Saldanha

Saldanha is named after the Portuguese admiral Antonio de Saldanha.

Attractions

Also see the neighbouring towns

Saldanha (population about 72,000) is located on the northern shore of Saldanha Bay on the Atlantic Ocean, about 100Km north of Cape Town. Langebaan and the West Coast National Park is south of the Bay.

Vredenburg is north of Saldanha on the R399 route to St Helena Bay. Along the coast to St Helena Bay are Jacobsbaai and Paternoster.

Saldanha Bay is the largest natural bay in South Africa and next to the cold Benguela Current, which is home to a rich variety of seafood: mussels, crayfish, oysters, seaweed, abalone, line fish.

Islands

There are five islands in the bay which are home to seals, jackass penguins and cormorants.

The islands are: Jutten (43ha), Malgas (18ha), Schaapen (29ha) and Marcus (17ha)

Archaeology

At Elandsfontein there are fossil deposits.

A cast of Saldanha Bay Man, a speciman of Homo heidelbergensis, which was discovered on the farm, can be seen.

West Coast National Park

The West Coast National Park is home to about 300 bird species.

Oorlogsvlei

Oorlogsvlei is named after a skirmish betwen Dutch settlers and Khoi-Khoi about the use of water in the area.

Things to do

Watersport: swimming, yachting, skiing, windsurfing.

Fishing: rock lobster, snoek.

Birdwatching: about 300 bird species can be seen in the area.

Whales and dolphins can be seen in the bay.

Flowers: in August daisies are in bloom, and in September vygies.

History

The bay was originally called Houtee Bay, meaning Seal Bay in Khoi-Khoi.

Saldanha is named after the Portuguese Antonio de Saldanha, who served in the fleet of Albuquerque, which departed from Lisbon in 1503 and anchored in a bay that could only be Table Bay as in his log book he describes climbing a flat top mountain he named Table Mountain. He called the bay Aguada de Saldanha (meaning watering-place of Saldanha). Antonio de Saldanha became "governor" of Mozambique in 1509 to 1512.

In 1601 the Dutch cartographer Joris van Spilbergen (probably mistakenly) entered the name Aguada de Saldanha, for a bay much further north - the bay today known as Saldanha Bay - in his maps.

In the early 1900s a fish canning factory was built here. A fishing village developed around the factory. The port was further developed in 1970 as a harbour for exporting minerals.

Anglo-Boer War

There are graves of British soldiers dating from the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902). The Boer commander Manie Maritz took a brief respite here.

Economy

Saldanha has a large iron ore quay. One of the longest and heaviest train loads in the world run between Sishen and Saldanha.

The Sishen-Saldanha railway of 861Km transports iron ore from Sishen to Saldanha Bay. The train is one of the longest and heaviest in the world. Normally the train transports about 22'300 ton per trip. On 26-27 August 1989 a train ran, consisting of 660 wagons, 7.3Km long, weighing 69'393 tons, excluding locomotives. The wagons were pulled by nine 50kv electric and seven diesel electric locomotives distributed all along the train.

The heaviest known train runs in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, carrying 32'320 tons per trip. The train of 2.5Km consists of 220 beds.

Saldanha also harbours fishing vessels.

A sea-farm was started by Philip Steyn in a 28Ha tidal dam built when the harbor was constructed. Mussel, clam and oysters are grown here.

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