Kalk Bay

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Kalk Bay is a fishing village on the coast of False Bay, South Africa and is now a suburb of greater Cape Town. It lies in a beautiful setting, wedged between the ocean and sharply rising mountainous heights that are buttressed by crags of grey sandstone. A literal translation from the Dutch/Afrikaans name "Kalkbaai" is "Chalk Bay" but it may well be that the original meaning was more closely related either to "calk" or "lime".

The Bible Institute of South Africa is located here. The railway from the central business district of Cape Town to Simon's Town passes through Kalk Bay and in some places the line is only metres from the water's edge. Many famous caves (with names such as 'Ronan's Well', after the Walter Scott novel St. Ronan's Well, and 'Free Drinks Saloon') are located in the mountains above the village. They are of importance to spaeleologists because they have formed in sandstone. Large cave systems are not often found in this type of chemically unreactive rock.