Daytripping Around the Cape

Posted by 2summers on January 30, 2011
Posted in: Cape Town, Parks and Nature Reserves, South Africa, Western Cape Province. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Mom and I were in Cape Town for three days — we had lots to see and no car. I’m usually not a fan of group bus tours, but when Mom suggested a tour of the Cape Peninsula with a company called Daytrippers, it seemed like a good plan under the circumstances.

Alexi, our charming Daytrippers guide, fetched us from the guest house at 8:45 a.m. To my relief, our touring vehicle was not a bus, but a cute van towing a bike trailer. (For some reason I did not take any photos of the cute van or the cute tour guide. Apologies.)

We headed south out of Cape Town and marveled at the crystal blue sea and lovely beachfront suburbs.

Clifton, a spectacular Cape Town suburb along the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula.

Our first stop was Hout Bay, a fishing town about 20 kilometers from the city that has become a popular tourist destination. We had the option of taking a boat to a nearby seal colony, but the water was rough due to the high winds and Mom is prone to sea-sickness.  So we opted for coffee and a stroll on the wharf.

The wharf at Hout Bay.

The wharf is lined with curio stalls. I was awed by Mom’s bargaining prowess. “How much for this picture?” Mom asked the vendor. “180 rand,” came the reply. “How about 60?”

Mom walked away with two batik paintings, a small wooden elephant, and a new friend.

We piled into the van and rode along Chapman’s Peak Drive, one of the most scenic roads on earth. It winds between the steep mountainside and the ocean, cutting right under the cliffs in some spots.

A stop-off along Chapman’s Peak Drive.

Eventually we crossed the peninsula to the False Bay side, stopping at another cute village called Simon’s Town, home of the penguin colony at Boulders Beach.

There are no words to convey how cute these penguins are.

It was incredibly windy and the sand was whipping into our eyes. The penguins were unperturbed.

From there it was on to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope, where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet. (Well, sort of. See below.) There is nothing but ocean between there and Antarctica and it felt that way when we entered the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve — cloudy, windy, and desolate. We saw a few antelope and baboons, which was cool. Then we stopped for a chilly picnic lunch in the courtyard of the visitor center.

The tour was supposed to include hiking and cycling, although it was hard to imagine doing either one in that wind. But as we pulled into the parking area at the Cape of Good Hope, the wind died down and the sun started shining. A few of us even climbed to the overlook above the cape.

Fellow daytrippers Dawn (second from right) and the guys from Brazil (I never got all their names) at the Cape of Good Hope overlook. You can see the wind in the hair of Brazil guy #1. It was just calm enough not to blow us into the ocean.

Cool rocks.

We drove from the Cape of Good Hope to Cape Point. The Cape of Good Hope is the southwestern-most point in Africa, but Cape Point is a kilometer or two away and actually reaches further south than the Cape of Good Hope. However, Cape Point is not the southern-most point in Africa — Cape Agulhas is. It’s all very confusing so I won’t get into it.

Cape Point. Mom and I could’ve ridden the funicular up, but guess what? We walked.

Time for the finale: a 13-kilometer bike ride back to the entrance of the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve. I was tired and secretly hoping this part of the tour would be called due to wind. It wasn’t.

Mom is a serious cycler and took off in the front of the pack. (She was the oldest rider by at least two decades.) I hung back at first.

Suddenly I realized I was riding a bicycle at the end of the world. The sun was shining and the wind was at my back. It was the most exhilarating thing I’d ever done. I pedaled faster and eventually passed Mom, the Brazilians, and everyone else. (Okay, everyone except for one guy who I didn’t see until I got to the finish because he was so far ahead. Boo.)

A few kilometers from the gate to the reserve, Alexi was waiting with the cute van. “There’s a huge hill coming up,” he called. “You can stop here if you want.” I waved him off. I know what you’re thinking, and no, I don’t learn.

I saw what Alexi meant when I rounded the bend. The “hill” was a mountain. Suddenly the wind was blowing sideways.

I slowed down and kept my eyes on the beautiful blue water. I thought about how embarrassed I would feel if the cute van had to come rescue me from the side of the road.

After a very long time, I crested the hill and coasted to the gate. Mom and the the Brazilians followed a few minutes later — everyone else had taken Alexi’s hint before the hill.

This photo has nothing to do with the bike ride — it’s another view from the Cape of Good Hope. But I don’t have any pics from the bike ride and was looking for an excuse to use this one.

