Advertisement
Published: December 21st 2018
Edit Blog Post
Driving south from Simon's Town the entry to the Good Hope Reserve section of Table Mountain National Park is just over half hour and costs non-residents ZAR303.
We spent the entire day exploring the park and could have spent more - walking trails, spectacular views, wildlife spotting, delicious food, historical sites.
Platboom Road past Dias Cross gave us sweeping vistas along the coastline with no other soul in sight.
The south western most point was obviously a must do stop for all tourists, they jump out take a photo at the Cape of Good Hope sign and head off. We explored the rocky beach, climbed the track to get a view from above and spotted seals, terns, lizards and a snake. We also took a photos at the sign ?.
We then headed up to the main car park (which by the time we where leaving had overflowed a kilometre down the road). We took the Flying Dutchman Funicular (a cable car) up to the lighthouse keeper's cottage and did a walk that starts from behind there (the upper funicular stop) out along the spit to a spot where you can view both the old lighthouse and
the new lighthouse. Quite steep in parts. About 3 km return. Stunning views. We also walked up to the old lighthouse which was very crowded.
We decided to have lunch at the restaurant for convenience. Wow - the food was excellent! At ZAR295 for 2 courses was probably expensive for here but I can't remember a more perfect meal. If you ever get the chance, eat here.
Heading back out of the park we stopped at Buffets Bay where we found ostriches grazing in the dunes and baboons stealing food and hanging out by the beach. Wayne also spotted what initially appeared to be a white rock but was actually a dead whale recently washed up on the rocky shore.
Next we passed the DaGama cross to a little tidal pool that families were enjoying. We also hiked from an old lime kiln along to Venus Pools, thinking it might be nice for a swim. It wasn't. That was out last impressive walk of the day.
We excitedly stopped on the main road as we spotted botebok before turning down Circular Road where we saw a tortoise, then down to Olifantbos where we saw ostriches foraging
on the beach. We also spotted more tortoises and a lovely botebok family with a big buck protecting the herd including babies. One was so young it was still trying to work out how its long legs worked.
We left the park around 6. It closes at sunset with hefty fines for overstaying.
Driving through the sleepy surf town of Scarborough and passing through Kommetjie, we passed the very tall Slangkop lighthouse which we may need to come back to when it's open.
Cape Point winery food market for sunset was massively popular but we weren't feeling the crowded fussiness of it all at the time so headed back to our beautiful quiet room and enjoyed a glass of wine and some local cheeses.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.095s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 12; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0634s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb