Betty's Bay is a small holiday town situated on the

Overberg __NOTOC__ Overberg is a region in South Africa to the east of Cape Town beyond the Hottentots-Holland mountains. It lies along the Western Cape Province's south coast between the Cape Peninsula and the region known as the Garden Route in the e ...

coast of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

Western Cape The Western Cape ( ; , ) is a provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the List of South African provinces by area, fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , an ...

province. It is located 100 km from

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

beneath the

Kogelberg The Kogelberg is a range of mountains along the False Bay coast in the Western Cape of South Africa. They form part of the Cape Fold Belt, starting south of the Elgin valley and forming a steep coastal range as far as Kleinmond. The Kogelb ...

Mountains on the scenic R44 ocean drive between Pringle Bay and

Kleinmond Kleinmond is a small coastal town in the Overberg region of the Western Cape province, South Africa. It is situated inside a UNESCO-declared Man and the Biosphere Programme, biosphere about 90 km east of Cape Town between Betty's Bay and Herm ...

. This village stretches over 13 km along the coast. Tourism plays a large role in the town's economy due to its popularity with holiday makers from across the

and

in particular. During colonial times Betty's Bay was allegedly a favourite place for runaway slaves, and in 1912 Betty's Bay became a formal whaling station running up until the 1930s. Remains of the whaling station can still be seen at Stony Point. Bettys Bay is named after Betty Youlden, daughter of the first developer of the area Arthur Youlden. Betty's Bay contains the Harold Porter National Botanical Garden as well as an

African penguin The African penguin (''Spheniscus demersus''), also known as Cape penguin or South African penguin, is a species of penguin confined to southern African waters. It is the only penguin found in the Old World. Like all penguins, it is flightless, ...

colony in the Betty's Bay Marine Protected Area, which is one of the two Penguin colonies in the area of the

. The colony is situated in the

and Stony Point Nature Reserve. When the former whaling station was closed, the endemic and endangered Southern African penguins started breeding here.

Geography

Due to the town's location on the south-western coast and surrounding mountainous geography it receives near constant wind and ample rain throughout the year, With south-easterly winds bringing the occasional thunderstorm from the warmer eastern coast in summer, while winter brings persistent North-westerly to occasional Southerly frontal rain, sometimes hail, which can be very heavy at times. Betty's Bay has a warm Mediterranean climate (Köppen: Csb) with relatively strong marine west coast

oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen climate classification, Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of co ...

( Köppen Cfb) influence for the region, which sees pleasant warm temperatures in summer, and mild to cool temperatures in winter with the threat of rain throughout the year.

References

{{Overberg District Municipality Whaling in South Africa Betty's Bay Articles containing video clips Bays of South Africa