Majestic Muizenberg

Muizenberg

With the faded opu­lence of its grand old manor houses lin­ing the seafront, its retro children’s play­grounds and vin­tage soft drink advert­ise­ments that have been bleached by the sun, Muizenberg wears its past on its sleeve and seems akin to stum­bling upon a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party!

One can eas­ily ima­gine the sight of sun wor­ship­pers flock­ing to the beach in the past, tum­bling out of their Beetles and Morris Minors enthu­si­ast­ic­ally, filled to the brim with giggles and soda bubbles, look­ing for­ward to fam­ily time spent together bathing on the beach. But the shadow cast by the devel­op­ing city that caused an exodus of investors, home-makers and tour­ists, caus­ing years of erosion in the sea­side town, is slowly being illu­min­ated by an influx of renewed pas­sion for the area. The curi­ous thing about this town is that noth­ing is as it seems. Looking from the beach­front, you’ll be able to spot ‘The Majestic Café,' the old phar­macy and other die hards with their faded sig­nage and aged facades. But if you had to set off on foot, you might just fall into a rab­bit hole!

Muizenberg

Moseying on down cobbled lanes, I dis­covered the most epic street, remin­is­cent of places I’d find by mis­take when I lived in London, that were far bet­ter than any tour­ist attrac­tion. It was in York Road where i dis­covered the kooky lane, groan­ing with beat­nik scat­ter­ings, a gour­met cafe, used book store and a fab­ric den bul­ging with lux­uri­ous and unique fab­ric sourced by the owner per­son­ally over­seas. Buzz buzz buzz­ing like a bumble bee, I fondled the yel­lowed pages of Henry Miller and Anais Nin, stroked the fab­ric, ate and drank with glee, browsed antique ves­sels and fawned over bone handled cut­lery. Encased within restored majestic build­ings, shop fronts beck­on­ing you with their over sized win­dows, black and white marble entrances and art deco facades, the exper­i­ence was thick with the atmo­sphere of a warm Parisian afternoon.

Muizenberg

Intrinsically linked to the surf­ing cul­ture, Muizenberg’s waves are dot­ted with surfers of all ages on any given day, wait­ing for their moment to exper­i­ence the feel­ing. Gary, of Gary’s Surf School, was recently men­tioned by South Africa’s lead­ing journ­al­ism pro­gram on tele­vi­sion, ‘Carte Blanche,’ for his role in uplift­ing the com­munity and train­ing pre­vi­ously dis­ad­vant­aged chil­dren from poor com­munit­ies to surf. They are now com­pet­ing at com­pet­i­tion level and love every second they spend in the warm waters of this pop­u­lar surf spot.

Ambling past the less than aes­thet­ic­ally pleas­ing super­mar­ket centre, I trot­ted down another obscure lane and was as pleased as pud­ding to find another row of whim­sical stores and café’s. The Chinese Healing Centre grabbed my atten­tion and held it, with their extra­vag­ant selec­tion of everything organic and herbal, from fresh veget­ables to herbal teas and tinc­tures. Their deli offered a deli­cious assort­ment of healthy dishes and baked goods and the cof­fee was unfor­get­table, com­plete with cof­fee art. A craft store across the way was filled with hand­made objects, cloth­ing, wool and eco con­scious Christmas decorations.

Muizenberg

Another organic gro­cer with a small res­taur­ant enclave stood next to it, with a selec­tion of goods that burst with organic energy. I felt as though I’d found the pot of gold under­neath Muizenberg’s rain­bow, remind­ing me of what a res­id­ent had meant when they told me that Muizenberg simply refuses to con­form to developers vis­ions of its uplift­ment. There, hid­den in the corners of this dec­ad­ent relic of a former life­style, is where the artists have made their pres­ence known, where the res­taur­anteur have con­trib­uted to an emer­ging café cul­ture and where the spirit of Muizenberg flut­ters, like a rare butterfly.

Places to Eat:
The Empire Cafe in York Road: Telephone +27 (0)21 788‑1250
Gaylords Indian Restaurant at 65 Main Road: Telephone +27 (0)21 788 5470
The Olive Station Organic Levantine Restaurant and Deli at 165 Main Road: Telephone +27 (0)21 788 3264
Railway House Restaurant at 177 Main Road: Telephone +27 (0)21 788‑3252
Mozambique Café in York Road

Stores:
Antiques — Anke in York Road: Telephone: +27 (0)21 788‑4633
Relics and Restorations at Muizenberg Station Building, Main Road: Telephone +27 (0)01 788‑9801
Books: Empire Books: Telephone: +27 (0)82 746‑8390

Useful Links:
For more about this eclectic sub­urb visit Muizenberg Attractions, where you will find addi­tional inform­a­tion on what to do and where to stay. Search for and book qual­ity accom­mod­a­tion in Muizenberg for your hol­i­day. Muizenberg accom­mod­a­tion options include guest houses, bed and break­fast and self cater­ing accom­mod­a­tion includ­ing hol­i­day homes, apart­ment rent­als and suites.