As this was our second trip to Cape Town we wanted to see more of the area and booked a day trip through our hotel (Sugar Hotel).
We met our guide, Oncemore, at 9am who outlined our intended route – Sea Point, Bantry Bay (an affluent Cape Town suburb), Clifton Beach, past the Twelve Apostles (a group of small mountains running along the coast) to Camps Bay (named after Fredrick Ernst von Kamptz a resident in 1850).
We continued through Cosy Bay and Llandudno to Hout Bay where a boat took us on a choppy crossing to Seal Island where huge amounts of seals basked in weak sunshine.
We were lucky that the narrow, cliff-hugging road to Chapman’s Peak Drive was not closed due to landslides as it offered panoramic views over the bay. At Simon’s Town, a naval base used by the British during the Second World War, we stopped to see something I’d never seen before: endangered African penguins in their natural habitat at Boulders Penguin Colony. A boardwalk allowed us to get close to the penguins which were ran in and out of the sea.
On our drive to Table Mountain National Park, Oncemore told us about his unusual name. It went something like this: his eldest sister was christened Needmore, he came along as Oncemore, followed by his younger sister, Anymore. When his mother became pregnant for the fourth time, she was due to have a caesarean but, having found a new religion, prayed she would deliver the child naturally, which she did. So instead of being called Nomore as planned, his youngest sibling is called Wonderful. What a wonderful tale!
We arrived at Table Mountain National Park to find a very busy Two Ocean’s restaurant with only tables on the terrace available. Although it was slightly chilly, we had a splendid lunch. At Cape Point we took a funicular to a hill top and climbed a series of steps to an historic lighthouse used between 1860 and 1919. A short drive, passing ostriches and baboons, took us on to the Cape of Good Hope for photos.
We returned a different way via Scarborough and Silverman and saw in the distance, the Cape Flats, Constancia winelands and red-roofed Pollsmoor Prison where Nelson Mandela was held prior to release.
Oncemore proved to be an expert guide and we arrived back at our hotel not only having had a great day out, but feeling much more knowledgeable.
