The Story of the Cape Coast

Muizenberg

To the first indi­gen­ous people of the Cape, the Khoisan, Table Mountain held a par­tic­u­lar sac­red sig­ni­fic­ance. There are many stor­ies about the great moun­tain, and in some of these, the moutain itself is a storyteller, over­look­ing the sur­round­ing area and telling about what it sees. Looking down from the moun­tain one can see the Cape coast­line weav­ing a jagged bound­ary between the land and the sea.

Perhaps one of the stor­ies that the moun­tain would tell would be about the thou­sands of people that come every year to visit those eph­em­eral patches of sand that line the coast. If Johannesburg is Egoli, (the city of gold in Sotho and is defined by its most pre­cious resource), then surely Cape Town is no dif­fer­ent? Perhaps then Cape Town is the city of sil­ver, her most pre­cious resource being the silver-sand beaches that seem to hold so many in thrall.

Two oceans con­verge at Cape Point and the land­mass acts as a sep­ar­ator for the two basic types of beaches. The warmer Indian Ocean and the False Bay coast are the fam­ily beaches that offer swim­ming, surf­ing, fish­ing, pad­dling, walk­ing and all round fam­ily ori­ent­ated enter­tain­ment. Most of these beaches are manned by life­guards and rel­at­ively safe for swimming.

Camps Bay

The False Bay Coast hosts the well-known Boulders Beach where tour­ists go pen­guin watch­ing. Muizenberg beach is pop­u­lar with loc­als and has facil­it­ies that are a favour­ite with the kid­dies, includ­ing a putt-putt course and waters­lides. The stretch between Strandfontein beach and The Strand holds treach­er­ous waters and is mostly the hang out of fish­er­men. There are more than a few “old men of the sea” in the Cape, and the stor­ies of the coast­line that first enticed set­tlers to build a way-station on her shores are many. The Cape coast has a whole myth­o­logy sur­round­ing her, filled with viol­ent storms, vali­ant her­oes and even reputedly mer­maids. But those are other stor­ies for other times.

Beaches on the Atlantic coast are almost the oppos­ite, with trendy beaches lined by cock­tail bars. Definitely geared up for the soph­ist­ic­ated crowd; the beaches stretch from the V&A Waterfront and meander around Table Mountain to the beau­ti­ful “Republic” of Hout Bay. Although the moun­tain gives wel­come shel­ter from the infam­ous south-east wind, these beaches are 'cool' in more than one way. The Atlantic Ocean can at best be described as “refresh­ing” and has sur­prised more than one tour­ist who thought that African water can't really be that cold. The four beaches of Clifton and Llandudno (often mis­pro­nounced by Gaelic vis­it­ors, the cor­rect way to say it is Lun-dud-no) are world-famous, dur­ing sea­son the beaches are crowded; def­in­itely the place to be seen, great for sun­bathing, volley-ball and sun­down­ers. Beaches along this stretch have numer­ous res­taur­ants and cof­fee shops that cater to all tastes.

The North Atlantic Seaboard (Blaauwberg) includes Bloubergstrand and Milnerton. Beautiful long beaches where the loc­als go to enjoy the less crowded spaces; excel­lent for walks, surf­ing and kite-surfing. The view of Table Mountain from Bloubergstrand has been immor­tal­ised on post­cards often sent to loved ones from Cape Town's shores, each one send­ing a small piece of Table Mountain's story to people around the world.

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More des­tin­a­tion inform­a­tion:
Cape Town Beaches
Cape Town Accommodation
Cape Town Attractions