DORINGBAAI LIGHTHOUSE
The white Doringbaai lighthouse with its black band and white lantern house looks over the shoulder of Fryer’s Cove from a small rocky outcrop, forming a natural breakwater.
When Doringbaai lighthouse first began it's life back in 1963 it was a fully automatic, aluminium lattice tower.
During 1991 one of the worst wind storms to ever hit the area, levelled the lighthouse. Today, on the same spot, stands the new elegant lighthouse.
The Lighthouse is situated in the secured harbour area, but there are retail and commercial operations within the area so getting through the security gates is not a problem. It is easy to take lovely photos from various points.
The lighthouse is controlled from Cape Point and is unmanned, viewing is therefore only possible from the outside and no tours are available.
Before the village was established, Doringbaai was historically used as safe anchorage by ships on the Cape sea trading route. Due to absence of roads in this part of the country at the time, supplies were offloaded in the bay and then transported by camel to Vanrhynsdorp and other towns in the vicinity.
It was only in 1925, when the crayfish factory was built that the area was first settled. The factory became the mainstay of the local economy. By the 1970’s the west coast fishing industry started to decline, and the factory closed down and is now used for Abalone farming.
The once dilapidated crayfish factory hosts a wine cellar and tasting locale for the Fryer’s Cove wines, named after Richard Fryer, one of Doringbaai’s earliest residents and first commercial farmer and founder of the first school in the nearby Strandfontein Village.
Grapes from this winery comes from South Africa’s closest vineyards to the Atlantic Ocean, dotting the hillside only 820 m from the breakers.