The coastal road from Gordon’s Bay to Rooiels unfurls as a long black ribbon between hulking rock and inkwell ocean. Rooiels (65km from Cape Town) comes up first – the tidiest and most exclusive of the seaside resorts along this stretch of holiday coast. The village is well-endowed with coastal fynbos, a river and lagoon, a good beach and an impressive granite backdrop bearing resemblance to a beached whale. Pringle Bay follows (a somewhat disorderly holiday community with some notable DIY architectural mishaps), then Betty’s Bay, historically a popular refuge for runaway slaves and a little neater than Pringle Bay, with bigger plots and tighter urban planning. From Betty’s Bay the road proceeds to Kleinmond and beyond to Hermanus. Once a holiday village to inland farmers, Kleinmond is today a big dorp with gridlocked residential suburbs, houses called Gryp die Dag, Oosies Rus, and Ôk Mar Nét, and a lovely long white beach. The adjacent Kogelberg Reserve, towering mountain backdrop and endless beach is Kleinmond’s attraction, not the town itself. With a few exceptions, accommodation from Rooiels to Kleinmond comprises private holiday houses managed by local letting agents.