Water's Edge beach — we reveal another 'secret' Cape Town cove

Water's Edge Beach

The aver­age per­son doesn't even know the beach exists, unless you are pre­pared to explore, or someone you know hap­pens to nudge you in the right dir­ec­tion. And the bonus about this beach is that, not only is there shade under trees on a wall along­side the sea, but this same ledge is well out of the wind, should there be that dast­ardly south-easter blow­ing as it was on Saturday.

For little boys' parties, Water's Edge is just the best. The rock pools here remain largely untouched. The same goes for the beach, which lies in a little bay, out of the main body of the sea. There are few waves, the water is (slightly) warmer, and the beach dot­ted with rocks and boulders between which are sand­wiched count­less salt water pools inhab­ited by bright orange star­fish, sal­mon anemones, moluscs and other excit­ing sea creatures that I thought had all but aban­doned our busy coast­line in search of pas­tures green (or at least those untouched by human beings). Continued

Simons Town's historical mile – seeing the seaside town through new eyes

Simons Town mile

The essence of Simon's Town has been here since 1741. That's a long time, I think to myself, as, with hat firmly clipped to my head with one of these huge slide things because of the south east­erly that is ham­mer­ing through here, I leave my car beneath a tree in a side road close to the sta­tion, and set off to see the vil­lage through the eyes of a vis­itor. I could have caught the train, it is true, but because the rail­way line looks as though it is has been used as a place to dump build­ing sand, there is only a bus ser­vice between Fish Hoek and Simon's Town. Pity, as for vis­it­ors it is a great way to come into the naval har­bour to explore. The tour­ist inform­a­tion office assures me that they have finally begun work on the line. Considering it's been at least a couple of months that the pop­u­lar train line has been without its final des­tin­a­tion, one won­ders... Continued

'The Penguins of Boulders' by Dirk Schmidt — a Book Review

The Penguins of Boulders is a book all about the African pen­guin.  Despite being one of the most cha­ris­matic anim­als on our planet, it is a spe­cies in peril suf­fer­ing from rapid envir­on­mental degrad­a­tion through oil and chem­ical spillages and the deple­tion of inshore fish stocks as its primary food source.

About the Book

The African pen­guin is an indic­ator spe­cies for envir­on­mental health and biod­iversity. This book not only high­lights some of the envir­on­mental pres­sures these anim­als face, but also illus­trates and describes inter­est­ing pen­guins facts, ref­er­ence inform­a­tion on the spe­cies, but also vari­ous con­ser­va­tion and ongo­ing res­cue operations.

The book is aimed at a wide audi­ence from young adults, adult read­ers, bird enthu­si­asts, and tour­ists that visit the Penguin colony of Boulders or have an interest in pen­guins. Continued

Cape Farmhouse Restaurant in Scarborough – a must for weekend lunch

Cape Farmhouse

If you're after that 'on a farm' feel­ing, sur­roun­ded by moun­tains, fyn­bos and not much else, without hav­ing to put in the miles to get there, then this one's for you. The per­fect views from the front ver­andah of the 250-year old farm­house, the gor­geous under-grapevine front stoep, and the none-too-shabby food com­bine to make this a more than worthy fam­ily outing.

Admittedly, if you live in the south­ern sub­urbs get­ting to the Cape Farmhouse Restaurant is quite a trek, although a lovely one (you can make a day of it). It's up Red Hill way, mid­way between Simon's Town and Scarborough, just out­side the bor­ders of the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve (hence the views, and the feel­ing of being on the edge of everything). But if you live in either Kommetjie, Scarborough or Simon's Town, this is one haunt you need to fre­quent, if you aren't already. Continued

Breakfast at The Meeting Place in Simons Town

The view ...

What is bet­ter than break­fast out on a Monday pub­lic hol­i­day?  Although my brother had been before, it was my first visit to The Meeting Place in Simon’s Town and I just love the place.  Located oppos­ite the Quayside Hotel on St George’s Street, The Meeting Place is double storey and we made our way upstairs and settled down at a table for four on the bal­cony.  Furnished with garden style tables and chairs and with retract­able blinds to give res­pite from the sun the bal­cony is the per­fect spot to con­tem­plate life while watch­ing the yachts bob­bing in the har­bour ... Continued

To boldly go... why swimming with the penguins at Boulders is so great

Penguins at Boulders

Nothing quite beats the thrill of swim­ming at Boulders beach with the pen­guins. Admittedly Sunday's rather busy rash of vis­it­ors to the pop­u­lar but small beach meant that only one little black and white res­id­ent was bold enough to brave the crowds in the main cove of Boulders. But ven­ture a little fur­ther, through the 'crack in the wall', and there are pen­guins galore that are quite happy to share their space, provided you main­tain a respect­able distance.

It's just as well that Boulders is a pay­ing beach or it would be inund­ated. Even though it now costs R35 an adult and R10 a child, the beach is still one of the most pop­u­lar swim­ming beaches on the False Bay Coast for people with chil­dren, as it's without fail sheltered from the wind, and vir­tu­ally always a calm pond-like swim­ming exper­i­ence for bathers ... Continued

The Penguins at Boulders Beach

There’s some­thing very pecu­liar about stand­ing on a sandy shoreline, bask­ing in the South African sum­mer sun while gaz­ing out across the crys­tal blue waters of the Indian Ocean, only to encounter a group of pen­guins wad­dling past your beach towel on their way to hav­ing a dip.

Well at Boulders Beach, a National Park, just out­side Simon’s Town (en-route to Cape Point), nature has been play­ing the strangest tricks on sun wor­shipers for some time.

Boulders Beach is home to the ‘Jackass’ African pen­guin, which has been hanging out along the Southern African coast for… er… donkey’s years, in more recent times liv­ing shoulder to knee-cap with the local human pop­u­la­tion of Simon’s Town.

Named “jack­ass” after their dis­tinct­ive Eeyore imper­son­a­tions, they occur in only 27 other sites, includ­ing Robben Island, and des­pite their large num­bers at Boulder’s (some 3000), they are very much endangered. Continued

New Wedding Venue in Simons Town

Roaring Fourties

For some­thing com­pletely dif­fer­ent, dine or con­fer­ence aboard the beau­ti­ful Museum Ship, CS Cable Restorer, which houses the unique Roaring Forties Floating Functions Restaurant and Conference Venue, per­man­ently docked in his­toric, pic­tur­esque Simons Town, with her ori­ginal mari­time charm, brass fit­tings and teak decks, this is a charm­ing and unique venue for any occasion.

The décor is naut­ical but eleg­ant, with navy blue table cloths and Long Island striped over­lays. We also hire out our white linen and chair cov­ers for func­tions but for wed­dings they are already included in the venue hire.

We have a beau­ti­ful out­side deck adjoin­ing the functions/conferencing area, here we have benches and umbrel­las for the hot sum­mer days. This area is lovely for pre-dinner / arrival drinks as well as being a great spot to take pho­to­graphs with Simons Town as your back­drop. Weather per­mit­ting this area also makes a great break­away spot. Continued