We spent lockdown in South Africa back where Nick grew up. It was my first time in Cape Town. It is a city where you are surrounded by hiking trails, mainly in Table Mountain National Park. You can also can find penguins waddling around the beaches (yes – penguins do exist in Africa!). I had always been fascinated by the famous penguin beach more than table mountain so our first stop was boulders beach.
Boulders Beach
Meeting the penguins was one of the coolest experiences. These African penguins are located on Boulders beach. Driving around Cape Town is beautiful with views of mountains everywhere. We arrived at Boulders beach, a sheltered beach made up of inlets between granite boulders, from which the name originated. The African penguins settled on the beach in 1982 and have been there ever since. This is the only colony that does not live in an island and only came here recently due to mainland predators being wiped out from the area. We found ourselves casually walking aside the penguins and Nick even had a stand off with one of them.
Seal Island
Our next stop was seal island, a small granite landform absolutely swarmed with Cape Fur seals everywhere. What is interesting is the piles of seals used the island as their main breading ground. Humans have tried to inhabit the island in the early 20th century and later during World War II but failed. It a short 15 minute ride from the harbour and then you see seals everywhere jumping up from the water in front. We are hoping to go snorkelling with seals when we reach Galapagos.
We also visited world of birds which houses rescued birds and other animals. There is the opportunity to see monkeys that roam freely and if you’re lucky will walk all over you as we found out!
Hiking
No trip to Cape Town is complete without the hiking trails. At almost any location in or around Cape Town, you only have to look up to see the magnificent Table mountain. It dominates the horizon at 1100m. In Table Mountain’s National Park there are so many different hiking trails to try. These were our favourite:
Elephant’s Eye
Our first hike was to Elephant’s Eye. The name was given based on the shape of the mountains side, which resembles the side of an elephant’s head. The eye section is the cave, which is the main destination of the hike. Once you get to the top it has picturesque views over Cape Town.
Skeleton Gorge
One of our favourite hikes was skeleton gorge. It starts in the beautiful gardens at Kirstenbosch and ascends into the Afromontane forest. There is a ladder that leads up to a shaded forest with a canopy of trees before the last part which is the rocky gorge itself.
Woodstock Cave
Our last warm up hike before trying out table mountain was Woodstock cave. This cave is one of the largest on Table mountain. Formed by a long horizontal crack (50 metres wide by fifteen metres deep and three or four metres high at the entrance) halfway up Devil’s Peak that can clearly be seen from Woodstock and Salt River. It gives an amazing panoramic view of Cape Town City, Lions Head and Table Bay view.
Table Mountain
Our final hike was table mountain. We decided to take the Platteklip Gorge route. The route leads up a deep ravine, pretty along its lower sections and imposing along its upper sections, where the ravine’s sidewalls converge. The views from Platteklip are beautiful as it starts well above sea level. It means from the moment you start your surrounded by views of the city.
And lockdown, tennis and lockdown beard
And not forgetting it was lockdown where we cooked and did 2000 piece jigsaws. We managed to build a tennis court on the driveway with neighbours coming to spectate our games.
We were lucky to be somewhere safe that Nick knew well and with friends close by. It was time in June 2020 to restart the trip and complete what we set out to do.