A recent hike allowed me to do 2, and my suggestion to incorporate 1 was rejected, so I was let off lightly that day.
Soetwater was previously a non-white caravan park and camping/picnic site in the bad days of apartheid, and had beautifully maintained campsites for the caravans among the milkwood trees. The campsites for tents were basically a patch of sandy lawn at the edge of the sea between two tidal pools, and from the road above, both looked equally enticing. It is a particularly beautiful narrow stretch of land between the Slangkop mountain and the sea, and has retained its unspoilt wildness, interrupted only by hordes of happy campers over Easter and New Year. There are also live concerts and other events, with an educational centre for school pupils, and there was a cohort of weedeating council employees trimming the lawns and doing a general clean-up for the weekend's happening being set up under a vast tent. Sadly, the caravan park is showing signs of vandalism and neglect and one can only hope that somebody will one day restore the area to its former habitability.
That said, the natural beauty remains to be enjoyed as a marine conservancy and birds were plentiful. Shells adorn the beaches along the high tide mark and there are all kinds of jetsam for the hopeful beachcomber.
A very pleasant walk, and can be quite a hike if you want to go all the way to the crayfish factory at Witsands.
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