The campsite at the ocean edge is deserted. The beach too, except for a clutch of white-fronted plovers and piles of washed-up kelp.
This is not an unusual scene on the sparsely populated West Coast, but it’s early January – peak holiday season. All the other towns and villages are bustling with beach umbrellas, kids on bikes, teenagers and surfers… But not Hondeklip Bay.
The houses here are surrounded by plains of grey scrubland. It’s about 90km north-west of Garies as the jackal