Picturesque Paternoster on the Cape West Coast
A Tiny Fishing Village is a Haven for Seafood
Feb 19, 2009
About an hour and a half’s drive from Cape, past Churchaven, and the lagoon, lies Paternoster. And in case you missed lunch at Geelbek Restaurant on the Lagoon in the nature reserve a little further back, you can have lunch here in any one of a number of places.
Most might want to give the Paternoster Hotel a miss. Mind you, it was great once, before it got ‘renovated’ and lost most of its patina – except for the pub which is like a relic from the 50’s. It’s a good place for sampling ‘local colour’ and to have a cold beer if you’re desperate.
An Unusual Culinary Experience
If you want a real seafood treat then The Voorstrandt restaurant is a must. Housed in an old restored fisherman’s cottage painted red and green, it is situated right on the beach. From the porch, the view is spectacular – one of the blue unpolluted ocean stretching out before you beneath this fat blue sky.
Seafood haven
The Voorstrandt restaurant specializes in sea-food and usually people leave happy and smiling and the reviews generally rave about the view as well as the food. There are exceptions, such as a crayfish being served that had been pre-frozen. But then, everyone has a bad hair day.
One of their seafood soups was elaborate: it included lobster, fresh mussels and fish as well as wild garlic, wild rosemary which the owner proclaimed she had picked all within a block from the restaurant. It added to the experience knowing that thousands of years ago, early man also foraged among the dunes, in search of dinner. (It is thought that some of mankind’s earliest inhabitants roamed this coastline – they were called the ‘beachwalkers’ by early Dutch settlers).
From the Voorstrand, you might see the locals hauling in harders, a small and rather delicious local fish, in their nets. This is a process usually involving at least a dozen or so people. It’s just a nice experience and it creates the feeling, no matter how illusory, that you are part of an authentic experience and not some theme park fishing village. But I digress. You can usually buy these salted harders in Paternoster as well as crayfish on the roadside.
Authenticity preserved
Paternoster has expanded in the past couple of years. But full credit to the town planners who have not allowed the architectural excesses that has been suffered elsewhere. The tiny cottages conform to the original ‘fisherman’s cottage style and the predominant colours are white and blue, which is to say: walls painted white with shutters painted blue which is more Greek than Cape West Coast but, hey, it’s still pretty.
Although there have been new luxury developments, some effort has been made to preserve the original atmosphere and scale of a fishing village. It’s all very pleasant and even if it’s not totally authentic: the view is.
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