Ardent Antiques and Cheerful Junk

The street is peopled with a lively babble of tourists, grungy students, Rastas, artists and inevitable bergies, and you’ll almost certainly trip over a film crew using Long Street as a historical/trendy/inner city backdrop for a shoot. On your wander up Long Street, look out for Clarke’s Bookshop, possibly Cape Town’s most important purveyor of rare and out-of-print books on southern Africa (as well as new ones) that tower to the ceiling. Bristol Antiques is also on this street and a little further on you’ll find Atkinson’s Antiques for fine jewellery, silverware, watches and objets d’art, as well as Second Time Around, for sequinned vintage and contemporary clothing and costume jewellery you can pick up for a (comparative!) song.

If all the antique dust is getting to you, there’s also a factory shop full of outdoor gear for hikers, a couple of trendy fashion stores and one or two beautiful gifty/décor shops. Or settle down with a beer at one of the several pubs and pavement cafés that line Long Street. Right at the top of Long Street, past the Long Street Baths and across Buitensingel Road, you’ll find another retro haven that’s a winner with film crews looking for relics of the 50s and 60s. Bruce Tait Kitsch and Collectables, with arguably the most pierced man in Cape Town behind the till, bulges with feather boas, plastic fruit lights and all manner of glorious kitsch and collectables. You’ll battle to leave without buying something and if you’ve always wanted a nodding dog for your rear windscreen, here’s the store for you.

Siyabona Africa Travel recommends accommodation in Cape Town City Bowl.

Long Street to Groot Constantia – 25min

From the traffic lights at the top of Long Street, turn left into Orange Street and follow signs for N2 Somerset West and M3 Muizenberg to join highway. At Hospital Bend stay right, following signs for M3 Muizenberg and brown signs for Kirstenbosch. At about 10km, turn right into Rhodes Avenue, M63 Hout Bay, passing Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens after 2km. T-junction right to Hout Bay and Constantia Nek. At 17km on Constantia Nek circle,  turn sharp left to Constantia Main Road, M41 Wynberg. Turn right after brown Groot Constantia sign – the entrance to the wine estate is about 500m further.

A sense of history, distant views over False Bay and an antiques market every Sunday make Groot Constantia a good stop for lunch or brunch. The wine estate dates to 1685, when the land was granted to Simon van der Stel, a governor of the Cape. He planted fruit trees, oaks and vines, and about 40 of his vines still thrive here today. The manor house, built in 1692 at the end of an avenue of stately oaks, is one of the best-preserved examples of Cape Dutch architecture, and it houses a priceless collection of Cape furniture and porcelain.

The original wine cellar, dated 1791, is now a wine museum of drinking utensils and artefacts, including ancient amphoras, delicate glassware and an impressive set of imperial measures from gallon and quart to pint and a half-gill. Their assize stamp is 1569, and they were used at the Cape back in 1875. The swimming bath, from around 1795, is a pleasant stroll away from the main buildings. The Sundays-only antiques and collectables market is in a shaded courtyard that used to be part of the estate’s old slave quarters. Browse through old china, books, antique and costume jewellery and plenty of shining cutlery and delicate silverware.

Have a meal at one of the two fully licensed restaurants – a general menu and traditional Cape fare at the Jonkershuis (they offer a sampler dish where you can taste a little of everything) or dine on some fine international cuisine, from burgers to venison, at Simon’s. Afterwards, tour the cellar and do a tasting of Groot Constantia’s large range of wines – the shop and tasting cellar  is on the left just before you drive out of the estate’s main gate. Cellar tours every hour in summer, three per day in winter time.

Groot Constantia to Kalk Bay – 25min

From Groot Constantia turn right onto Constantia Main Road, M41 Wynberg. At 1.5km turn right at traffic lights into Ladies Mile Road, M39 Bergvliet. At next lights turn right onto M42 Tokai. Follow the Constantia Wine Route past Buitenverwachting, Klein Constantia and Steenberg Wine and Golf Estate. Go straight through two traffic lights as the road curves along the foot of the mountain. (At around 11km you’ll pass the end of the M3 highway, which will later be your direct route back to the city.) At 11.8km, T-junction right into Main Road, M4 Muizenberg. Follow the railway line through Muizenberg and St James to Kalk Bay.