Small town. Big personalities. Meet the locals behind the West Coast breeze in Doringbaai.
Doringbaai may be little more than a sigh on the map, but its residents burn with the intensity of a West Coast sunset and the slightly manic energy of people who don’t get bored because they won’t allow it.
Danny
Take Danny Human. He’s the man you want when the sea’s in a rage or a dassie needs CPR. An NSRI lifeguard-cum-trainer of nine years and unofficial emergency whisperer, Danny’s the kind of guy who rescues everything from distressed sea birds, seals, turtles, entangled whales and injured penguins to the neighbour’s limping terrier. He’s been in Doringbaai for 19 years—long enough to know work might be 24/7. “There’s always something to do,” he shrugs with the kind of grin you’d trust in a crisis. “Otherwise, I just hang around.” One imagines he hangs around with purpose.
Francois
Then there’s Francois Coetzee, local cop by day, snake wrangler by necessity. Francois doesn’t only tackle petty theft—he catches and releases puffadders, Cape cobras, boomslang, house snakes and the odd many-horned adder with unnerving calm. He’s also on a mission to protect the local succulent kingdom. But it’s not all fangs and florals. In his spare time—because yes, somehow there is such a thing—he fells trees and spends time with his wife and four daughters.
Vicky
Meet Vicky Swart: artist, entrepreneur, accidental town cheerleader and self-confessed lover of a good chinwag. Vicky runs Crafters Cave, a craft and coffee shop that’s half seaside boutique, half West Coast parliament. Most of the wares she makes herself and the rest she buys from Matzikama locals—goat’s cheese, macramé, candles, potplants, jewellery—all handmade, all full of soul. It’s the place to hear who’s baking what and who’s possibly lost the plot (again). Not content with keeping the town caffeinated and curated, she’s also taken to teaching art to nursery school kids and giving drab public walls and private gardens a fresh lick of life. All of this, by the way, for free. Why? Ask her and she’ll just shrug and smile. For leisure, she runs and hikes with the same verve she brings to her town.
Janette
And if you’re wondering where all the birds went, Janette Swanepoel found them. All of them. What began with a few hens quickly escalated to a small airborne commune: geese, Guinea fowl, ducks, spur-winged geese, plovers, francolins and even a Macaw with an attitude. She calls it heaven. Doringbaai just calls it the Swanepoels’ yard – complete with four dogs and 10 cats too (all living harmoniously). Janette also happens to be the local dog groomer, running a busy little doggie spa from home. And when the last feather is fluffed and the final paw dried, she paints quietly to her heart’s content.
Here, everyone’s a character. And every character is worth meeting.
