On the N7 En route from Cape Town to Namibia approximately 610km to the north one reaches the small town of Steinkopf. Here you take the R382 for a 90 km drive Westwards to Port Nolloth, situated approximately 80km south of the Namibian border. The Richtersveld area is situated just north-east of Port Nolloth and is South Africa’s only mountain desert, with the Atlantic Ocean
and OrangeRiver serving as the
western and northern borders respectively.

Climate
Along with Port Nolloth’s renowned misty weather, The average annual rainfall for the region is 20-25mm per year. The average temp. is a moderate 22º C during the day and a cool 14º C at night.

History

The oldest written proof dates back to 1779 when Robert Gordon and his guide passed here to rename the “Grootrivier”(Great River) to the Orange River. At this stage there were a few empty huts and seals on a nearby island. They came across a group of Namakwas who moved from Aukwatowas when all but two of them died after eating a washed out fish. Gordon and his guide discovered an well where they gave their horses water from their hats. The next day on 10 February 1779 they came across a spot of grass with water, presumably at the place where plot 1136 is today. On the following day when his wagons arrived he was told that the place is known as Gawaap.

In 1836 James Alexander met William Joseph who s son tried to melt copper for bullets two years back in the Richtersveld. At 1838 Alexander started his copper mine and build floats to drift his copper ore to the place where Alexander Bay are today. Other fortune hunters followed soon. Unfortunately food was scarce and in the 1840’s the Namakwas traded with dried seal and so the name changed to Robbebaai (Seals Bay).

On 31 August 1850 the first ton of copper were shipped on the Bosphurus. So the big rush to Namaqualand began.

The Cape government had high hopes for the development of the Namaqualand area due to the discovery of copper and so they have send the surveyor von Ludwig to Robbebaai (Seals Bay) to investigate the possibility of a harbour. His map of 1854 shows Small Bird, Big Bird and Seals Island and even some living areas. The same year commander Nolloth of the British navy were send to determine the depth of the harbour at Port Nolloth with his ship The Frolic (frolic means either light hearted entertainment or occasion, activity or gaiety) and his foundings were that small boats can use Hondeklip Bay harbour while bigger vessels can board at Robbebaai (Seals Bay). Despite all that only a few vessels were harboured at Port Nolloth while the rest still went to Hondeklip Bay.

In 1855 Robbe Bay was renamed to Port Nolloth, in honour of commander Nolloth, by sir Harry Smith. Plots in Mc Dougalls Bay belonging to mine managers are shown on maps dating back as far as 1855. Henriëta von Schlict, wrote in a letter how they ride from Spektakel to Springbok for dancing and then went to Port Nolloth with horse wagons for holidays. At Mc Dougalls Bay there were at least drinkable water and it is believed to have been the holiday resort of the rich.

1.

In 1865 three white people lived here and in 1858 there were three wooden houses and a shop of a certain F.W. Dreyer.

On 4 September 1869 the first rails of the railway between Port Nolloth and O’kiep has been laid. Port Nolloth grew rapidly and in 1871 a visitor to that area wrote that there were big piles of copper ore, have had 300 residents and that it was a town of flags with a flag at every house. With the arrival of a ship everything from flags to handkerchiefs were hoisted. Although the harbour was completed in 1837, big ships or boats rather could still not get into the harbour over the rocky ridges. Copper ore had to be taken to the ships via small boats.

Of the 10 shops that were in Hondeklip Bay, only one still existed in 1877.

In the 1930’s the erection of the fish factory caused a stir and attracted a lot of attention.

The first local diamond has been found by Jack Carstens south of Mc Dougalls Bay at Oubeep on 25 August 1925, but it was only in the 1970’s that the mining of diamonds from the sea was commenced.

The copper mining industry declined and finally lost its grip. In 1957 Port Nolloth received municipal status.

From 1960 there was renewed interest in Mc Dougalls Bay. Plots could be hired from the municipality with the understanding that only removable structures were to be constructed on the plots.

In 1986 Mc Dougalls Bay were re surveyed and tenants could get ownership of their plots. The past and present have met. Electricity supply were received, the roads were tarred and from 1990 fresh water from the Orange River.

