About 260 km from Cape Town lies Lambert’s Bay. A seafood mecca, in the heart of Crayfish Country.

This Village is located at the mouth of the Jakkals (“jackal”) River, 30 km North of Eland’s Bay.  It is a major link in the chain of West Coast Fishing Villages.  The principal catches here are Rock Lobster, Anchovies and Snoek.

Much of the Lobster is packed for export, while most of the other catches are either canned or processed into meal and oil.

The town of Lambert’s Bay was established on the farm Otterdam, which was bought by Johann Stephan in 1887.  He was the “merchant baron” of Laaiplek and used the natural harbour for his flourishing wheat trade. 

Eventually the Cape Government bought the land and the first Residential Stand was sold in 1913.

Both the bay and it’s village was named after Sir Robert Lambert, commander of the British Navel Station at the Cape in 1920.

The first Lobster Canning Factory was built in 1918 by a swede named Axel Lindstrom.

Bird Island, one of the best Seabird breeding colonies in the Western Cape, is a single, massive slab of rock, 3 Ha in extent.

Thousands of Penguins, Cormorants, Gannets and other bird species can be viewed here.

A 200-year-old horse mill together with a wooden lock, can be seen on the farm Wadrif about 15 km south of Lambert’s Bay.

The Sandveld cultural history museum was opened in 1980.