It is believed that the name "Paternoster" "Patre Nostra" was given by survivors of the ship "Columbine" that sunk here in 1829, who thanked the Lord for their rescue with the saying of 'Our Father'.

Idyllic Paternoster belongs to the few authentic fishing villages on the rough West Coast of the Western Cape Province. Even today the people of this 1500-soul village livelihood revolves around fishing. They mainly catch snoek (between November and April), crayfish or "West Coast Lobster".

The snow-white lighthouse, established in 1936, is situated 3 kilometres south-east of Paternoster and bears the name of the sunken ship.

There is a very popular pub in the old Paternoster Hotel - more than 100 years old. Here you can listen to some seafarer tales in the evenings.

Paternoster has a cave which has not yet been properly explored. One adventurer crept in among the bats many years ago and emerged with a Bushman skull instead of the smuggler's treasure he had hoped to find. Some say the cave runs to Hol Baai, where the beach has a hollow sound.

Bushman relics are common enough in this neighbourhood. For variety, you can gather blue glass beads at the place called Kraletjies Bay, it is a scene of a long-forgotten shipwreck. It must have been a large cargo of beads, as they still wash up year after year; the same blue beads.