacob Gordon with its emblem of a giant anchor and the letters “GB” emblazoned on the side of the mountain (which coincidentally stands for General Botha, the earlier name of the small naval training base that resides in the town) is the proud owner of two small harbours, two small beaches, and thus more than one or two pretty views.

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A Year of life in the Helderberg (2019-12-31) Photo Gallery 25 APR 2020

So with the 2016, 2017 and 2018 image dump posts of all the photos which aren’t linked to a blog post now sitting all safe and sound with my web host, I guess that I need to add the 2019 batch as well, seeing as we are now well and truly into 2020. (Also, sorry for not doing one of my annual Goodbye Hello posts at the start of this year – honestly they’ve become a little too routine to continue for now).

This particular selection features first days, sport, concerts and voting at Gordon’s Bay Primary School, Mark Haze at Die Boer in Durbanville, a turn at Home Affairs in Somerset West, the view from my office in Westlake, Ocean Basket’s Harbour Island View in Gordon’s Bay, the solar panel parking and delicious green curry from Wang Thai at The Sanctuary in Somerset West, wine and cheese tasting at Steenberg Vineyards, planes at the Stellenbosch Flying Club airstrip, views from Somerset Mall and the Helderberg Shopping Centre of all places, a Somerset West night time Christmas market, walks along the Lourens River, strolls along the Strand beach promenade, and of course scenes from our home here in beautiful little Gordon’s Bay.

Plus Belgian waffles – because those things are of course delightful.

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A Year of life in the Helderberg (2018-12-31) Photo Gallery 29 MAR 2020

With 2016 and 2017’s photo dumps already up, I now continue making a dent into the large “Unposted Photos” folder on my desktop with 2018’s batch. These are all (well mostly) photos snapped as we go about life in the Helderberg basin (Somerset West, Strand and our home town Gordon’s Bay) which simply didn’t have enough of a set to collect into (or warrant) a blog post of their own.

That said, these random life event photos are all important to me and a keepsake of a life well lived (and enjoyed), and as such posting them here is a way to safeguard their existence – after all, my laptop and its hard drive is now very old, and my ADSL isn’t nearly good enough to upload the full sized files to the cloud.

Anyway, as you can see for yourself, the Helderberg (and for that part the Western Cape itself) really isn’t a bad place to be able to call home:

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A Year of Beach Walks in Gordon’s Bay (2018-12-31) Nature and Animal Attractions | Photo Gallery 28 MAR 2020

So here I am, slowly but surely whittling down my very large Unposted Photos folder with another ‘A Year of’ picture dump. I rather enjoy living in a small harbour town and very much doubt that I will ever willingly elect to live far from the sea again – primarily because it makes for such picturesque living space!

Although reasonably diminutive, Gordon’s Bay is surprisingly home to two harbours and two beaches (Main and Bikini), and with a mountain overlooking it all, there is no excuse to not wander about and enjoy the scenery. Of course, working remotely like I do, there really isn’t any excuse at all!

So here are a bunch photos that I snapped while ambling about the beaches of Gordon’s Bay in 2018:

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A Year of Beach Walks in Gordon’s Bay (2017-12-31) Nature and Animal Attractions | Photo Gallery 01 JAN 2020

Another entry in the “slowly clear all the unposted images out of my very large Unposted Photos folder” series. I enjoy living in a small harbour town and very much doubt that I will ever willingly choose to live far from the sea again – primarily because it makes for such great (picturesque) walking routes.

Gordon’s Bay is home to two harbours and two beaches (main and bikini), with a mountain overlooking it all – so in other words scenically perfect. With me working from home, this translates into plenty of opportunity to head out for a stroll – which I invariably do.

So here is a bunch photos from 2017 documenting some of these walks along my home town beaches.

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