We’ve adapted to the timezone pretty quickly and were ready to wake up when 7:00 AM rolled around. We had a guide organise to pick up up at 8:30 for a tour of the Cape Peninsula. Our guide, who goes by the name Armando, or any similar variation, was recommended to us. He was knowledgeable, friendly and enjoyable company for the day. We have an included breakfast with our accomodation, so we were fuelled up byt the time he arrived.
Our first stop was Maiden’s Cove, which is a beach next to the popular Camps Bay beaches. It was initially where the women could swim and not distract the men swimming at the Camps Bay beaches. From above the beach there are magnificent views looking along Table Mountain and the Twelve Apostles, which are the buttresses jutting out from the mountain of which there are actually seventeen. I’m not one to get caught up in details, so I parked thoughts of the seven apostles visible from the great ocean road in Australia. Clearly the number is not important.
Our next stop was Hout Bay, which we visited in the bus yesterday. On the way we passed through the housing areas of Clifton Beach, home to many celebrity mansions. One of the only South Africans to own a property in this area is a DJ called Black Coffee who bought the house for $14M Australian dollars. The main purpose of this visit was to take a short boat ride to a local seal colony on Duiker Island, which is home to about 5,000 Cape Fur Seals. Apart from the seals, the boat ride offers great views of the surrounding mountains.
Leaving Hout Bay we drove on Chapman’s Peak Drive which is a toll road that takes you along the cliff sides and over Chapman’s Peak, connecting Hout Bay and Noordhoek. The road was originally built in 1915 taking over 7 years to complete, due to labour and material shortages caused by World War One. In 2000, there were two serious accidents caused by rockfalls so the road was closed for some 3 years while remediation took place and was re-opened a toll road. It is now, one of the great drives and particularly popular with tourists. We finished the drive with a coffee break at Noordhoek, which has a nice farmer market feel featuring all local brands and produce.
Our next stop was Boulders Beach where there is a colony of African penguins. They arrived in 1982 and never left, now establishing a population of around 8,000 at peak times. The African Penguins are non-migratory and have distinctive chest markings that distiguish them from other types of penguins. At Boulders Beach there is well set up viewing platforms, so I didn’t feel it necessary to get on the beach with them as most you-tubers I’ve watched seem to need to do. In this current age of bird flu and rabies infecting marine populations, I prefer to exercise caution.
After a stop for a delicious lunch of fish cakes, a mushroom and mussels dish and a seafood curry we resume our trek to Cape Point. This was the site of a light house until 1919, when it was determines that it was too high to reliably warn shipping because it’s light was often obscured by fog. We visited the lighthouse site after standing in line for a shuttle bus behind a group of excessive vape users for about 30 minutes. We decided to walk down, rather than inhale more of their poisonous fumes. At the top there are several viewpoints and as long as you are patient enough to wait for the younger folks to have their romantic instagram moments, there are good photo opportunities.
Our last stop was The Cape of Good Hope, which incidently was originally named The Cape of Storms, by Portuguese explorer, Bartolomeu Dias in 1488. Later KIng John of Portugal renamed it to the Cape of Good Hope to encourage exploration beyond the tip of Africa. At that time, superstitious sailors believed there was a ship graveyard beyond the cape. Notably, this area is one of seven ‘Kingdoms of Flowers’ boasting outstanding biodiversity of plant life. We also saw some escapee Ostriches and some baboons, that regularly break into houses and cars looking for an easy meal.
We made the trek back to our apartment for a light platter before turning in for the day.
Until tomorrow
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