Window Pane Bay is a 1.5 km wide southwest-facing exposed bay located 11 km north of South West Cape. The steep rocky slopes of the 500 m high South West Cape Range descend along the eastern shore, while 1 km long Flying Cloud Point forms the western boundary. The 1.5 km long beach (T 616) commences against the eastern slopes as a boulder beach grading into a sandy beach as it leaves the slopes and curves to the northeast, then east to the lee of a collection of rock reefs and islets, where it forms a tombolo. The beach faces into the high swell and strong winds, receiving waves averaging over 2.5 m which break across a 100 m wide surf zone usually dominated by 4 to 5 beach rips (Fig. 4.124) and shallow rips to each end against the rocks. The beach is backed by steep scarped 50 m high foredune and vegetated transgressive dunes, with an active blowout in the east and a second blowout at the mouth of the Window Pane Creek, which drains across the centre of the beach. Earlier transgressive dunes have been blown up the eastern slopes to a height of 250 m and include a small blowout at that elevation. The dunes cover an area of approximately 150 ha. read more

Beach Length: 1.5km