Vermaaklikheid is a settlement on

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

Garden Route The Garden Route (Afrikaans: ''Tuinroete'') is a stretch of the south-eastern coast of South Africa which extends from Witsand in the Western Cape to the border of Tsitsikamma Storms River in the Eastern Cape. The name comes from the verdant an ...

in the

Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

. It is situated near

Witsand Witsand is a small coastal town situated at the mouth of the Breede River in the Western Cape, South Africa. It is a good fishing area and is widely considered to be the whale nursery of the South African coastline. Witsand has seen some of the lar ...

and close to

Duiwenhoks River Duiwenhoks River, located in Western Cape, South Africa, drains the Langeberg Mountains and flows south to the coast, entering the sea west of Mossel Bay in the Southern Cape. The river is approximately 83 km long with a catchment area of 1 ...

. The area is a

fynbos Fynbos (; meaning fine plants) is a small belt of natural shrubland or heathland vegetation located in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. This area is predominantly coastal and mountainous, with a Mediterranean clim ...

shrubland Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally or be the result of human activity. It m ...

that has a temperate climate. More than 100 species of birds live here. As of 2011 the population is 356. In the census, 329 people(92.4%) spoke

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

, 25 (7%) spoke

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

, and 2 (0.56%) spoke

Setswana Tswana, also known by its native name , and previously spelled Sechuana in English, is a Bantu language spoken in Southern Africa by about 8.2 million people. It belongs to the Bantu language family within the Sotho-Tswana branch of Zone ...

History

The village was established in 1855 when the Dutch Reformed Church purchased a piece of land that was originally farmed on by Andries Gous since 1725. The origin of the name of the village is disputed. A certain resident of the village, Inis Bower, claims that the village was named after a certain "Meneer Vermaak" who was a prominent farmer in the area during the 19th century. Others, however, believe that the name '''Vermaaklikheid''', meaning entertainment''' in

and Dutch, was derived from the occasional gathering of farmers on the bank of the river to "vermaak" or to relax and enjoy themselves.

References

External links

Vermaaklikheid web site

Duiwenhoks Conservancy
{{SouthAfrica-geo-stub Populated places in the Hessequa Local Municipality