that after Kruger National Park, the great white sharks attract some of the highest numbers of tourists to South Africa for any single activity.

Klipgat Cave is located in the Walker Bay Nature Reserve, next to De Kelders, the residential shore area of Gansbaai.

As one of only three places in South Africa where such old remains have been excavated, Klipgat Cave is an important historical sites in the Western Cape.

An expedition sent by Jan van Riebeeck to the area, described meeting people of the so-called Chainouqua-tribe near Baardskeerdersbos, a rural hamlet, 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) from Gansbaai.

[citation needed] More than 140 ships have been wrecked and thousands of lives lost between Danger Point and Cape Infanta, to the east of Gansbaai.

Gansbaai was founded, according to local storytellers, in 1881 after 18-year-old fisherman Johannes Cornelis Wessels walked there across the dunes from Stanford and discovered excellent fishing in the area.

Gansbaai's economy received an economic boost in 1939 when a small factory was built to process sharks' livers for vitamin A and lubricant, which was in great demand during World War II.

It was not until local school principal Johannes Barnard persuaded village fishermen to set up the first fishery cooperative in South Africa that the economy began to recover.

Barnard helped the fishermen obtain capital from the Fisheries Development Corporation, deepen the harbour and establish a modern fish meal factory.

the great white shark capital of the world, drawing National Geographic Society film crews and researchers from around the globe to study the wildlife.

The Reforest Fest in the Platbos Forest Reserve serves annually as a prime example of the sound wilderness engineering, driven by the social connection of exciting weekend recreation and conservation.

It is named after Samson Dyer, an emigrant from the US to the Cape Colony in 1806, who lived on the island collecting guano, which he sold to mainlanders as fertiliser.

The Overstrand council governs the southwestern coast of the Overberg, from Pringle Bay to Pearly Beach; its headquarters are in Hermanus but there is an office in Gansbaai.