Fishing boats
Colourful on the sand.
Octagon — CC BY 3.0 · michael clarke stuff — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Andrew Moore from Johannesburg, South Africa — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Peterpanmalini — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Hendrik van den Berg — CC BY 3.0
Paternoster is one of the oldest fishing villages on the West Coast of South Africa, at Cape Columbine between Saldanha Bay and St Helena Bay, about 133 km in a straight line north of Cape Town and about 33 km north-west of Langebaan. The village covers about 195 hectares and has around 1,900 inhabitants. The origin of its name, Latin for «Our Father», is unknown: some link it to prayers said by shipwrecked Portuguese sailors, others to an old map or to beads worn by the Khoi people. The village is known for its rock lobster and its whitewashed fishermen's cottages. Whitewashed cottages with dark roofs line the shore, colourful wooden fishing boats rest on the white sand among granite boulders, and jagged cliffs and beaches stretch along the coast. The nearby Cape Columbine Nature Reserve has walking paths among rocks and wildflowers, and sunsets over the Atlantic are spectacular. Visiting is free. The Atlantic here is cold even in summer, wildflowers bloom in spring from about August to September, and seafood restaurants are one of the village's highlights.
Colourful on the sand.
On the shore.
Over the Atlantic.
Cape Columbine, Western Cape, South Africa
The Atlantic is very cold here.
About August to September.