For a town synonymous with adrenaline and the great white shark, Gansbaai (170km from Cape Town) is a tad desolate. Not that this has stopped migrating Gautengers from buying homes and setting up shop – over the past few years, the number of businesses has exploded, the local council has employed its first traffic cops, and come Sunday the NG Kerk is so jam-packed you can’t see the dominee. While Gansbaai itself may be nondescript, the jagged coastline extending from De Kelders to Pearly Beach has both beauty and a haunting past. It is a long, fairly undeveloped stretch of coastal fynbos, rocky coves, abundant marine life, facebrick holiday homes and sad shipwrecks.