We arrived in Cape Town around 6:00. Mom and I were the last people left in the van. We asked Alexi to drop us at Miller’s Thumb, a restaurant down the street from our guest house that, according to Joe, serves the best food in town.

I can’t remember what I ate — it was some kind of fish with a delicious sauce that had litchis in it. But I do remember the wine — a South African rosé on special for R85. I took a photo because it was so well-deserved.

Next up: Cape Town odds and ends.

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142 comments on “Daytripping Around the Cape”

  7. Beautiful post! This brings back so many memories for me. I grew up in Cape Town, and every weekend my parents would take us for long drives around the Cape Peninsula.

    Good to see that you and your mother had a nice time together!

  10. So pretty, so very pretty, i think i might need tape to re-suspend my jaw.
    Also – why is it that everyone likes to throw up gang signs in pictures (E.G. Brazil guy #3 in the photo somewhere about the middle of the blog)?
    Anyway, these were stunning, and i’m insanely jealous
    But thanks for sharing anyhow :-) ,
    ~J

  13. at this point my biggest regret in life is not asking my parents to loan me some cash to go to capetown with my friends last summer for the world cup. your post managed to bring those feelings up for me again, thanks. haha.

  14. Wow! Amazing pics! It looks so beautiful there! I only was about 16 times in North-Africa, but one day I want to visit Cape Town and so :) Besides all the beauty there, isnt it a bit scary to live there? I heard a lot of criminality.

    Thanks for sharing your experiences & pics with us :) Greets

    • Well, there is a lot of crime in Joburg (Cape Town isn’t half as bad). But it’s like any other place — just be careful/aware of your surroundings and look people in the eye, and that takes you a long way :) There are so many wonderful things about this this country and I guess you just take the good with the bad.

  15. Ah, I saw your post on Freshly Pressed and just had to come over and say hi! Congratulations!
    I’ve looked at every photo and gone “aahhh” because Cape Town is my home and we’re currently living in London. Beautiful photos – I know every place you describe, and your photos totally do the places justice. And I so know that southeaster – it can knock you sideways!
    Enjoy my home town – please send it my love!
    Sunshine

  16. Sounds like an amazing trip you just had! I LOVE Cape Town and I can’t wait to go back and see everything again. The weather at Table Mountain has never been cooperative; 3 attempts and 3 fails. So yeah, looking up plane tickets now :)

  20. Stunning scenery. Cape Town has always been on my dream list of places to visit. Your photos are so vivis and beautiful, made me feel like I was on the journey with you. Congrats on FP!

  21. glad to see some blogs on cape town.. im lucky enough to be a south african and live here.. love cape town ;-) ))

  28. Beautiful photos and a delightful story. Your mom rocks! Congrats on being fresh pressed .. and for chasing the life you were meant to live. Cheers! :) MJ

  33. Your photos are wonderful, makes you want to be there…and good goin’ on your Mom’s bargaining skills, nothing makes a purchase as sweet as a good deal done with your own skills!

  34. Spectacular pics…and an inspiring bio. I can imagine living there, because my daughter visited Cape Town while in the Peace Corps. Her stories are wonderful. She, too, has pics that are so beautiful, they take your breath away. :)

  37. Fabulous pictures and a wonderfully engaging account of your Cape Town Daytripper experience! The last time I was at Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve I had an altercation with the baboons, who fancied my sandwich. They won.

  39. Where else can you watch whales and enjoy super wine without spilling it .Try Hermaus whale watching from the cliff. Enjoyed the photographs brings it all back from last summer.

  41. Awwww man. S.A. is definitely by far the beset place I’ve ever visited in my life and I’ve been to many places. The experience that I’ve gained from visiting this country is one that I would cherish for the rest of my life.

  49. Your pics are lovely, I really enjoyed, it was like being there. Congrats on being Freshly Pressed, What an honor

  51. Thanks for giving Cape Town such a good rep.
    I live here and am very patriotic about it… and you did it great justice.
    Keep enjoying South Africa (or Mzanzi as we call it) and keep blogging up a storm.
    Welcome home. :)

  56. Congrats on being Freshly Pressed. Beautiful photos!! You have an excellent eye! 36 must be some sort of turn-about year. I left NY when I was 36 and the so-called ‘normal life. Enjoy Africa.

