Information on False Bay, Cape Town

False Bay is the largest true bay in South Africa and one of the great bays in the world. the water body covers approximately 1000km2 and the coastline is about 30km in extent. In their outdoor recreational activities, the people of the Cape Metropolitan Area are overwhelmingly se-oriented, and False Bay is a popular destination. Recreational activities such as swimming, surfing, sunbathing and picnicking mainly occur on the sandy shores of the northern coastline and in pocket beaches along the western and eastern sections.

The eastern and western shores of Fale Bay are very rocky and even mountainous; in places large cliffs plunge into deep water. The northern shore, however, is defined by a very long, curving, sandy beach. This sandy, northern perimeter of the bay is the southern edge of the area known as the Cape Flats. The bay is 30 kilometres wide at its widest point. The climate is Mediterranean, with warm, dry summers and cool, damp winters. In winter gales and storms from the northwest are common and can be ferocious. False Bay is exposed to southeasterly winds in summer and its waters are approximately 6°C warmer than those of Table Bay, owing to the influence of the warm Agulhas Current.

Fishing is good in False Bay and at times there are large schools of snoek, an oily, barracuda-like fish that is much sought after locally. Angling from the rocky shores to either side of the bay is very popular, but dangerous. The shape of the bay creates interference patterns in the swells that come in from the Southern Ocean and these patterns occasionally combine to cause "killer waves" to rise up without warning and to sweep the sandstone ledges well above the high tide mark. Scores of fishermen have been swept away and drowned over the years, but this seems to have done little to dampen enthusiasm for the sport.

Bartolomeu Dias in 1488 first referred to the bay as "the gulf between the mountains" (Schirmer, 1980). The name "False Bay" was applied early on (at least three hundred years ago) by sailors who confused the bay with Table Bay to the north. According to Schirmer, the confusion arose because sailors returning from the east initially confused Cape Point and Cape Hangklip, which are somewhat similar in form.

Information on False Bay Region Towns
Simon's Town, Muizenberg