The Fairest Cape – 170km

Photo © Struik Publications

GREEN POINT

The most conspicuous feature of Green Point is the 20-m-high red-and-white lighthouse 1 that for over 175 years has warned ships against hazards along the coast. Designed and built by German builder, Herman Schutte, the Green Point Lighthouse (often incorrectly called Mouille Point Lighthouse) is the oldest solidly constructed navigational aid along South Africa’s coast. It became operational in 1824 and automated in 1961.

SEA POINT

...is one of Cape Town’s most sought-after residential and holidaying areas, and its Beach Road is dubbed the ‘Platinum Mile’. Lion’s Head forms an impressive backdrop to the many high-rise luxury apartments, while Sea Point Promenade 1 extends for 4 km along the seaward side of the road. The promenade is popular with joggers, residents walking their dogs and sundown strollers.

SEA POINT CONTACT

At this notable geological site can be seen the intrusion of a large mass of granite into the older sedimentary shales of the Malmesbury Group, dating back about 550 to 600 million years. What makes the site remarkable is the nature of the contact: instead of being sharply defined, the granite and shales are extensively mixed in a wide belt. The contact became famous after Charles Darwin visited the site in 1836, and is indicated by a National Monuments Council plaque.

CLIFTON

Famed for its four small beaches nestling among granite outcrops, Clifton is popular with sun-worshippers, despite the frigid water. It is also one of the city’s most fashionable suburbs, with luxurious apartments and penthouses hugging the mountain slopes. Originally known as Schoenmakersgat, after a shoemaker who lived in a cave, it was later renamed Clifton-on-Sea after a resort in the United Kingdom. Still later it came to be known simply as Clifton.

CHAPMAN’S PEAK DRIVE

...one of the world’s most spectacular coastal drives, was built between 1915 and 1922 when the road was cut into the precipitous cliffs that soar for over 500 m above the coast. The road engineers exploited the weakness in the rock by following the contact between the 550 to 600-million-year-old Cape Granite and the overlying sedimentary rock of the Table Mountain Group. Its highest point is 160 m above the sea.

Chapman’s Peak Drive was closed to traffic in 1999 due to rock falls, but is scheduled to reopen in 2002. In the meantime, the route to the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve detours from Hout Bay via Constantia Nek, along Ou Kaapse Weg to Kommetjie and Scarborough.

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE NATURE RESERVE

Situated at the southern tip of the Cape Peninsula, the Cape of Good Hope section of the Cape Peninsula National Park covers 7 750 ha of fynbos vegetation and dramatic coastal scenery. The area can be explored by car along a network of tar roads, or on foot on one of the seven trails that meander through fynbos, with its over 1 100 plant species.

Animals to be seen include Cape Point’s famous baboons, bontebok, grey rhebok, eland and red hartebeest, and over 250 bird species have been recorded in the reserve. There are also several good spots for whale-watching and angling, while the coast offers excellent snorkelling and swimming opportunities.

CAPE POINT

Sheer coastal cliffs rise nearly 200 m above the Atlantic Ocean, creating a spectacular vantage point over False Bay to the east and the Cape of Good Hope, the southernmost tip of the peninsula. Ranked amongst the highest sea cliffs in the world, Cape Point was described in 1579 by British navigator, Sir Francis Drake as ‘... the fairest cape and the most stately thing we saw in the whole circumference of the globe’. If you are feeling energetic, you can walk from the car park up to the old lighthouse 4, built on the 249-m-high Da Gama Peak in 1859. Or take the funicular railway to the viewpoint and stroll back down to the parking area.

BOULDERS

...is a picturesque bathing spot with beaches of white sand nestling among grey granite outcrops. It is home to one of only two land-based breeding colonies of the endangered African penguin 2 (Spheniscus demersus, previously known as the jackass penguin) along the South African coast.

From two pairs that bred in 1985, the population has grown to over 950 breeding pairs. Visitors can get excellent close-up views from a boardwalk and viewing platform at Foxy Beach. At Boulders Beach, where swimming is permitted, penguins sometimes come ashore and waddle comically past sunbathers.

[ next page ]

Page: 2 SIMON’S TOWN
Named after the Dutch governor Simon van der Stel, Simon’s Town has a rich maritime history dating back to 1743 when it became the official anchorage for ships of the Dutch East India Company. To protect the bay against attack by foreign fleets, the compa ...

[more information]