Simon’s Town, one stop Cape of Good Hope to Cape Point.

Apr 16, 2021
3 min read

Updated: May 22, 2021

I like to think that my family is adventurous. This is true if by adventurous you mean we are not afraid of trying new things, mostly, occasionally (within reason and under law). This quality has made us quite open-minded, and ready to accept most situations as they are, and we eventually will adapt.

However, it is considerably moderated by my mother, an over-thinker, my baby sister a serial planner, my brothers always along for the ride whatever the circumstance, and my father, the pacifier. Then there’s me, overactive imagination, anxious and spontaneous decision-maker.

The Cape of Good Hope was our next adventure! We have made an effort to have excursions once every few weeks to get to know our environment, here in South Africa’s Western Cape. My mum says her dad called it “looking for escape routes.” She was born at a time Granddad was a refugee from Amin’s government. My dad is a sort of anthropologist, my mum, too, as an artist set on African cultural heritage. They have both cultivated curiosity and love of culture in their children, both our own culture and that of other peoples'. The Cape of Good Hope was especially top of my sister’s to-go-to list. I threw in Simon’s Town as a stop-over mainly for THE PENGUINS! But also the drive to the end of the Cape Peninsular is 2-hours too long to keep the above-described personalities together in one closed moving space with no escape routes. So first stop...

AT SIMON’S TOWN

Simon’s Town is a quaint sleepy coastal navy Town. It’s after the boisterously vibrant Muizenberg and has the lolling effect of a reserved and private old lady. Driving down the road cutting between the sea on the left and the towering rocky mountains on the right, litters of simple 18th-century buildings receiving renovations remind me of old romantic novels about pirate ships I read in secondary school. Our first stop was a navy museum, which I highly recommend for anyone passing through.

Below, the streets of Simon's Town.

BOULDERS BEACH

A beautifully scenic beach covered in white sands and granite rocks, home to the African penguin (aka cuteness incarnate) and waters so blue it can make a grown woman cry (I almost did). This part of the beach is part of a nature reserve, the Table Mountain National Park, and you will be required to pay some 170 Rand for foreigners, - a fact which incensed my mother so bad, we spent 10 minutes looking on as she went on a tirade about 'Pan Africanism', pointing out that the ANC headquarters had actually been in Uganda and how the South African National anthem was written in Tanzania. (I can neither affirm nor deny these statements). While my siblings suffered from second-hand embarrassment, the South African attendants at the checkpoints didn't seem to particularly care for the history lesson. We paid, saw penguins, took some photos, and marveled at this brand of capitalism.

Do stop at the Seaforth Restaurant for the Hake and chips of your life!

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE

You pay again for entry here! Fantastic views! The Cape of Good Hope is too, like Boulders Beach and Cape Point, part of the Table Mountain reserve for flora and fauna, and the long drive through the park towards the beach can sincerely be life-changing. (I saw a random ostrich and I had this weird urge to chase after it). At one point, I contemplated buying a boat and going out to sea but then I remembered I was broke, jobless, and had fierce seasickness. I settled on other prospects. We had some sort of geography lesson about this place, I forget.

CAPE POINT

The main attraction here is the Lighthouse. To reach it, you can take the funicular (please, this word is funny). But you can also take a fifteen-minute walk up while making polite conversation with the resident baboons. They are only interested in you for the food and are therefore ready to fight you at the drop of a hat (or sandwich). Please beware, don't brandish food on the premises! There are enough signposts to point this out on the grounds, so I feel no particular sympathy for the screaming lady running past me, waving her sandwich above her head, an army of baboons on her tail. They used good lettuce for the sandwich though, such waste!

The views from the top are incredible, though. Oh, you pay too to get on the funicular. (There's a special way a Ugandan would pronounce this word that keeps cracking me up every time I try picturing it in my head).