Cape Point Vineyards – wine, sea and views

Cape Point Vineyards

There are a few things that impress you about Cape Point Vineyards. For one, few people even know that a wine estate exists here just below the entrance to Chapman's Peak with incred­ible views over Long Beach (okay, you do have to hike it for about five minutes to reach the view­ing plat­form, but it's worth it, promise).

And secondly, des­pite some pretty impress­ive fur­niture, a 300-year old tapestry of Franco-Flemish ori­gin and a chan­delier of note, there is a pretty laid back atmo­sphere in the wine tast­ing room, in no small way due to the incred­ible duo of staff who handle demand­ing cli­entèle with aplomb. Continued

Kalk Bay and Tribeca

My in-laws are vis­it­ing from KwaZulu Natal for the week and hav­ing not been to the Mother City for a num­ber of years we thought we would do the ‘touristy’ thing on Sunday and star­ted off with brunch in one of my favour­ite places; Kalk Bay.

The drive along Boyes Drive from where we live in Lakeside sets the hol­i­day tone; the glor­i­ous views of  Muizenberg Beach, the streams com­ing off the moun­tain, the signs for the many moun­tain hikes and trails and then off course the bob­bing fish­ing boats in Kalk Bay Harbour all remind me why I love liv­ing in this part of the world. Continued

Train trip and lunch at Octopus’ Garden in St James

Last Sunday it was a friend’s birth­day and he decided to do some­thing a little out of the ordin­ary. A group of about 30 of us were invited to St James (on the False Bay Coast) to dine for lunch at the Octopus’ Garden and if you have ever driven past this tiny place from the out­side it doesn’t look like much so you might just give it a miss. Hopefully I will be able to sway that opinion.

Why I say this lunch was a little bit dif­fer­ent is because instead of driv­ing to the venue, which is gen­er­ally what hap­pens in Cape Town, it was sug­ges­ted that since so many of us live in the “burbs” (Southern Suburbs) and it being a Sunday and all traffic could be quite bad into this area. We all hopped on a train which trans­por­ted us to the venue. Now I haven’t taken a train since high school and can­not even remem­ber which side of the plat­form I need to stand on. Thank good­ness we had some seasoned train trav­el­lers with us ... Continued

Random Perfection — A different False Bay

False Bay Coast

It’s not every day that ‘per­fec­tion’ hap­pens, we don’t expect it to hap­pen and most often we miss out on it because we are too busy look­ing and seek­ing some­thing that will make a day worth wile… but then every so often one of those per­fect days creeps up on you without any warn­ing. You exper­i­ence a moment, a moment that you feel like hold­ing onto forever. You almost want to take a little piece of it and put it some­where for use on a cloudy day ...

Early on a Saturday morn­ing we set out to explore Cape Town not expect­ing more than a train ride and good food. At Brackenfell sta­tion we buy our ticket into the city and wait on our train in the cold­ish morn­ing sun. From far away we hear the sound of train ... Continued

Things to Do with Kids in False Bay

Penguins at Boulders

... things to Do with Kids on the False Bay Coast
On the other side of the Cape Peninsula, the False Bay coast offers some favour­ite activ­it­ies of Cape Town's kids. All the moms we asked recom­men­ded spend­ing time at Boulers Beach in Simons Town. We've pub­lished lots of art­icles about the Boulders Beach Penguins (#36) so check out "To Boldly Go ... why swim­ming with Penguins at Boulders is so great" for a first hand report if you haven't tried this yet!

Take a dip in the warmer waters of the Indian Ocean and find your­self swim­ming with the Penguins — its great for kids of all ages, you will enjoy it too! At the Simons Town Scratch Patch (#37), star­ted in 1970, you and the kids can have lots of fun “scratch­ing” for your favour­ite tumble-polished gem­stones from thou­sands of pol­ished stones that cover the floor. Continued

Saturday walks in the Cape

Saturday Walks

Saturday was a day of walks for us.  We hadn’t planned any of these walks but the view from our bed­room win­dow in Lakeside is of the Steenberg Plateau in the Table Mountain National Park and at 7am on Saturday (who needs chil­dren when you have dogs to oblit­er­ate the thought of ever sleep­ing late!) it looked too gor­geous in the early morn­ing sun­shine to not take an amble up it!  So, we put on suit­able foot­wear, packed a back­pack with water and other sup­plies, put the dogs on the back of the bakkie and off we went!

The walk starts off at a fairly gentle pace but gradu­ally the climb­ing begins!  I don’t mean climb­ing in terms of scram­bling over rocks or need­ing cram­pons of any kind but it did remind me of walk­ing up a never end­ing stair­case.  However, the views are in short, spec­tac­u­lar.  Continued

Drinking tea from a wooden cup – the Tibetan Teahouse in Seaforth

Tibetan Teahouse

Tibetan folk­lore states that drink­ing tea from a wooden cup will make you hand­some, pop­u­lar and wise. And this is just one of the little idio­syn­crasies that make the Tibetan Teahouse in Seaforth such a gem. The gal­lery and tea­house prom­ise 'food for body and soul' shared in an atmo­sphere of warmth, beauty and serenity, and it more than deliv­ers on this promise.

