snapshots from the cape peninsula
so much mountain, so much sea
To call the Cape Peninsula beautiful feels like a mildly offensive understatement. The city of Cape Town itself is beautiful enough, thriving in the shadow of Table Mountain with miles of beachy coast. But then you drive out of the city, and the dramatic landscapes somehow get even better. A sense of raw grandeur of Table Mountain National Park extending all the way to the end to the storied Cape of Good Hope that feels like standing at the end of the world, and makes even the most skeptical of us understand the romanticism of exploration.
chapman's peak
Every good Cape Peninsula drive starts at Chapman’s Peak. This iconic road is one of the most celebrated in the world. The stuff of car commercials and editorial shoots. A bucket list kind of place for drivers around the world. The kind of drive that inspires you to splurge on a fancy car rental.Â
The road itself is an engineering feat. Carved into the rock of the unforgiving cliffs, winding precariously between Noordhoek and Hout Bay. It winds with the mountain, around each curve a breathtaking vista that quite frankly makes it a danger for a distracted driver. But there’s lookout points to stop and marvel. To sit, high above the sea, breathing in the fresh air, admiring the shapes of the mountains shaping the bay and watching the white surf crash below. It’s cinematic, alluring, hard to look away.Â
boulders beach
Further down the Peninsula, past the charming naval town of Simon’s Town, lies the delightful stop of Boulders Beach. It’s a four-quadrant kind of stop. Nothing like penguins to please children and adults alike.Â
For a long time, penguins on the beach in South Africa was little more than a trivia fact that stuck around from elementary school days. Seeing them in real life was, well, surreal.Â
The vibe is heavy on beach town. Quaint shops line the main street, and a boardwalk leads to a well-protected beach inhabited by a thriving colony of endangered African penguins living their best lives as they waddle and flop around the sand. It’s another place that is hard to leave. Like a live, up close episode of Planet Earth. Enraptured with childlike joy. Look past the beach to the pristine water and you might catch a glimpse of a dolphin in the horizon.
cape of good hope
And then, finally, of course, the Cape of Good Hope. The southwestern-most point of Africa. A place of travel and inspiration for centuries. A destination for nature and history.
Entering the Cape Point Nature Reserve, you feel immediately removed from the rest of the world. Surrounded by shrubby Mediterranean mountains. The powerful sea wrapping around. Here, the air is sharper. The flora wilder. The beach rockier. There’s antelope grazing the mountains. An occasional ostrich walking on the beach. In South Africa, any drive can be a safari drive.
There are a few points within the reserve. A wooden walkway overlooking a sandy beach. A funicular (and a hiking path) connecting the visitors center to the famed Old Cape Point lighthouse. Many trails that lead up and down and across the reserve.Â
Further out, all the way at the end of the peninsula, there’s the New Cape Point Lighthouse. All the way up from here, the horizon looks infinite. The power of the ocean, the windswept stage, the rugged beauty of the rocky landscape around you. The 360 views of the dramatic coastline are postcard perfect from every angle. Climactic in the best way, particularly during golden hour.Â
There’s nowhere quite like the Cape Peninsula, in its cast, ongoing beauty. It’s a constant dialogue between land and sea. The privilege of driving along the cliff, staring across a bay, or off into the horizon wondering about the worlds beyond. The penguins on a beach are just the cherry on top.
Any trip to the Cape is a reset of perspective. A reminder that beyond the bustling city there continues to be a wilder, formidable landscape ready to humble and inspire even the most stubborn city dweller.
see also
AN AFTERNOON IN STELLENBOSCH
SNAPSHOTS FROM CAPETOWN