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Traditional township dining near Cape Town
Ocean View - a township experience with a difference
Cheryl Wyngaard (right) explains to guests the best way to cook fish.
© Max Marx
Did you know?
You should never add salt to fish before cooking it as salt makes the fish tough.
Perhaps it Cheryl Wyngaard’s passion for people, or her big heart, that makes you want to sit in her modest dining room in Cape Town's Ocean View township and listen to stories of this small fishing community while on a township food tour.
??Ocean View is a township near the fishing village of Kommetjie, approx. 45 minutes drive from the centre of Cape Town. It is here where members of South Africa ’s coloured community were forcibly removed to in 1968 under the old Apartheid regime. Most families in Ocean View eek out a living through the catching and selling of fish.
As a young woman, Wyngaard decided to get into the tourism industry, in the process helping uplift her community while sharing their traditional way of life with travellers. ??Wyngaard started her tourism business with a tiny yellow boat, taking visitors out crayfish fishing. According to Wyngaard, her ancestors, who arrived from South America, were among the first fishermen to introduce hand line fishing to the Cape. Many of Ocean View's fishermen still use this practice today.
??Wyngaard's husband Stephen and son Melshaw – a registered tourist guide – teach the art of hand line fishing to travellers on boat excursions around the Cape Peninsula. Today Wyngaard operates fishing excursions with 3 motorised boats. Melshaw also takes guests on guided township experience tours around Ocean View to view community upliftment projects and to meet the locals.
A popular stop on the tourist map is Wyngaard's home in Ocean View, where visitors help her prepare a delicious 3-course seafood lunch or dinner, and then dine while listening to her fascinating tales about her family and the Ocean View community.
Wyngaard's big heart extends to helping her community, and she and her family feed 400 children daily. For some it's their only meal of the day.?? Wyngaard lives by the motto 'the more you give, the more you get back' – and giving is what she does best.
Travel tips & Planning info
Who to contact
Cheryl Wyngaard
Tel: +27 (0)82 685 6782
Email: swcfg@telkomsa.net??
Melshaw Wyngaard?
Tel: +27 (0)82 064 5839
?Email: ovba@live.co.za
How to get here
Ocean View is located just outside the fishing village of Kommetjie, approx. a 45-minute drive south of Cape Town.
Tours to do
Boat trips around Kommetjie, Fish Hoek and Simonstown are popular. Or try a bicycle tour of nearby Masiphumelele township and visit the Township Cycling Project.
Get around
Best to explore the area on foot or bicycle.
What will it cost
A 3-hour fishing excursion plus 3-course meal costs approx. R280 per person. A guided community tour of Ocean View (meal and fishing) excluded, is approx. R250 per person.
What to pack
Comfortable shoes for your walking tour of the township. Plenty of sunscreen and a hat. And a large appetite!
What to eat
Seafood, cooked the traditional Cape way, is a must: mussels, prawns, crayfish, calamari and various linefish are on the menu.