The Hemel-en-Aarde Valley is beautiful. It has its rolling hills of vineyards, orchards and wheat lands, hemmed in by a rim of mountains and the tall and alluring Babylon’s Tower. The romantic gravel road winds its way through the valley to join Caledon and the beautiful town of Hermanus.

Georg Schmidt, a Moravian Missionary, wrote: “Just an hour by horse cart from Hermanuspietersfontein, there lies a fertile valley called Hemel-en-Aarde. That’s why the story of Hermanus and the valley is like love and marriage; it goes together like a horse and carriage. Rightly it has got its name because so high are the hills, which closely embrace the valley all around, that they seem to touch the sky and you cannot see anything but Heaven and Earth.

The valley has not always been known for its picturesque and natural beauty. In the early 1800’s this marvellous corner of the world was a home for lepers.

Since early Biblical times leprosy was known by all as the most dreaded disease. There are references in 19 Chapters to lepers and leprosy in the Holy Bible.

Plans were drawn up for a hospital, and a residence for the then proposed medical officer. The tender to erect the buildings was awarded to Mr. George Nicol. Building commenced in 1820. The missionaries named the valley in their native Dutch: “Heaven in Earth”. Later the land was granted to J. F. Loubert and J.D. K. Reitz in 1847 by the Governor of the Cape Sir Henry Pottinger. It was however only in 1976 that the Hemel en Aarde Valley finally took a serious approach towards viticulture and serious wine making.

The famous Dr Barry

The first Medical Officer to take up residence at Hemel-en-Aarde was Dr. O’Flinn. Because of his neglect of the lepers, he was replaced by Dr James Barry. Barry was the principal medical officer of the Militia, and one of the most controversial figures in South African medical history. He performed the first Caesarean section at the Cape. After saving both mother and child, the only fee he requested was that the child be named after him.

Dr Barry recommended that lepers should bathe daily in sea water, hence the name “leper trail” over Fern Kloof. The Lepers had to cross this kloof in order for them to get from Hemel-en-Aarde to the sea.

On his death in London, on 25 July 1865, it was discovered that Dr Barry was in actual fact a woman.

Bot River is the station nearest to Hermanus on the railway line to Caledon from Cape Town, which was established in 1902. The alternative method was by motorcar, if you were fortunate enough to own one. The main obstacles were the roads and the access to petrol outlets. Eventually reaching Hermanus, the fish-seeking visitors, unlike the local farmers, required accommodation. This soon led to action. Valentine Beyers and Walter McFarlane converted a house, which became the Victoria hotel (later to be renamed Astoria).

In 1896 Dr Joshua Jacobus Hoffman and Willem Hendrik Hoffman acquired a seafront plot from the lawyer William Kleyn, and built the Sanatorium. The Sanatorium, in due course, was to become the Windsor Hotel. The conditions at the hotel generally were fairly primitive, for there was neither electricity nor running water, but no doubt folks on a fishing holiday would have been prepared to put up with a little discomfort. History repeats itself: approximately a hundred years later, what happens? The two hotels from Hermanus’ heydays still remaining are the Windsor and, taking the place of the Astoria, the Marine, for which a site was purchased in 1902, six years after the Windsor.

Ever since 1855 people were drawn to Hermanus by the abundance and variety of fish that could be harvested from the sea. The Old Harbour provided a safe haven for small fishing boats. The return of the boats to the inlet at the Old Harbour was an exciting event each day for more than a century. Onlookers would see the tiny boats ride the heavy seas at the entrance to the harbour, waiting for a break between swells to allow them to row their small boats into safety of the harbour.

Large crowds of local residents would gather at Visbaai (Fish Bay), as the old harbour was known, to watch this daily event of fish being carried ashore, gutted and sold while the boats were lifted and put on the turning-stone before being carried up the slipway by 16 men. Some fish were salted and packed in crates to be transported to other towns. Snoek and harders were salted and dried on the “bokkom” stands in the area or in the backyards of the fishermen.

As the fishing industry in Visbaai grew, so did the need to make the harbour safer. A breakwater was built in 1904 and a crane was built to lift the boats out of the water, but it wasn’t very successful. The first boat lifted was completely crushed and after a second attempt the crane was abandoned. The fishermen erected stone huts with iron roofs in which they could store their oars, snails, fishing tackle, etc. the brine tanks were built in which to salt the fish before drying. The SAR & H took over the jurisdiction of the Old Harbour in 1919 and remained responsible for the facility until 1950 when it was officially proclaimed a harbour.

The building of the new harbour commenced during the Second World War and was completed after 1945. The fishermen gradually left the Old Harbour for the greater convenience of the New Harbour. In March 1960 the derelict iron huts at the Old Harbour were removed and in 1970 the Old Harbour was declared a national monument.

The museum building was erected in 1977 and is a replica of the buildings which stood in the harbour in 1915. The museum consist of two sections: the historical old fishing harbour, which include the indoor and open-air museum, and the Fishermen’s Village which includes the Fishermen’s Cottage Photographic Museum.

The indoor museum houses some of the items used in the fishing industry in the early part of the century, as well as some items of the Selkirk Collection. A major section displays whales and whaling and there is a sonar booth where one can listen to pre-recorded sounds of whales, dolphins, seals, etc.

The open-air museum contains a sea wall, old fishing boats, gutting tables, brine tanks, “bokkom” stands and reconstructed fishing shacks.

Hermanus rates as one of the best land-based whale watching sites in the world, and because of this, the need arose for a Whale Museum, which was built on the Fishermen’s Village grounds. Funds were raised and this project was recently completed. A display on whales is planned for the not so distant future, and when a suitable whale is found it would be suspended from the roof. This museum will be entirely dedicated to whale exhibits, especially the southern right, and anything pertaining to cetaceans. At the moment is it utilised as an art gallery and for functions.