  60. Nice pics, how long did you spend in South Africa? What kind of camera were you using? Have you taken photography classes?

    • Hi Mark, I’m actually living in South Africa, in Johannesburg. I’ve been here for about six months. I use two cameras — a Canon 60D with a 10-22 EF-S lens and a Canon Powershot S3. I still need to use the Powershot for long shots because I don’t have a long lens for my 60D yet. But this combo works well for me right now. I’ve never taken photography lessons but my boyfriend is a photojournalist. So I guess you could say I have my own private tutor :)

  61. This made me sooooo home-sick for the Cape – my new home in Shanghai is far, far away, but your lovely photos really made me long for my original home.

  62. Really? You were just tired of your life so you packed up and gave yourself a brand new one? That’s almost as impressive as these great photos!

    • Well, it wasn’t quite that simple. It wasn’t so much that I was tired of my life, more like I realized my life was totally wrong and I had to do something about it. But anyway, thanks for the compliment on the photos and thanks for reading!

  63. Thanks for the memories. As an ex-Capetonian, now living in Sydney, I loved reliving the sights I used to see as part of my life there. I look forward to future posts.

    Stuart

  65. I have always wanted to go to South Africa, Cape Town in particular. This is an amazing post and it brought the town alive for me. Thanks a lot and all the best!

  67. Your photos are lovely. I’ve always wanted to go to Cape Town. My mom and dad would love it too because they are fully into hiking trail holidays. I have only three continents left to visit now : Europe, Antarctica and Africa!

    Your description of your travels is really nice – feels like we’re there with you.

    • Thanks! I’ve got Australia, South America and Antarctica left to visit. Cape Town is a great place to hike – hope you get to go soon.

  69. Am a South African living in Saudi Arabia at the moment. Just returned to the Land of Sand from Cape Town 4 days ago. Even though it’s home and familiar, a visit to Cape Town refreshes the soul just as much as an adventure to a new and unfamiliar country would.

    Thanks for the great pics. Hope South Africa treated you well.

    • Thanks! Hope you’re enjoying the Land of Sand (love it). I will check out your blog when the Freshly Pressed madness dies down :)

  71. Oh reading your blog post brought back soo many memories. I lived as an exchange student in Fish Hoek (many) years ago and while I was there I had the absolute joy of staying in the Cape of Good Hope Reserve as guest of the Game Warden there. Your photos were fantastic and reminded me of simply how beautiful the Cape is.

  72. Gorgeous photos – breathtaking! And I love to see a son tripping out with his Mom too :)

  74. Like some of the others who have left comments, I too am a Capetonian, now living abroad (Beijing in my case) and your photos made me SO nostalgic. My sister and I did a bike ride from Fish Hoek to Cape Point when we were teenagers, and we intended to cycle back again but were so knackered my dad had to come and rescue us with the car! Happy days – a long time ago.
    Congrats on being Freshly Pressed, you deserved it.

  80. I’ve been in CT in October last year and is nice to see again these beatiful pictures and a text thar remindes me of Afrika. Now here in Croatia, Europe we are around 0C and remember those 25 there in October… :-)

  81. Pingback: I Wanna « Superabounding Grace

  82. I just came back from Christmas in Cape Town – your description reminded me of some of the places I went to but forgot to take either camera or notes! Boulders beach and the penquins – amazing. And Cape Point has to be one of the loveliest spots in the world. We shared a beach with a troop of baboons (I was scared!) as well as Impala (they didn’t seem worried). Thanks for the photo reminder. Lovely blog.
    Annabel

    • Thanks for reading, Annabel. Glad you enjoyed the post. Did the baboons bother you at all? We saw them too but only from the car. I saw some people feeding them, which I really could not believe after hearing so many stories about how dangerous they can be.

  84. Wow, excellent, I wish I was there right now as my life here is a bit strenuos and hectic at the moment in Australia, but that is a goood thing in one way and bad in another, but hell I would take the good before the bad! but if I recommended my top ten travel destionations then defenitly I would travel and see Cape Town!

  85. Congratulations on being Freshly Pressed (twice)! I have dear friends living in Cape Town (and Joburg), and they often sing the praises of the Cape. I passed along the link to your blog, and they appreciated your great pictures, too. I thoroughly enjoyed your blogs and photos, especially as I sit in rural southwest Wisconsin with a blizzard raging outside! For a few minutes, I escaped to a beautiful oasis–thank you!

