Saldanha

Once we have left left that towns that have succumbed to the dreadful "Plett Syndrome," now starts what many have told me is the start of the real West Coast. Like many others confronted with a seemingly obvious and self-explanatory statement like that I merely nodded with  confident certainty that showed that I understood, I was in the know, I was hip; when in fact I had no idea what was so real about it.

But when I arrived at Saldanha I saw why there was a differentiation. What struck me about this town and the others surrounding it, such as Paternoster, Vredenburg, St Helena Bay and Velddrif; was that these towns -- and I hate saying like this -- are the kind of towns that, were you to take kids to, they would disown you for threatening their lives with terminal boredom (unless they have their Blackberries, then they are a self-contained unit).

You can see that they are not driven nor sustained by tourism, asides from the multiple guest houses that litter the Beach Road (Strand St) amongst the palm trees. The monolithic Steel Mill looms in the background like the ravaged carcass of a fallen titan, now part of that landscape. They are are not packages for external consumption; they still retain more than a semblance of their initial purpose. So if you want to see what South Africa is like outside of the commercials and travel shows, then this is a good place to start.