CAPE PENINSULA TOUR

Cape of Good Hope & Cape Peninsula Tour

Follow the coastal road through Sea Point southwards to the picturesque fishing village of Hout Bay - home to the "Snoek" and crayfish industry of the peninsula. Take an optional boat cruise to "Duiker" island where thousands of Cape fur seals make their home and seem to perform for each boatload of visitors. Follow the coast to Noordhoek via the cliff-hugging Chapmans Peak Drive. (This route is temporarily closed for reconstruction). Prisoners chipped away at the mountain over a period of seven years to produce this road early in the 20th century.

En-route, keep a look-out for the southern Right whales which visit these waters every year between July and November.

Lunch break is in the naval village of Simon's Town, many buildings in the main road sporting an interesting mix of gabled Cape-Dutch and Victorian architecture. A number of restaurants are dotted round Jubilee Square, catering for all tastes.

Barely a two-minute drive and five-minute walk further on, hundreds of penguins wait to greet you at Boulders Beach, dressed in their "dinner suits". They have a rather ungainly waddle, until they reach the water to display their lightning swimming speed.

Cape Point

Not far along the False Bay coastal road is the entrance to the Cape Peninsula National Park at Cape Point with its rugged coastline, dotted with shipwrecks. The first stop is at the Cape of Good Hope, the most south-westerly point of Africa where two mighty ocean currents - one warm and one icy-cold - jockey for position. A signpost identifies the Cape of Good Hope and also indicates its latitude and longitude - the ideal spot to have your photo taken.

Cape Point is a ten-minute drive away, with toilet facilities, take-out kiosk, restaurant and curio shop. Letters or postcards placed in the nearby post box receive a special postmark before they are dispatched. There is time to take the funicular to visit the top viewing site and original lighthouse before departure.

The last, but definitely not least visit of the day, is the world-renowned Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens covering five hundred and twenty three hectares, where over a third of the more than fifteen thousand South Africa's floral species, are to be seen.

    

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