Dynamite comes in small packages. So they say. It definitely seems to be true for the Sandveld Museum in Lambert’s Bay.
Located on the West Coast Way Wild Route
Lambert’s Bay is located on the West Coast Way Wild Route. Although small you can learn more about the natural and cultural history of the district at the Sandveld Museum. There are various exhibitions and various topics are covered. You can learn more, see what you have not seen before and there are opportunities for interaction as well. It’s even said that this is the only museum where a visitor has been allowed to try on the clothes from an exhibit.
So what can you see at the Lambertsbaai Sandveld Museum? An exhibition of what Lambert’s Bay looked like many years ago. Exhibitions showing the fish industry, of books and the Bible, archaeology, horse mill and farm implements, clothing and embroidery, more about the community and lots of photographs.
If you step outside tortoises, including huge mountain tortoises, walk around in the garden.
There’s a HMS Sybille Gunboat exhibition. This boat ran aground at 4h30 one morning in January 1901as it struck a reef near the farm Steenbokfontein after it was sent to Lambert’s Bay as a patrol boat during the Anglo Boer War (1899 – 1902). The crew were taken aboard on another ship. The exhibition tells more about the boat itself and the divers searching for artefacts from the wreckage. The propeller was found in 1999 and can also be seen.
A traditional matjieshuis can be seen. This was the traditional type of shelter used by the Nama who lived as nomads in areas around here. Back then permanent dome-shaped frames were made by using branches. Reed mats could then be used to cover the frames. They carried the reed mats with them as they travelled. These structures would then be erected along the natural migration routes. Once the reed mats were in place it would create a weatherproof hut.
A photo of the founder of Lambert’s Bay, together with his family, can be seen where they are standing next to a matjieshuis.
Find Lambert’s Bay on the West Coast Way Wild Route.
Open 7 days a week | Monday – Friday
Distance from Cape Town: 261km
Where: Church St, Lambert’s Bay
Coordinates: 32.0978° S, 18.3267° E
Contact: (c) +27(0)27 432 1000 | [email protected]
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