It took more than a century after the Bartolomeu Dias expeditions for Vleesbaai to get this name, and the bay was christened by another explorer, the Dutchman Paulus van Caerden.

He was pleased to discover that many natives ashore were willing to trade their well-fed livestock for scrap metal and other fancy Western articles and goods – he named it Vleys Baeye, the Old Dutch word for Vleesbaai, directly translated into English as “Bay of meat”.

[2] Vleesbaai is a seaside vacation town made up of approximately 500 plots of varying sizes and controlled by three companies and three homeowners associations.

The Christmas period, the traditional South African summer holiday, and Easter is in general the time when Vleesbaai enjoys its highest occupancy levels.

Across the road from the shop is the church hall, where sermons are conducted on Sundays and on Christmas, as well as fairs and numerous other community events during the peak seasons.

Motor vehicle parking inside the town is very limited and non-resident visitors and other traffic volumes are monitored by the staff at the entrance gate.

Residents and visitors alike on the whole adhere to the speed limit of 20 km/h, as the town’s streets are filled with pedestrian traffic, in particular children that play in and around the houses.

Water inside the houses was in most cases heated by means of wall mounted gas units, prior to the availability of electricity.

This makes for favourable swimming conditions, although there are light rip currents which bathers should be aware of, and when on-shore winds prevail, there can be an increase of blue bottles and jellyfish.

Among the local surfing community there is a place called “TOADS” the rocky shores of the Fransmanshoek peninsula that provides a right-hand break for surfers when conditions are right.

TOADS is an acronym for Take Off And Die Syndrome and was christened in July 1984 by Mark Blewett, Jamii Hamlin and Shane Immelman.

It has become a favourite pastime for inhabitants, whether they are there temporarily on holiday or live there permanently, with the stretch along the beach between Vleesbaai and neighbouring Boggomsbaai proving to be one of the most popular routes in the morning and evening times.

Wild oysters are still to be found on the rocks exposed during low tide, however due to over harvesting by humans has left the number available quite depleted.