Saldanha

Saldanha Bay is one of the best natural harbours in the world, and certainly the deepest and safest in South Africa. Saldanha grew into its current industrial prosperity only after a water pipeline was installed, as there was no natural water supply beforehand.

Now it has canning factories, iron ore export, a huge new steel works and is famed for its floating mussel beds which feed on the plankton-rich current. The small islands nearby are bursting with colonies of gannets, gulls and cape fur seals.

In the mid 1600s the French and Dutch were rivals for the valuable guano and seal skins from the Saldanha islets. When the Dutch found a pile of 2,733 skins, neatly stacked by the French on Skaap Island, they thanked the heavens for the gift and sailed off with their loot to Cape Town.

Almost 200 years later there were over 300 ships in Saldanha Bay, loading precious guano from the islands, which was 10 metres deep in places! The perfectly mummified body of a French sailor was even found buried in the ammonia-rich guano and shipped back to Europe to be displayed as a famous exhibit.

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