I can­not tell you how many times I've driven past the Tibetan Teahouse, perched as it is on a very miss­able corner just out­side Simon's Town as you enter Seaforth (a barely dis­cern­able bound­ary) and made a more than men­tal note (at times it has been very verbal) to make a stop there. And when we finally did Continued

"Musselling" at Scarborough

Fresh Mussells

I would be per­fectly happy spend­ing an after­noon a week­end kick­ing back on the couch; watch­ing the Isidingo omni­bus or read­ing the latest Fair Lady.  My hus­band on the other hand thinks its com­plete sac­ri­lege to waste a beau­ti­ful, sunny sum­mers day (and let’s face it, there are a lot of those dur­ing the Western Cape sum­mer!) being that lazy and so we find ourselves, most Sundays at Scarborough beach pick­ing mus­sels off the rocks.

And I must say, I’ve come to quite enjoy our little outings ...

The first thing to do is to check the tides timetable; it would defeat the pur­pose of your jour­ney to arrive, as a friend did, to find it was Leap Tide and the water was up to the level of the car park ... not a lot of mus­selling to be done when that hap­pens!  So, plan ahead and check the tides so you arrive when its low tide. Continued

77km Three Passes Cycle Tour – a training run for the Cape Argus Cycyle Tour

My Valentine’s Day star­ted, not with break­fast in bed, but with my alarm clock shrill­ing at 5.30am.  The reason for this mad­ness was that I was about to take part in my first ever cycle race; the 77km Three Passes Cycle Tour.  With only four weeks to go until I take part in my second ever cycle race; The Cape Argus Cycle Tour – this train­ing run was of abso­lute neces­sity ... Continued

Smitswinkel Bay Photographs

Photographs taken of Smitswinkel Bay on the False Bay Coast in the Cape. Smitswinkel Bay (or Smitswinkelbaai) is prac­tic­ally inac­cess­ible and right next to the Cape Point Nature Reserve. Reached only by foot, it is worth the effort to get there. The bay here is pop­u­lar for snor­kelling, diving and fish­ing and the water is calm and great for swim­ming. Views are fant­astic as the moun­tains are vir­tu­ally to the back of the beach and one over­looks False Bay. Smitswinkel Bay lies just past Simonstown on the False Bay Coast ... Continued

A Getaway to Glencairn is perfect with Kids

Glencairn

Hidden in a lush pro­tec­ted val­ley on the False Bay Coast in Cape Town, between Simonstown and Fish Hoek, lies the quaint sub­urb of Glencairn. With a nature reserve and vlei sanc­tu­ary run­ning in the middle of the green­belt towards the sea, this area has been beau­ti­fully pre­served, allow­ing the con­struc­tion of houses on the slop­ing hills that wind up through to dra­matic moun­tain landscapes.

Possibly the best kept secret of the South Peninsula, the area is a quiet study in nat­ural beauty. A river run­ning through the middle offers a wel­come reprieve in the sum­mer months, when loc­als can some­times be spot­ted under the small water­falls. The small beach is pretty and clean, pet and fam­ily friendly and offers close encoun­ters of whale watch­ing in the spring months. A small tidal pool is per­fect for chil­dren and treas­ure hunters, search­ing for lost coins and per­fectly formed shells. Continued

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! Continued

Catch your Breath in Kalk Bay

Kalk Bay is one of those places where you can finally catch your breath ...

Kalk Bay

This won­der­ful his­toric har­bour vil­lage, en route to Cape Point, has everything you could pos­sibly want from a day out by the sea. Well, everything except warm water. Which is just as well, because you might be less inclined to explore all those amaz­ing antique, art and bric-a-brac shops, out­stand­ing res­taur­ants, ice cream par­lours and funky bars that line its main thor­ough­fare. By far the best way to arrive is by train, a most exquis­ite jour­ney from Muizenberg (park at the Olive Station), tak­ing in breath­tak­ing views of the wind­ing coast­line, while all the while keep­ing an eye out for passing whales.

Turn right out­side the sta­tion and imme­di­ately right again through a short under­pass, and you will soon arrive at The Brass Bell, a fam­ous pub and res­taur­ant beau­ti­fully loc­ated out to sea, an abso­lute must for any vis­itor to Kalk Bay. Few tra­di­tional pub-like atmo­spheres can boast an excel­lent view of frol­ick­ing seals, or indeed, give the impres­sion that your fish 'n chips might get dragged out of the sea at any moment. The kids will love it. Outside, there is a little craft stall, selling a fine selec­tion of mar­vel­lously invent­ive can­dle­stick hold­ers, jew­ellery and sculp­tures made from shells and drift­wood; I bought a chunky brace­let made from twis­ted strands of cop­per and a ring made from an old sil­ver t-spoon. Continued