There are a few possibilities as to how Mc Dougalls Bay got its name:
Two names came up in Alaxander’s mining records. There were Henry Christian & Mc Donald Mc Dougall. Henry worked on the famous Alexander Bay mining fields that consisted of eight claims, each one two miles average. Donald had a shop in the Richtersveld that amongst other sold liquor. Mc Dougall exchanged some liquor for the Kodas mine and 14 goats from an alcoholic Nama Captain. The missionaries shunned the way of life that the drinking of alcohol had brought to their villages. In 1854 Mc Dougall sold his rights at Kodas to a mining company in Port Elizabeth and then he left.

The other story as the saying goes is that a man named Mc Dougall was on a ship that got stranded at Mc Dougalls Bay. He safely reached the shore and lived on mullets that he used to catch by building up sand banks and when it was high tide the water would cover the banks. When it was high tide the water would cover these banks and when the water drew back at low tide, it would cover these banks and when the water drew back at low tide, some mullets were left behind the banks. Eventually they took him to other white people who lived at the Buffels River. At a later stage he returned to Cape Town.

On a map designed by Von Ludwig dated 1854/5, the bay south of Port Nolloth was already marked as Mc Dougall’s Bay. The plots marked as 1- XV1 in Roman numerals and on plot X111 the map reads “wooden house,” which shows that someone must have lived here round about the same time. A resident of Port Nolloth found old remains of a boat south of Mc Dougalls Bay, which could have been Mc Dougall’s boat.

2.

Port Nolloth is devided into two sections, Port Nolloth being the business sector mainly, although it has a residential area as well, Mc Dougalls Bay, which is 4 km south of Port Nolloth serves mainly as a holiday resort, and Sizamile is a township to the northeast.

The seeds of Ostrea Prismatica Oysters, which only exist in warm water, have been found at Alexander Bay. This means that the icy cold Atlantic was once a warm ocean.

Mc Dougalls Bay has its own strip of sea that is reserved for tourists only for angling, crayfish diving and water sports. This area is restricted and cannot be used by the factory for commercial fishing.

Behind the fish factory is Ovenstone Island, where a naval cannon was placed in earlier times and fired in foggy conditions to assist ships in locating Port Nolloth safely.

The present day telephone exchange is built on the site where the now defunct copper railway’s mules, used for pulling the wagons, used to be stabled.
South of Mc Dougalls Bay at Oubeep you can sea old prospectors diggings, which shows a dark layer of sand. Through microscopic examination it was determined that these dark layers around the sand granules are very old leathery plant rests.

Port Nolloth’s first name was Aukwatowa, which is the Nama word for “where the water took the old man away.” It is said it was thereafter called “Robbe Bay” since seals were harvested for commercial reasons during the copper rush.

THE RAILWAY

Small locomotives were first used from Port Nolloth to 22 miles or 35 miles inland. Due to the frequent boiler failures, mule traction was again introduced for full length of the line in 1876. Under favourable conditions trucks could run by full gravity from Klipfontein to Port Nolloth – 55 miles. Trains were frequently run down the mountain by gravity.

In order to get over the steep Anenous pass, traction, using an engine with copper boiler and overhead condensing tube, was introduced in 1886. Condensers were not a success. Larger and more powerful engines “The Mountain Types” were put into service in1890. In 1893 these locomotives ran through O’kiep and mule transaction dispensed with. Mules were however still used for passenger service up to 1896.

Originally, the proposal for a railway was to construct one from Hondeklip Bay, which was the main port for the area.

3.
The railway in the first instance was a spot called Riethuis, which was the inland edge of the sandy coastal plain. The line was actually authorized by Parliament in 1865, but was subsequently amended to provide for the railway to commence from Port Nolloth.

4.
Originally, the proposal for a railway was to construct one from Hondeklip Bay, which was the main port for the area. The railway in the first instance was a spot called Riethuis, which has been the inland edge of the sandy coastal plain. The line was actually authorized by parliament in 1865, but was subsequently amended to provide for the railway to commence from Port Nolloth.

The above information is from a memorandum prepared in 1906 by Mr. H. R. Moffatt’s father who was Traffic Manager of the Railway for many years.

Particulars: 91 Miles
Lengths 2 Foot 6 inches
Construction started: 1869
Line completed: 1876
Line Uplifted: 1943

Line originally designed for traction by mules.
Rail set on longitudinal sleepers to give clear space for animals.
Line to Anenous at the bottom of the mountain section completed in 1871 (47 miles)
Brach in Nababeep opened in 1899.
Short branch to Concordia build.

The Travel-Informed Team

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