Cape Town 2009

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Thursday 5th November
Got up and looked out the window at……….. RAIN! Just what we’d come here to avoid. Luckily it started to clear later in the morning so we headed off towards False Bay on the eastern side of the Cape Peninsula. Conveniently the motorway out of Cape Town begins close to our hotel (the downside being that the traffic noise can be a bit loud in the mornings), so it was an easy drive through the leafy suburbs of Constantia (the prime real estate in Cape Town) and along to False Bay. The East coast of the Cape Peninsula along the False Bay shoreline is much more placid than the wild Atlantic coast as it’s sheltered from the prevailing winds by the Peninsula. The drive along the coast towards Simonstown was very scenic and pleasant going through the pretty little resort towns of Kalk Bay, Fish Hoek, Glencairn and finally Simonstown. Until 1957 Simonstown had been the Royal Navy’s principal base in the Southern hemisphere for 160 years and there’s still a strong hint of the former colonial past in the town with many elegant Victorian buildings. We stopped off at the Simonstown Museum which was very interesting, followed by another great seafood lunch at Bertha’s Restaurant overlooking Simonstown Harbour. We then walked off the lunch by strolling along the road to Boulders Beach to look at the only mainland penguin colony near Cape Town. The penguins were formerly termed Jackass Penguins but they are now called African Penguins, maybe because the tourists have taken over the role of the jackass. Anyway, the penguins were very cute but, as the warning signs point out, they can attack if approached too close: as a friend of mine can attest having been attacked by a potential killer penguin back in 2006 (he eventually recovered after a massive infusion of Castle lager). An added bonus was to see a couple of dassies (pronounced “dussies”), which are hyraxes and look like very large guinea pigs, and which are usually seen on top of Table Mountain not co-existing happily with penguins. Then it was a scenic drive back, firstly heading over the mountain across to the west coast of the Peninsula, then back over the mountains to Constantia calling in briefly at the Constantia Uitsig Winery where I played in a cricket match back in 2006, and on back to town. We didn’t want to go out to dinner after having a large lunch, so it was a quiet evening in our very comfortable suite. And so to bed.


Friday 6th November

Up early as we planned to get to the Cape and have a good look around the large National Park there. The weather was fine and the sun was shining as we set off down the west (Atlantic) coast of the Peninsula. We passed Llandudno again and on to the spectacular Chapman’s Peak Drive. Then it was along the very wild section of coast by Misty Cliffs and a brief stop for a late breakfast to sustain us on what would probably be some very windy walks, and finally to the entrance to the Cape Peninsula National Park. Cape Point is about 7 miles from the entrance gate and there were quite a few tourist buses and cars heading into the Park. We stopped off briefly at the Visitors’ Centre to see if they had any information about the Cape that we didn’t have already (they didn’t), and on to Cape Point. The drive through the Park was very scenic with rolling hills and multi coloured vegetation with beautiful wild flowers.
It turns out that Cape Point is not the Cape of Good Hope. Cape Point is the most southerly point of Africa, while the Cape of Good Hope is a little headland about one mile west of Cape Point and is the most south westerly point of Africa. Cape Point is by far the more dramatic and scenic of the two headlands. The original lighthouse was built (in 1860) on top of a sheer cliff over 800 feet above the sea. Unfortunately it was so high up that it was often shrouded in mist which meant the light wasn’t always visible, so a new lighthouse was built (in 1919) at the very tip of Cape Point.
After climbing up to the old lighthouse and walking the vertiginous path towards the new lighthouse we decided to walk to the Cape of Good Hope via Dias Beach, a very scenic spot between the two promontories. Dias Beach had some very spectacular surf and very high winds which created mini sandstorms: which made remaining upright up a bit of a challenge. The Cape of Good Hope proved to be rather disappointing being just a wind swept hill overlooking the extremely rough Atlantic coast. After the buffeting by the wind and the extended walk we were rather knackered by the time we returned to the car. We then drove to the car park near the Cape of Good Hope to have a waterline view of the wild seas.
All this sightseeing activity several hours and we set off back towards Cape Town at 4pm after stopping again at the teahouse where we’d had the late breakfast earlier in the day. We returned via Simonstown and the False Bay coast as we’d had our fill of the wild weather on the Atlantic coast.
As we hadn’t had a proper meal all day we decided to treat ourselves to dinner at the Baia Restaurant in the V&A Waterfront: recommended by my friend Rod - the survivor of the penguin attack. Great recommendation. I had the waiter’s suggestion: garlic prawns and baby kingclip (a delicious white fish, similar to cod - without the batter), Jane had scallops and abalone followed by prawns and calamari. A magnificent meal, great service, a wonderful location facing across the waterfront area with Table Mountain in the background; and at a reasonable cost of £80 including excellent wines. So if you get to Cape Town remember THE BAIA RESTAURANT in the V&A Waterfront. An excellent day followed by a memorable meal. And so to bed.

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