Did Baron Joachim Ammena van Plettenberg ever have a nickname? If he did, it’s doubtful it was ‘Plett’. He should be so lucky to be thus remembered… From Sandton to Sea Point the cry these days is ‘are you going to Plett for the holidays?’ or (post said holidays) ‘I had a fantastic time in Plett’. Even the local tourism authority has succumbed to the short form because it’s hard to call the place Plettenberg Bay with a straight face. Plett, party town, just isn’t that sort of a spot. The good Baron van P, who was governor of the Cape of Good Hope from 1771 to 1785, named it after himself (naturally). He did have a bit of a relationship with the place, it must be added. Among other things he erected a stone column on 6 November 1778, claiming it for the VOC (Dutch East India Company). It’s still there on the corner of Hopwood and Meeding streets.

Worried that the rich timber resources in the naturally wooded area would fall into the wrong hands he advocated for a small garrison to be established to control it. That was, some might say, the beginning of the development.

Plett’s history, however, goes back much further than the baron and the VOC. On Robberg (the spectacular peninsula that juts into the sea just south of the town) and at Matjies River Cave at nearby Keurboomstrand, signs have been found that show the area was inhabited by Middle Stone Age man and, then in later eras, by the Khoisan’s ancestors. Plett was originally named Bahia Formosa (Beautiful Bay) by early Portuguese explorers who navigated the area in the 15th and 16th centuries (Bartolomeu Dias, for example, passed by in 1487). Apparently the first European inhabitants were 100 Portuguese sailors marooned for nearly a year when their ship, São Gonçalo, sank in the bay in June 1630. Industrious and with time on their hands, they built two small boats, one of which ventured out to connect with a passing vessel. The other, being crewed presumedly by chaps of sterner stuff, sailed all the way up the coast to Mozambique and salvation.

Which brings us to Beacon Island. It’s not really an island at all but appears to be so, since it is neatly positioned on a rocky outcrop at the mouth of the Piesang river which runs through the town. Because of its strategic location, a beacon (hence the name) was erected there in 1771.

Originally a big block of stinkwood, inscribed with the latitude and longitude of Plett, it allowed sailors to check their location. Replaced by a stone version in later years, the beacon is still there, on the grounds of the Beacon Island Hotel. Opened in 1972 by legendary hotelier Sol Kerzner, it was designed by architect André Hoffe who was inspired by aspects of the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.

The hotel was the first building in SA to feature a multi-storey atrium, with six tiers of access galleries leading to the rooms arranged around the centre-piece lit by the sky. It’s supported by two huge arches that meet the ground at four points. The hotel has for half a century been the benchmark for luxury in the area, not to mention its access to the scenery. ‘All 200 standard rooms have views of either the ocean or lagoon. For even more beachfront relaxation, our eight suites have big ocean views, and feature sea view showers, separate lounge, dressing room and balcony,’ declares the hotel’s website.

To ‘balance’ Plettenberg Bay, there’s Knysna, the ‘other’ tourist hotspot of the Garden Route.

Like Plett, its history is also rich in maritime folklore. For example, in April 1881 a three-masted schooner was discovered at the mouth of the Noetzie river, just south of Knysna. No signs of life were found, and the masts and rigging showed the ship had been adrift and at the mercy of the elements for a very long time. Eventually it was tracked down and identified as the Phoenix, from Point Pierre on the island of Réunion. To this day it remains a mystery of what happened to the crew and where it was bound. Not to mention how it drifted unmanned for years to be eventually deposited ashore near Knysna. Although it had the good sense to pop in to the Garden Route, the footnotes of history reveal it ended up being sold at a local auction for the princely sum of £15.

The origin of Knysna’s name (like the Phoenix) is also uncertain. As the local history museum says, ‘it might have come from the Khoi “xthys xna”, meaning the “place of timber”, but there is no consensus in this regard. James Callander, who drew the first map of the Knysna Lagoon in 1798, mentioned the “Nysna river” in an early letter to Lord Charles Somerset, the governor of the Cape Colony, but the modern spelling (Knysna) seems to have been adopted quite soon after that’.

The first developers of Knysna, however, didn’t see the tranquil splendour of the lagoon and the stark beauty of the Heads (the massive crags that lie east and west of the outlet to the sea – only 90 metres wide and which have seen many a vessel come a cropper over the years). Instead they saw the magnificent forests. In 1817 Sir Jahleel Brenton, the naval commissioner at Simons Town, wanted the Cape government to establish settlers in the area to exploit the trees, where there was ‘a sufficient quantity of fine timber to build a whole navy’.

Trees, Knysna had plenty of those indeed. The town’s most important industry in the 19th and 20th centuries was the harvesting of the beautiful wood.

Getting it out by sea was another story though. Knysna was ‘declared and undeclared and re-declared’ an official harbour for more than 130 years. Which brings us to the Thesen family. They were of Norwegian descent, bound for New Zealand in the late 1860s on board their own ship. A twist of fate took them to Knysna. They flourished in the nascent timber industry and eventually bought Paarden Island in the lagoon (later renamed Thesen Island), where they processed wood. Biomass waste from the timber mill fed a power station that supplied electricity to the town (and Plett) until the mid-1970s.

The old power station is now the location of the Turbine Boutique Hotel & Spa. Its 26 rooms and suites are (in its website’s words ‘a steamy history’ of the area). ‘The original wood boiler, four electricity generators and much of the equipment have been fully restored and blend in with the hotel’s decor themes.’

And so to Nature’s Valley. This is the last stop on the Garden Route, and it is within the Tsitsikamma National Park. Apart from being very beautiful, it is also apparently the only residential area in the country within an SA national park. It’s also the end point of the famed Otter Trail, which may be the most magnificent hike in SA and certainly has the most spectacular overnight huts, perched by the ocean. Nature’s Valley is, by the way, just 29 km from Plettenberg Bay. Sorry, Plett.

By Patrick Farrell
Images: iStock, Gallo/Getty Images