Wittedrift

Wittedrift was originally inhabited by the Khoi and San people, who lived from the land by hunting, gathering and trading with passing travellers. The region was rich in wildlife, while the river provided a vital source of water.

Wittedrift developed as a rural farming settlement linked to early agricultural activity along the river, wetlands and salt marshes. The area also served as an important river crossing, and the farming community supported livestock and crop production. Over time, Wittedrift remained small and agricultural in character, with strong ties to the surrounding farms and the nearby town of Plettenberg Bay.

An interesting story from the area’s early history concerns education. The first school in the area was reportedly established by local farmer Hendrik van Huyssteen in the early 1800s. He wanted his children to be educated, but there were no teachers in the area, so he hired discharged, marooned or deserting marines and sailors who had washed ashore after shipwrecks. A makeshift classroom was set up inside a horse-and-wagon shed on his farm.

The name Wittedrift means “White Drift” and is thought to refer either to the pale sandbanks along the river or to the mist that often settles over the area in the mornings.

In the latter half of the 20th century, Wittedrift began to change as tourism developed in the wider Plettenberg Bay area. Its proximity to Plettenberg Bay made it increasingly accessible to visitors, while the village itself retained its rural character and connection with the surrounding farms.

The village centre is tiny, with just four shops. Among them is the legendary Wittedrift Butchery, which attracts customers from across the region for its closely guarded secret-recipe biltong and droëwors.

The main road through the valley is a gravel farm road called Stofpad, meaning “Dust Road”. It looks like an ordinary Western Cape agricultural road, but at the end of it, a fence separates the road from the free-roaming Masai giraffes at Giraffe View Safari Camp.

Wittedrift also sits on the floodplains of the Bitou River, making the area important for birdlife. More than 100 species of migratory birds use the area as a stopover, and during good birding conditions the country lanes can develop seasonal “birding traffic jams” — not caused by traffic, but by groups of binocular-wielding birdwatchers stopping to search for rare vagrant species.

Today, Wittedrift remains a small rural community where farming, wildlife, birding and tourism exist alongside one another.