“Velddrif is full of weirdos, but they are salt-of-the-earth people,” says long-time resident Dan Ahlers
with a cheeky smile. “All the hardcore fishermen in town were my childhood friends, but they still call me
die Engelsman [the Englishman].” Ahlers, affectionately known as Dan the River Man, runs popular boat
trips up the Berg River to view prolific birdlife. He knows the river backwards.
For more information, go
to velddriftourism.co.za.Destination Velddrif
- Dan the River Man, Berg River, Velddrif:
082 951 0447 - Khoisan Salt, Velddrif: (022) 783 1520;
khoisantrading.co.za- River Studio, Bokkomlaan, Velddrif:
083 415 9524 (phone ahead for opening
times) - SA Fisheries Museum, Velddrif: 082 849
9251 (phone ahead)
- River Studio, Bokkomlaan, Velddrif:
“Be careful,” he warns, as we step off the jetty along
Bokkomlaan and into his comfortable river boat. All
seated, we pull off slowly into mid-river and idle along
quietly. “We don’t disturb anything as we go,” Ahlers
says, “and there is no need to rush.” He explains that
there are over 200 different species of waterbirds along
in the river “and that’s not counting the migrants from
Europe that come to escape the cold, or the many other
species in the estuary.” Velddrif is also renowned for its
flocks of flamingoes and pelicans, and birding hotspot
Rocherpan is just up the road too. There is more than
enough to see right here though, and Ahlers knows just
where to find an assortment of interesting species. An
hour later we are back on dry land and feeling chilled.
As we walk up the jetty to the sand road that is
Bokkomlaan, Ahlers tells us that he first came to Velddrif
as a child in the sixties, but he is still considered by locals
as ‘van oor die brug’, because he wasn’t born here. The
bridge refers to the white Carinus Bridge that spans the
Berg River into Velddrif. “The bridge replaced the pont
that used to ferry people from one side of the river to the
other until 1950,” explains Ahlers, “which is how Velddrif
got its name: a drift between two pieces of veld.”Something fishy
All along Bokkomlaan are rough wooden drying racks
for, well, bokkoms. This fish biltong made from mullet
is a traditional West Coast staple. The fish are heavily
salted and dried whole so they can be stored without
refrigeration for lean times. They are eaten as fish biltong
or rehydrated and used in hot dishes, and they were also
part of the rations for farm workers in the area. Bokkoms
are eaten with the skin peeled off and are sometimes
included in bread too. One could say that bokkoms are
the West Coast equivalent to anchovies, but they are
certainly more of an acquired taste.
Bokkomlaan is, however, still lined with bokkom
houses where the fish are sorted before being dried.
Other bokkom houses have been transformed into
quirky shops and art studios – even quaint little
restaurants that serve everything from sandwiches to
seafood, including dining options on a jetty.
We step into Ek En Djy and immediately dissolve
into peals of laughter. Virtually everything in this shop
is humorous or tongue-in-cheek. The shop was started
as a joke and it took off, still going strong years later.We buy a bottle of ‘Traffic Jam’, made from a collection
of random fruits. Next door at the River Studio are
dreamy paintings of the surrounding area, and further
along at Pelican Post we stop for coffee and cake in a
rustic setting with a river view. Wherever we go, people
are open-hearted and hospitable; the West Coast has a
warmth and humour that’s hard to match.21