What is Robberg?

  The fynbos covered peninsula has a rich human history that dates back some 120 000 years with Nelsons Cave providing some of the best evidence of the Stone Age inhabitants. Fynbos is a small belt of natural shrubland or heathland vegetation located in the Western and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa, and has a distinct smell which is met with much fondness by all recurring visitors and annual holiday makers to the region (often travelling from the anthracite laden air of the country’s industrial heartland – Gauteng, home to Johannesburg and Pretoria). 

There is ample opportunity for exploration and the high-points of Robberg give the chance to watch the winter or summer storms that approach from the west, or to watch sharks and large game fish patrolling the backline. The Cape Fur Seal colony is most active in the early morning and late afternoon, and dolphin pods cruise the shoreline during early morning and again in the late afternoon. Robberg is also the ideal vantage point for whales, and even orcas (also known as killer whales), have been spotted from the Reserve.

Much of the Reserve is covered in unique orange rock, set amongst greenery. One can stop for a moment and admire the majestic Tsitsikamma Mountains in the distance - inspiration to J R Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Tolkien was born in South Africa to British parents, although he lived most of his life in England, his time in South Africa was a formative experience where he took inspiration for many of his fictional landscapes.