East of Victoria Bay, across the Kaaimans River, the beach at WILDERNESS is so close to the N2 that you can pull over for a quick dip and barely interrupt your journey. Unfortunately, the position of the national road leaves the village and lakes stranded inland. Tradition has it that Wilderness village earned its name after a young man called Van den Berg bought the property in 1830 for £183 as a blind lot at a Cape Town auction. When he got engaged, his fiancée insisted that their first year of marriage should be spent out of town in the wilderness, so he romantically (or perhaps opportunistically) named his property Wilderness and built a hut on it.

 

If the hut still exists, you'll struggle to find it among the sprawl of retirement homes, holiday houses and thousands of beds for rent in the vicinity. Take your life in your hands and cross the N2 to get to the beach, which is renowned for its long stretch of sand, backed by tall dunes, rudely blighted by holiday houses competing to outdo each other. Once in the water, stay close to the shoreline: this part of the coast is notorious for its unpredictable currents