Tuesday, 20 May 2025
Today dawned cold and wet, VERY WET which resulted in me experiencing some packer’s regret. We nearly always pack our waterproof pants, and I definitely thought about packing them for this trip BUT with our 15-kilogram luggage limit they didn’t make the cut. Really could have used them today! I also thought about putting in one pair of long, warm, merino ski socks but those didn’t make it in either! I was really missing those today too.
Anyway, despite the weather we managed a very full and adventurous day. Our first adventure was finding our way to the restaurant for breakfast. The hotel is situated in an old prison building that has now been converted into a university and hotel, so it is a bit of a rabbit warren. Bernie was sure that if we turned right out of our room instead of left that he could guide us to the restaurant. Um, no, we ended up almost where we started from before eventually finding our way to breakfast.
After a quick breakfast Bernie booked an Uber to take him to the Hertz depot to pick up the car he had hired for today for the ridiculously cheap price of AUS$66. That was much cheaper than booking four places on a tour of the Cape Peninsula AND gave us the freedom to spend as long as we wanted at each stop rather than being on the tour’s tight schedule. Bernie managed to navigate his way back to the hotel despite programming in the wrong Protea Hotel and then encountering unexpected road closures that Syri wasn’t able to factor into her guidance. We all headed out to the car and we were on the road by 8.30am with the windscreen wipers working overtime as we headed out of the city.
Our first stop was at Maidens Cove for a couple of quick photos … despite the grey sky, wind and rain. After this we continued down the coast on Victoria Road into Hout (pronounced Howt not Hoot) Bay. We pulled up in the harbour car park and parked opposite the kiosk for Circe Launches. By this stage the rain was torrential, and we wondered if the boat would even be able to sail out to Duiker Island for us to see the seals??
Bernie ran over to the kiosk to find out if they would be running the 9.45am cruise. The answer was Yes, and he returned to the car with four tickets. Ahem, as we waited in the shelter of the car the car park was turning into a river!! As we questioned our sanity the Calypso returned to the harbour after the 9.00am cruise. We made our way over to the boat, but we couldn’t get on because the wimps on the boat didn’t want to get out into the rain!!! So, we took shelter in the ticket kiosk until the staff could coax the 9.00am passengers out.
We (eventually) made our way onto the Calypso, and we were soon pitching and rolling out of Hout Bay, past Sentinel Mountain to Seal Island. Although the going was pretty rough, we were managing to stay dry inside the boat’s cabin. However, as we pulled up close to the island it was a matter of having to get out of the cabin and get wet if we wanted to see the seals that we had come to see. Fortunately, there were plenty of seals floating in the kelp around the island and hauled out on the island which was really only the size of a large rock. Phew, glad we didn’t put ourselves through that for nothing. A 45-minute cruise passes very quickly – even in bad weather – and we were soon back in the harbour.
The plan was to proceed from Hout Bay along Chapman’s Peak Drive. Ha, best laid plans have a way of going awry! We were only able to drive a short distance along this route before having to turn around and return to Hout Bay because the road was CLOSED. Possibly due to the weather?? It’s a toll road and when we reached the toll gate it was all shut up, so we had no choice but to retrace our route.
Plan B was to cut across Hout Bay Main Road and Constantia Main Road to the M3. Nope, that route was closed too! That left us with Plan C which meant driving all the way back into the city to pick up the M3 to drive down the eastern side of the peninsula which we had planned to do AFTER visiting the southernmost tip of the Cape Peninsula.
Bernie did a marvellous job of negotiating our way back through city traffic and onto the motorway in teeming rain. We were planning to visit Cape Point (with a shop and restaurant) before the Cape of Good Hope but as we proceeded further south the weather was improving so it was decided that if it held until we reached the intersection, we would switch the order.
We started seeing signs warning us about the baboons. Baboons are dangerous WILD animals DO NOT FEED Keep Doors Locked and Windows Closed. OMG, we were really hoping that maybe it was too wet for the baboons to be making a nuisance of themselves.
We entered the national park and made our way to the Buffelsfontain Visitor Centre with its interesting exhibit on the Origins of Early Southern Sapiens Behaviour … and toilets. After this educational comfort break, we continued south eventually turning right to the Cape of Good Hope while the rain held off. In the space of three months, we have ventured from the northernmost point of Europe to the most south-western point of the African Continent!! We do get about, don’t we?!
With our photos of the Cape of Good Hope taken we made our way around to Cape Point. First thing on the agenda there was to have a late light lunch purchased from the shop rather than the more expensive restaurant. The shop made up some delicious warm baguettes that we ate perched on the edge of a garden bed near the ticket office for the funicular ride.
Now with food in our bellies (it had been a long time since breakfast!) we purchased return tickets for the Flying Dutchman funicular to take the three-minute ride to the viewing point at the base of Cape Point Lighthouse. Wow, from this vantage point we had an excellent view across Dias Beach back towards Cape Maclear and the Cape of Good Hope and great views from the cliff paths to the very tip of Cape Point. Despite the rain that we had earlier in the day the time we spent at the very end of the peninsula was relatively clear and, thankfully, dry. And the closest we came to seeing a baboon? A big pile of scat that we suspect had been deposited by a baboon. On the whole we were grateful that we did not encounter a marauding troop of baboons. The signs made them sound very scary!
With the afternoon getting away it was time to head back to the city. As we made our way out of the park we pulled out onto side tracks for quick visits to the the Dias Cross commemorating his fleet of three ships carrying the first Europeans around the Cape of Good Hope in 1488 and the Da Gama Cross commemorating his successful voyage from Portugal to India via the Cape of Good Hope in 1497-98.
As we returned to the city we planned to make a stop to see the penguins at Boulder Beach at Simon’s Town. The beach proved difficult to find with several signs saying Penguin Viewing ⬆️ but no sign directing us to turn into the actual penguin colony. When we were fairly sure we had passed it we turned to the right to re-program Apple Maps. Yup, we had overshot. Using a combination of Google Maps and Apple Maps we found our way to Boulder Beach and managed to purchase tickets 20 minutes before closing time.
So glad we found the Boulders Penguin Colony (who doesn’t love a penguin?) because it was home to many more South African penguins than we had expected and they were very accessible. We were treated to black and white adult birds, nesting birds, fluffy brown chicks and ‘blue’ juvenile birds with many quite visible on the beach and others popping in and out of the indigenous bush on the foreshore. As an added bonus, with dusk approaching, there were rock hyraxes (small guinea pig-like mammals that are more closely related to elephants than rodents!) coming out to graze on the native bushes.
It started to rain again as we were leaving Boulder Beach, so Bernie faced a grueling drive back to Cape Town on a dark and wet evening. Back in the city we had to try to find a service station to fill the car ready to be returned first thing tomorrow. It was a bit of a challenge, but we managed to get the tank topped up – at a servo with driveway attendants no less! – before finding our way back to the hotel. Syri tried to take us to the wrong Protea Hotel (North Wharf) AGAIN, but we eventually pulled into the Protea Hotel Breakwater Waterfront to park the car after being out for about 10 hours!
After a short break in our rooms (mainly for Bernie to decompress a bit after a big day of driving us around) we ventured out to dinner – tonight at the Cape Town Fish Market.
We were lucky to be able to walk down to the waterfront in the dry. While we were eating the weather was a bit wild with a wet and windy squall passing through. We were resigned to getting a drenching on our walk back to the hotel but it was dry again when we left the restaurant. Lucky!
Steps: 11,455 (7.68kms)
