Mad About Malkoppan

Glad to escape the heat in Bot River, I aimed my old Honda Africa Twin motorcycle north by west and made for the West Coast.

- Nick Yell

During the journey, the heat sat as tightly clamped on the undulating landscape as the lid of a pressure cooker, and I was very relieved to feel the air freshen as I neared the coast outside Elands Bay.

My plan was to catch my breath and hole up for a couple of days in the revitalised old-style country hostelry, the Elands Bay Hotel, before seeking out a campsite a little further up the coast.

After trawling the net in-between long strolls on the beach and bouts of reading-induced head-lolling in my armchair, I settled on Malkoppan. Sure, there were a number of other good options both in Elands Bay and nearby Lamberts Bay, most with better sea- facing locations; but what swung my decision towards Malkoppan was the fact that I could walk to the quintessential open-air seafood restaurant I’d been wanting to eat at for years: the world-renowned Muisbosskerm.

The illicit ride into Lamberts Bay, along the now ‘closed to the public’, coast-hugging toll road from Elands Bay, was as good as I'd remembered it from five years back. En route, I was once again glad to have my jaw drop as a 220 coach, eight locomotive iron ore train from Sishen rumbled its three and a half kilometre length past me.

But probably the most thrilling experience of all was stopping the bike alongside a dune next to the dirt track and making my way to a deserted bay over the rise, flopping into the creamy white sands and meditating to the surging pulse of the sea.