Tuesday 9th December 2025
Our car arrived nearly at the appointed hour, the driver had been sent to the wrong hotel, Margaret on the other hand arrived as planned!!! Yes Margaret very kindly offered to join us and “guide” us around the peninsula ‘cos without her we would have missed things.
We headed out of town making for Muizenberg, on the Eastern side of the peninsula, a surfers paradise, one of the main surfing beaches and all along the sea front, surf shops of one kind or another. Parking was difficult and just as we were about to give up we spotted a car coming out and we didn’t hesitate, we were in his space!!! We had a Quick Look around the beach and waves but didn’t hang around as the sky looked full of rain, yes rain!!! So back in the car and headed to Simon’s Town, a place I remember hearing a lot of when I was in my early Teens; the “Simon’s Town Agreement” in particular, but had no idea what it was about back then, so today I was going to find out!!!!!
Simon’s Town, situated in the Western Cape province is a town and more importantly a naval base, It is located on the eastern side of the Cape Peninsula, on False Bay*, 25 miles south of Cape Town, Named after the Dutch Governor “Simon van der Stel”, and was a Dutch naval anchorage from 1741, and Its sheltered harbour served as a refuge for merchant ships and whalers. Things changed in 1814 when it became the Royal Navy’s headquarters for the “British South Atlantic Naval Squadron”, but in 1957 the jurisdiction of the naval facilities was transferred to South Africa but the Royal Navy still used them, hence the “Agreement” I remember .The port’s operations were considerably expanded in the 1970s, after the RN had left. This is now South Africa’s principal naval base. An adjacent surveillance and communications centre (opened in 1973) tracks much of the South Atlantic and South Indian oceans.
Simon’s Town is compressed between mountains and the sea. Its historical landmarks include the original naval cemetery, the Admiral’s Residency, Admiralty House built in 1776, and St. Francis of Assisi’s Church, built in 1814 and rebuilt in 1834 is the first English church in South Africa.
When we parked the car, the rain came down so “hid” in a cafe ‘till it passed. The other issue we had was locking the car, it just didn’t want to lock. When you walk away with the key it should lock and as you return, unlock, but no this car’s system had a mind of its own; each time we left the car we had no idea if it was locked or not; sometimes it did, sometimes it didn’t, how frustrating👹👹👹
Once the rain had stopped we had a walk around but insufficient time to do the historical museums unfortunately and of course the naval base was securely guarded.
Back on the road, we headed to Boulders Beach to see all the penguins. Once parked we had to walk along a road before reaching the a turnstile to pay the admittance fee and once in the enclosure, we followed a specially constructed wooden walkway that wove itself through the trees and up-n-down until we reached the beach. My-my, the size of this colony of African Penguins, seeing so many makes you wonder why they are critically endangered!!! Still it was a magnificent sight, well worth the walk and fee.
Our next stop was the cape itself, this is also a national reserve that attracts an admittance fee. This Park is about 30-sq miles of rugged terrain but home to indigenous flora and fauna and numerous animals such as Ostrich, Baboons, Zebra, Buck and Springboks etc., and that there is a very good chance of seeing some, so we kept our eyes open! We did the cape, naturally had a ‘photo shoot then went round to the Old Cape Point Lighthouse, caught the funicular railway to nearly the top where at this point it is a hike up lots of steps, I declined but Christine and Margaret did the climb; full marks to them. I must add, at this point we hadn’t seen any animals, so back in the car and headed towards the exit but en-route headed down some of the “other” roads heading in all directions to look for some wildlife, oh yes we did spot two “buck” in the far distance but not a herd!!! Poor Margaret took some stick as she had built our hopes up, now only to be dashed🥵.
Leaving the “game reserve” ha ha, we headed north up the western side of the peninsula for a rather late lunch.
After leaving the reserve, would you believe it, we came across a family of Baboons strolling across the road, not a care in the world, it looked like Mum & Dad and a few young ones; a family outing!!!
Once we had passed the Baboons, Margaret recommended we went to an old resort called “Monkey Valley Resort”, a wooden building set high above a beach and nestled amongst the trees with superb views. We couldn’t decide if we were having a late lunch or an early dinner but certainly enjoyed what we ate and two bottles of local South African wine later, set off again and headed back to Cape Town but not on the usual main road, no along a 9-km 114-corner toll road, “Chapmans Peak Drive”, (https://www.chapmanspeakdrive.co.za/the-drive/history.html) that clings to the side of the mountain following all the contours. This iconic winding coastal road connects Hout Bay to Noordhoek on the west side of the peninsula. It is known as one of the world’s most spectacular marine drives as it offers breathtaking views of the Atlantic, rugged cliffs and ‘I was told” opportunities to see wild life such as Baboons!!!
By now it was getting late so we had time for a sundowner at the Winchester hotel before our last bit of the journey back to our hotel after a thoroughly enjoyable day thanks to our good friend and guide, Margaret. Back at our hotel we gave the keys to the valet, said our goodbyes and headed off to pack, we leave tomorrow on the next leg of our adventure.
- False Bay, called this due to ships heading westwards towards the Atlantic, and seeing the land and rocks protruding into the sea though they had reached the actual Cape and turned northwards, only to head into this big bay, hence its