Cape St Blaize Lighthouse

"Mossel Bay lies on the other side of a protruding cape, or point. In this case it is Cape St Blaize. Its southern shores are lined with awesome cliffs that loom above the thundering surf below and the relentless force of the elements has cut out massive caverns.
Ancient Khoi found shelter in the Cape St. Blaize Cave and an archaeological dig revealed that early dwellers of the cave might have largely survived on the abundant shellfish.

The Cape St Blaize lighthouse was erected in 1864. And up until recently, was one of the only two lighthouses manned 24 hours daily on the South African Coastline.

The tower is 20.5 metres high, and stands about 52 metres above sea level.

Until the late 1970s a clockwork system was originally used to turn the lens and it required a lightkeeper to climb up the tower and wind it up every three hours! All the navigational aids and joining plant are fully automated now, but a senior lightkeeper and two lightkeepers are still employed. A constant radio watch is kept and the regular meteorological duties are also undertaken.

Cape St. Blaize is so-named because Bartolomeu Dias and his crew first landed in Mossel Bay on St. Blaize's Day (3 February) in 1488 (St. Blaize is known in Portuguese as São Brás). However, the Lighthouse is also situated directly above the archaeologically important Cape St. Blaize Cave, which was used by local hunter-gatherers herders over a period of about 200,000 years - so the area is by no means just a modern observation post."