Thursday 13 September 2012

Travelling Cape Town (Surrounding Areas) in Winter


Although a day trip to the Cape peninsula is easy from a base of Cape Town, we decided that we’d prefer to get a B&B in Simons Town, on the east (Indian Ocean) coast. This decision was also influenced by the fact that we had hired a car and so had the independence to do what we wanted. After Simons Town we had a road trip planned.    

This was the view from our room at Simons Town Guest House, an excellent B&B on the peninsula. http://www.simonstownguesthouse.co.za/
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g319718-d1653148-Reviews-Simonstown_Guest_House-Simon_s_Town_Western_Cape.html





There are probably two main draws to the Cape Peninsula, visiting Cape Point (and the Cape of Good Hope) and visiting the penguins. 
Boulders Beach was our first destination by virtue of the fact it was 5 minutes down the road from our B & B. There are two entrances to see the penguins so make sure you hold onto your ticket to ensure you will not pay twice. The African Penguins are native to the area and Boulders Beach is now a conservation area.


















At this point as we started to drive towards Cape Point and the national park our luck with the weather finally gave up and the rains came. It was to be expected though because a) it was winter b) this is the foot of Africa where the Atlantic & Indian oceans meet! 

There are plenty of things to see in the national park including bays and memorials but we decided to visit the main two, Cape Point and The Cape of Good Hope.

At Cape Point a funicular railway will take you to almost the top if you don’t fancy the walk. We didn’t fancy the walk.



















Our next destination was the Cape of Good Hope, the point at which ships start to move eastward rather than southward. To our surprise we found wild ostriches in the area.



Our final day on the peninsula was spent driving a circular route along the west coast through Scarborough until we reached the east coast again. We stopped off at St James to take pics of the beach huts which reminded us of home in Southend-on-Sea (UK) 
    

From Cape Town we drove to the winelands and then onto Wilderness, Cintza, Port Elizabeth and onto Hoedspruit for our safari...


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