Camp’s Bay, Cape Town

Camp's Bay is located some 9 km from Cape Town, on the slopes of the Twelve Apostles. Zwarte Maria Evert was the first owner of the Farm that later became Camps Bay. She was born at the Cape in 1663. Her parents arrived at the Cape in 1658 as part of a group of 220 enslaved people taken from Benin. Her father was given his freedom in 1659; the first male slave to be freed. He bought her and her mother’s freedom in 1671. He had been granted a plot of land, where he lived and ran a garden. Maria sold the produce from the garden for her father. Later, she learnt how to make deals and how one could acquire land, and became the owner of several Farms in the Cape. In 1713, she received the first title deed from the Dutch East India Company for a Farm in the Area: a piece of land between Table Mountain and Lions Head, right down to the sea, which later became known as Camps Bay.

In that same year, a Danish ship that had an outbreak of smallpox on board docked in Table Bay. They gave their dirty linen to washerwomen on the shore. From that incident a great epidemic spread throughout the entire colony. Maria succumbed to smallpox in June 1713, shortly after she signed her own will on 8 June 1713. Her son, Jacobus, died in the epidemic two weeks later. She left a substantial estate, as she was one of the wealthiest people, in the Colony.

It was originally named Baai von Kamptz, after Friedrich von Kamptz, a Dutch sailor who arrived in the Cape in 1778 and married the widow Anna Wernich whose Farm; 'Ravensteyn', adjoined the Bay. Camps Bay is an affluent Suburb of Cape Town. In summer it attracts a large number of foreign visitors as well as South Africans, with its Beach, Hotels, Restaurants, 'Theatre On The Bay' and overall calming effect of the amazing; Atlantic Ocean. Shaded spots are few, so go early at Cape Town's crowded Camps Bay Beach, where locals picnic and play in the strong Atlantic waves. Look for the flagged bathing areas for safer swims for all the family. Festive Cafes sit adjacent to the sands, which are dramatically set at the foot of the Twelve Apostles Mountains. Along the Beachfront is a lovely path for walking under huge Palm Trees.