Yzerfontein and the West Coast phenomenon
Yzerfontein to my memory is a small town with a campsite, a beach, and thirty retired Afrikaners who stare at you strangely if you have the wrong number plate. It was with great surprise then when recently I did a west coast meander (via Darling, and up to Langebaan, for a fun shoot) and discovered that it had exploded. Not in the obliteration of life type explosion, but rather that 10,000 new souls had descended en masse on this poor town. Either that, or those 30 Afrikaners had been busy. And naughty. And greatly defied their age’s limitations.
Speaking of limitations, I wonder what this towns limit is? Or that of Shelley point? Or the whole west coast for that matter! It’s hard enough to see water, let alone imagine all the people up there have enough to survive. Like lizards in the sun you wonder how these reptilian-skinned humans manage to eek out a living up there in the sand and sun.
Yet, here is Yzerfontein, in all its glory, existing like nobody’s business, a throwback from a prehistoric world. I’m being a little overdramatic though, it is just a town full of people needing photographs of their homes like everyone else, right? Food, water, shelter, photographs of their home. Practically Maslow’s hierarchy of needs right there.