Friday January 30th, 2026 Queen Anne, Cape Town, South Africa
- Neil Wylie
- Jan 14
- 5 min read
Updated: Feb 8
We awoke this morning to a view of the magnificent Table Mountain outside our balcony window, the tablecloth was not present – meaning there were no clouds sitting on the top of the mountain. Table Mountain provides the backdrop to Cape Town which is nestled in the flat plane between the sheer cliffs and the bay. There has been significant development since our last visit here 12 years ago, not least of which was the proper cruise terminal; last time I remember we disembarked into a large shed.
There was significant angst among the passengers and crew about the immigration procedures; it seems that at the “last minute”, actually a few days ago, the requirements changed and we were required to fill out an online form to be used during the full ship face to face inspection procedure. As it turned out the immigration check took only a few minutes and, of course, the immigration officials did not ask to see evidence that we’d completed the on-line form.
Today we are doing a full day tour, purchased from Cunard, that will take us south along the west side of the cape peninsula all the way down to The Cape of Good Hope. We met our tour guide on the dock and joined the others on the bus, leaving promptly at 8:30AM. Cape Town is a significant city and so, as expected, we hit a bit of Friday morning traffic as we navigated our way from the port to the coast road heading south.
There is a beautiful esplanade style walkway that runs from Cape Town south to Sea Point and from the bus we could see many people enjoying a morning stroll or walking their dog along the sea front; our guide described it as one of her favorite places for a peaceful stroll. With the bright blue sky and gentle breeze blowing in from the sea it looked idyllic. Soon we were passing the more upscale towns on the outskirts of Cape Town; Bantry Bay, Clifton and Camps Bay – magnificent sandy beaches stretched into the distance, though we were told that swimming in this area was not advised due to the very cold water flowing up from the Antarctic. From Hout Bay we entered Chapman’s Peak Drive, an amazingly constructed road that appears to cling to the cliffs as it winds its way south towards Cape Point. A brief stop afforded us amazing views across Hout Bay with the pinnacle of the Sentinel towering above the town of Hout Bay Heights and guarding the entrance to the sheltered bay. This must have been a great place for the sailing ships of yesteryear to take refuge during a strong blow.
In order to progress further south the road took us temporarily inland away from the coast. Unexpectedly the bus slowed to a halt and as I looked out, I could see some baboons sitting in the road, quite settled and unwilling to move; with some nifty driving the bus was able to weave its way through and we went on our way. The landscape on the Cape Peninsula is one of dry scrub with virtually no trees but a large variety of drought tolerant vegetation, some reminiscent of Scottish heather; tumble weed would not be out of place.
It had taken us 2½ hours to reach the entrance to Cape Point Nature Reserve and another 20 minutes to drive the narrow road across the low scrubland to the parking lot for the Cape of Good Hope. As we’d been here before we knew the drill, there would be a mad rush to get to the famous sign, and a big crowd would accumulate; seated near the front of the bus we were able to be off quickly and make our way over to the sign where we found only a small somewhat orderly queue. After only a few minutes we were able to adopt the ultimate tourist pose and, with the help of a friendly observer, capture the moment – replacing the picture from 12 years ago that was lost in the 2017 California wildfire. As we made our way down to the shore to see some lounging seals, I noticed the majority of our tour group milling around trying to get their photo – things were not so orderly now.
A little east of the Cape of Good Hope sign is the Old Cape Lighthouse that is reached by a quaint funicular railway appropriately named the Flying Dutchman. A short 3 minute ride took us to a plateau that afforded magnificent views down to Diaz Beach and over to Cape Point; another 100+ steps and I reached the old lighthouse with even better views. Apparently, this lighthouse was not very effective; being 249M above sea level it was often in cloud or mist. After the Portuguese liner Lusitania was wrecked on nearby rocks in 1911, the lighthouse was replaced with a newer version down below at 87M above sea level. It seems a bit counterintuitive to have a more effective lighthouse at a lower elevation. The sunken liner should not be confused with the Cunard vessel of the same name that was sunk by a German U-Boat south of Ireland in 1915.
About an hour up the eastern side of the peninsula brought us to Simon’s Town and the spectacularly located Seaforth Restaurant for our lunch stop. Located on a bluff overlooking a small bay with a white sandy beach, the restaurant is quite large and caters to large groups like ours as well as locals. The lunch of hake with calamari washed down with a cool beer was quite good.
A short walk from the Seaforth Restaurant is Boulders Beach, famous for its colony of African penguins; these small birds are now critically endangered and inhabit this beach year round, building nests in burrows just above the tide line. Access is via a series of raised wooden walkways that provide excellent viewing down to the beach and the penguins. The colony did appear to be smaller than we remembered from our last visit 12 years ago, but nevertheless these birds are very beautiful and so cute – we even saw a couple of recent hatchlings.
Our final stop of the tour was at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, about 90 minutes from Boulders, the gardens are just south of Cape Town. The gardens focus is on native local species with a large selection of protea, the national flower of South Africa – unfortunately this was not the time of year to see protea in bloom. Walking through the garden is so peaceful with many shaded walkways, expansive lawns and Table Mountain as a magnificent backdrop. Our guide insisted on marching us up to the top end of the garden to experience a fantastic elevated wooden walkway through the treetops with breathtaking views out across to Table Mountain.
Comments