"Seeing a whale for the first time, waving its massive tail at us, is a stunning experience. And witnessing one of the 15m creatures hurl itself clear of the water in a breach is amazing."
Bertil van Vugt, Tonight

It was the Southern Right Whales that put Witsand on the map, especially in the 90's, because San Sebastian Bay is considered the "Whale Nursery of South Africa". Investigating from a helicopter in October 1999, Dr. Best, a whale expert, confirmed a count of 233 whales in the Bay. On a good day, a whale watcher may observe up to 70 capering whales. At the beach restaurant there is a telescope on the roof, whalewatching platform that magnifies the whales up to 10 times. The platform is a perfect place from which to view the gentle giants of the sea and can accommodate about 90 people and there is plenty of parking. Whale-watching season starts in June and lasts until November each year.

The Overberg has been explored as early as 1663. The reason for these expeditions was to buy cattle and take it back to Cape Town. These explorers mapped out the Overberg. They attached Dutch names to the rivers and mountains that remain in use today. Corporal Hieronymous Cruse and Ensign Oloff Bergh were the pathfinders.  Bergh carved his initials on the wall of the Zieken Huys cave on the banks of the Zonder End River, where periodically he traded for meat. Cruse made his mark in a different way. He kept a diary of this 1669 journey to The Breede River. This journey took 20 days, but this diary is a precious record, because it documents the road of the 17th century cattle-barterers to the Hessequas kraal. Cruse utilized words such as ‘Palmiet’, ‘How Hoek’ and ‘Zonder End River’ in his diary to describe his route to the kraals, as if they were already part of the language.  This was indeed the case and Cruse himself helped to put them there. 

One of the holiday-makers who will never be forgotten is William Hoy. Like many other great South African settlers, Hoy was born in Scotland. At the age of 12 he left school and set off to Edinburgh where he found work as a junior clerk on the North British Railways, earning twelve shillings per week. Hoy, who had a beautiful copperplate handwriting, started learning Pitman’s shorthand and soon was earning extra pocket money teaching shorthand at night school.

In 1890, a recruiting officer of the Cape Government Railways arrived in Edinburgh. Hoy successfully applied and soon after, arrived in Cape Town. After only two years in the country, he became chief clerk to the Traffic Manager in Kroonstad and a year later, when he was 27 he was the Transvaal agent for the Railways.  During the Anglo-Boer war, Hoy was in charge of Military Railways, co-ordinating the movement of troops, supplies, horses, etcetera. The Scots claim the three R’s as their decree. Hoy’s were the three D’s: Determination, dedication and domination.