Oyster Bay

Oyster Bay sits on the Eastern Cape coast in Kouga Local Municipality, Sarah Baartman District, about 22km south-west of Humansdorp and 14km west of St Francis Bay. The village was carved out of a farm called Graskop, purchased in 1956 by the Tsitsikamma Estate's board of directors. Before that it was private farmland. There is no industrial history here, no settler story, just a beach town that started as a planned holiday resort and grew slowly and quietly from there.

The dune ridges at Oyster Bay are among the most impressive on the South African coast, 12km long and rising as high as 177 metres. They are wind-formed and ancient, and the dune fynbos covering them contains 24 threatened plant species. The beach below is long and clean. There are two small rivers, the Slang and the Klipdrift, that mouth into the ocean here, giving the shoreline some variation.

The Oyster Bay Nature Reserve covers 235 hectares just outside the village. Blesbok, springbok, and zebra move through it. There are hiking trails through the reserve and picnic spots. Beach safaris run through the coastal fynbos and along the dune faces. The African Black Oystercatcher has been monitored and actively conserved here, with the population recovering significantly over the years as a result of community effort.

The community is protective of the beach and the surrounding environment. Off-road vehicles and motorcycles are controlled on the beach. Most properties are on large plots. It is not a surfing destination, not a party town, not a bucket-list stopover. It is a place to walk a long beach, watch birds, and not be bothered. That is not nothing.