  88. I love when I can get up in the morning, pour my cup of coffee, and take a ‘trip’ with your blog. Keep the adventure going and the pictures coming! Love your mother’s ‘can do’ spirit!

    Congrats on being Freshly Pressed. Well deserved.

  89. I too was in Capetown last September. My partner and I were there as the result of conference. We walked around the city, lunched in the park first set up by original Dutch East India Company. We went south to Kalk Bay, saw whales out in False Bay, and swam in the freezing antarctic water seaside pools, saw the Penguins, ate good food and enjoyed the sun. But we also saw a lot of poverty. We saw frustration among people who were either indigenous or had indigenous roots. We saw secure fences on middle class properties, signs saying this property is guarded by armed security everywhere. On the last day standing on the platform at 11 am in Kalk Bay, one man attacked a black man with a hammer. Both were South Africans. They proceeded to chase each other, wildly hurling track stones at each other. Other travellers (many, foreign travellers like us) had to dive for cover. The implicit idea that the world is a tourist site for western travellers is insulting to the local population, because it comes down to a kind of trickle down tourism-economics, generating money but not for those who need the tourist’s dollar/pound etc most. It helps the established middle class. Perhaps a new kind of ethical tourism could be formed to help those who most need it. Ditto for Australia where in 200 plus years of occupation the Aboriginal people have been reduced in so many places to piteous conditions. Have fun by all means and write blogs about it but let’s also stop and think what the history of these places actually mean, and how our holidays might help those grappling with what is left after the colonialists and their descendants raided (and still raid) the homelands of indigenous peoples.

    • Hi there. Thanks so much for your comment. It’s very true that the side of South Africa you’re describing is rarely seen by Western tourists, especially in Cape Town where it’s very easy, in some areas, to forget you are in Africa at all. I live in Johannesburg and I see the poverty as well as the wealth (in very great extremes) every day. When my mom came to visit S. Africa I wanted to show her all the different aspects of this diverse country. The first place we visited was Soweto, where we spent a full day touring with a local guide: http://2summers.wordpress.com/2011/01/20/sowetan-for-a-day/. I’ve written several posts about the immense need that I see here in Joburg and in other African countries I visit – here are a few: http://2summers.wordpress.com/2010/12/30/its-hard-being-a-zimbo/, http://2summers.wordpress.com/2010/10/22/an-honest-living-part-2/, http://2summers.wordpress.com/2010/12/02/part-3-of-4-a-swazi-reunion/. At any rate, I completely agree that it’s up to Western travelers (and Western expats) in South Africa to seek out diverse experiences in the countries they visit and to recognize that, like every other place in the world, there are all different types of people here and they all deserve our patronage and respect.

      I was also impressed to see that the hop-on hop-off city tour bus in Cape Town is now offering tours (with local guides who live in the community) of the informal settlement in Hout Bay.

  96. I’ve never really ever been a fan of organized tours. I’ve much preferred just going off somewhere by myself. Even getting lost is a big adventure for me, especially when I’m with my friends. We manage to go crazy and have fun at the same time!
    The cool rocks you mentioned really look like a giant’s hands to me!
    I’ve never been to South Africa, in fact, I’ve never been anywhere in SOUTHERN Africa, but hopefully I’ll get there. I have been to Egypt and a few other places in Africa, though.
    Beautiful pictures, and congratulations on being Freshly Pressed!
    Ashley, aka TheEverydayMuser
    http://www.theeverydaymuser.wordpress.com

    • Thanks Ashley! I feel the same way, although in this case the organized tour worked well because we didn’t have a car. And it supplied me with a nice title for the blog post :) Thanks for reading.

  97. I didnt see you mention Joe in this blog, so does that mean you took all these wonderful photographs? If so, wow is all I can say. For Joe is an amazing teachers. Regardless of who took them, the photos really tell the beautiful story. You definitely have me considering taking a vacation to a place I never thought much about going to.

    Congratulations on a newly freshly pressed post. This one really captures the essence of your writing and photo stories. I’m glad to be an avid reader.

    • Thanks a lot, Fidel. Nope, Joe didn’t come on the trip to Cape Town so it was just me and my cameras. It was a good learning experience for me — I had a few scares with my auto-focus button but it all worked out in the end. Joe did help with the editing and post-production on some of the pics though.

      You should definitely consider a trip to SA — I think you’d love it!

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