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History Betty's Bay is a small holiday town situated on the Overberg coast of South Africa's Western Cape province. It is located 96 km from Cape Town beneath the rugged Kogelberg Mountains and is on the scenic R44 ocean drive between Pringle Bay and Kleinmond. This village is the longest in South Africa at over 13 km. During colonial times Betty's Bay was favourite place for runaway slaves, but in 1912 Betty's Bay became a formal whaling station running until the 1930s. Remains of the whaling station can still be seen at Stony Point. The area is named after Betty Youlden, daughter of one of the first developers of the area. Betty's Bay contains the well known Harold Porter Botanical Gardens as well as a Jackass Penguin colony. Cafe Jack is named after Gerald (Jack) Clarence) who along with Harold Porter and Arthur Youldon founded a company in the late 1930's early 1940's called the Hangklip Estate. They had a vision that a resort could be developed for the people of Cape Town to get away from the hurly burly of life and out into the beautiful countryside to renovate and rejuvenate themselves, so they bought the land from Hangklip to the Palmiet River and set about their development. At the time the only access to the area was via a drovers track 14kms over the mountains from the N2, and so Jack was given the task of persuading the municipality to fund a road along the coast. It took him 7 years but finally the road was built and it is testimony to his dedication and perseverance. Jack's wife wrote about the building of the road in her tribute book to him, published privately in 1950 after his death. In 'Hello Children" she writes: If you are privileged at any time to drive in the Cape from Steenbras River Bridge to Kleinmond-strand you will pass over a beautiful road which was brought into existence by Jack, and which is named for him by a public body in recognition of his vision, faith, determination and perseverance. For without him the whole project would have been abandoned. If you ever have the opportunity, look at this road – at the good tarred surface, at the location of it; the planting with grass and creepers of the scarred sloped; the stone walls; the bays for parking and then realise if you can, that this road was made when everyone tried to tell Jack that it was quite impossible for it to be built. There was no money for it and it was only needed to go to a place that nobody knew much about – Hangklip Estate. But then, you see Hangklip was Jack’s baby, his great absorbing interest, his main enthusiasm at that time. He loved the place and the whole idea and vision he had for it and he was determined that this wonderful stretch of coast should be developed, not exploited, into townships and made available to the public as a big holiday resort, so of course he had to have a good direct road from Cape Town to it. He set out to get that road which everyone said he would never get and there it is today for everyone to enjoy.” So as you travel that road think of those men who so many years ago had a vision, and as you sit here raise your glass to his vision that today has given you the opportunity to share in a little piece of beauty….. (also from “Hello Children” by Beryl Clarence) “Perhaps the most beautiful Marine Drive in South Africa, looking over False Bay towards Cape Point would never have become a reality without the perseverance and vision that was part and parcel of Jack’s nature. The drive was built at great cost and bears his name today. It has given the public direct access to an area which in the past was closed to them unless they were prepared to scramble over craggy mountain slopes for 13 or 14 miles. Those who know will tell you that this drive compares more than favourably with any Italian or French Riviera and leads you to Hangklip Estate which is unique in its natural beauty, skirted by two magnificent mountain ranges – the Kogelberg and the Paardeberg – whilst its 25 mile coast line is lapped by the blue of the Indian Ocean*.”
* Today we know that it is the Atlantic that laps our shores here in Betty’s Bay, but back then the myth that the oceans changed at Cape Point from Atlantic to Indian seems to have been more widely believed.
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