Eco-Friendly Activities in Cape Town and the Western Cape

We start our eco-tour of South Africa in Cape Town, voted one of the world's top 10 green cit­ies — the US think tank Ethisphere Institute (http://ethisphere.com/) named Cape Town as a centre of global sus­tain­ab­il­ity. The "Mother City", so blessed with nat­ural beauty, offers a mul­ti­tude of out­door activ­it­ies which can be enjoyed guilt-free. Hike Table Mountain, enjoy the Cape's beaches, or go shop­ping. Yes, I did say shop­ping in an art­icle about eco-tourism …

Eco Tourism

Cape Town is home to South Africa's first envir­on­ment­ally con­scious mall. Visit 210 on Long (opened in February 2009, Long Street, Cape Town City Centre) to exper­i­ence styl­ish, super­ior "green shop­ping". An exist­ing mall was recycled, using eco-friendly build­ing prac­tices, and now houses over 15 retail­ers (includ­ing The Hemporium, The Green Shop, Galleria Gibello, Think Shoes and many more), all of which sub­scribe to prin­ciples of sus­tain­able tour­ism (some donate a per­cent­age of profits to bene­fit com­munit­ies in need, some use recycled mater­i­als or organic produce).

To view the many sites in Cape Town City Centre con­sider tak­ing a Cape Town Carriage Tour or hop on board the Cape Town Open-top Bus for a sight see­ing tour of Cape Town. This "Hop on, Hop off" ser­vice is a most con­veni­ent way to access all major high­lights in Cape Town (includ­ing a visit to Camps Bay beach) dur­ing the day without hav­ing to hire a car.

Eco Tourism

There are also a num­ber of organic mar­kets. My per­sonal favour­ite is The Neighbourgoods Market at the Old Biscuit Mill in Woodstock. Built on eco-friendly prin­ciples, with a recyc­ling depot, the mar­ket itself sup­ports organic farm­ing and loc­ally made products. A fant­astic way to spend a lazy Saturday and so pop­u­lar now, that it’s become a hot meet­ing place in Cape Town. Jamie Oliver’s been there … shouldn’t you?

Still in Cape Town, visit the Edith Stevens Wetland Park in the Cape Flats. Surrounded by many town­ships, this reserve is home to and pro­tects many spe­cies of birds, rep­tiles, small mam­mals and plant­life, and also bene­fits the sur­round­ing com­munit­ies through job cre­ation and edu­ca­tion. Combine a visit to the reserve with a Township Tour.

Eco Tourism

Take a train from Cape Town to the Winelands, where you can enjoy wine-tasting by bike. No car­bon foot­print here, or take a horse-drawn car­riage ride around Rhebokskloof Estate, not just eco-friendly, romantic too! You can learn about wines on a Wine Walk or com­bine a little deli­cious wine tast­ing as you ride on horse back through the para­dise of the Franschhoek wine val­ley. Get the idea? There are plenty of activ­it­ies to keep you busy explor­ing the won­ders of the Cape that have little or no impact on the envir­on­ment — lots of fun and feel good factor too!

Cape Town and the Western Cape offer too-many-to-mention Walks and Hiking Trails which are great for sight see­ing, get­ting some excer­cise and don't impact neg­at­ively on the envir­on­ment. Horse Riding is a great way of get­ting out into the open and see­ing the sur­round­ings and if you are not an exper­i­enced rider you could even take some lessons.

Eco Tourism

Worth an hon­our­able men­tion here is the Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve in the Cape Overberg. The Kogelberg Nature Reserve is run accord­ing to inter­na­tion­ally accep­ted prin­ciples of a bio­sphere reserve, a concept which trans­lates into a core sens­it­ive area of 18 000 hec­tares remain­ing basic­ally wild and pristine and main­tain­ing a high level of bio­lo­gical diversity.

You can Rent-A-Bike and start your pedal an hour out of Cape Town on the south­ern tip of the African coast. Here, 7.5 Km from the Atlantic Ocean, begins a jour­ney ser­en­aded by the har­mony of nature with a guest appear­ance by the Cape Mongoose and cheeky baboons. Exchange your i-pod for the sound of song­birds and your cares for the caress of coun­tryside!! See Rent a bike in Kleinmond for more details.

There are so many more options avail­able ...
Animal Sanctuaries edu­cate loc­als and tour­ists alike to the plight of anim­als and threats to their con­tin­ued sur­vival. Many rehab­il­it­ate and rein­tro­duce these anim­als to the wild. See: Western Cape Animal Sanctuaries. Low / No Carbon Footprint Excursions include out­door activ­it­ies, like hik­ing, bird-watching, fish­ing, nature walks, parks & gar­dens to explore and a whole lot more ... (See Things to Do in the Western Cape)

This art­icle is inten­ded to get you think­ing about explor­ing the Western Cape in ways that will not impact the envir­on­ment in a neg­at­ive way and is inten­ded only to inspire ... it is by no means a defin­it­ive art­icle. If you have a sug­ges­tion, please leave your com­ments below. There are also many web­sites avail­able that offer a lot of inform­a­tion for the "green" trav­el­ler and we recom­mend the following:

The Cape Town Green Map - For info on Cape Town's green spaces, organic eat­er­ies, farm­ers' mar­kets etc.
Urban Sprout's Über Green Directory — Look under Holidays & Recreation as well as Green Transport.
Things to Do in Cape Town — SA-Venues.com's Directory of Things to Do — Look under Hiking Trails, Walks & Hikes, Animal Sanctuaries, Horse Riding ... and many other categories.