Day Two

The day, hour by hour

• 9.30

  Two oceans by helicopter

  Twenty-five minutes from the Waterfront: down the Atlantic seaboard, over Hout Bay and Chapman’s Peak↗, round towards Cape Point↗ and back across False Bay. Six guests to a machine.

• 11.45

  Into the old city, past the Castle

  Back across the city from the heliport, with the guide telling the story as we drive: why the Dutch stopped here in 1652 to grow food for their ships, and how a vegetable garden became a city. We pass the stone walls of the Castle of Good Hope, the oldest building in the country.

• 12.15

  A walk through the Company’s Garden

  Then on foot, under the old oaks of the garden where Cape Town began, past the Houses of Parliament. I have walked this path with guests for thirty years, and I still find something new in it.

• 1.00

  Up into the Bo-Kaap

  The cobbled streets and the pink, green and yellow houses of the Bo-Kaap, on the slope of Signal Hill, home to the Cape Malay community since the first of their ancestors were brought here from the islands of South-East Asia in the seventeenth century. We walk it slowly, with the mountain above us.

• 2.00

  Lunch at Café Caprice, Camps Bay

  Over Kloof Nek and down to the sea, across the road from the beach, with the Twelve Apostles behind. Their own choice from the menu; we book the table, and the guide sits with them.

• Afternoon

  At leisure

  Back to the hotel to rest, or the Waterfront on foot, until we collect everyone for the mountain.

• 5.30

  Table Mountain

  Straight to the front of the queue and up, five minutes in the cable car with the floor turning slowly beneath them and the city falling away. At the top we walk together east across the plateau to Maclear’s Beacon, the highest point of the mountain at 1,086 metres, through fynbos that grows nowhere else on earth. Below us lie the City Bowl, Table Bay and Robben Island; from the beacon Devil’s Peak rises straight ahead, and the view runs over the southern suburbs to False Bay, the Winelands and the Hottentots Holland mountains. We come back along the quieter edge, with the Twelve Apostles running down to the Atlantic and Hout Bay beyond. An easy, mostly level walk of about two hours, and one of the finest I know.

• Sunset

  Sundowners on the summit

  Back near the top station with something cold to drink, as the sun goes down into the Atlantic a thousand metres below. Then the cable car down in the last of the light.

• Evening

  An evening at the Waterfront

  Down from the mountain with the city lights coming on, and back to the Waterfront, where the evening is theirs to take at their own pace. The old harbour is at its loveliest after dark: the fishing boats at the quay, the seals asleep on the landing stages, the clock tower lit, and Table Mountain a dark shape above it all. There are tables on the water for every taste, from fresh oysters and Cape seafood to a quiet Italian, and we book whichever they choose; our guide is glad to walk them there. For anyone who has had enough adventure for one day, the hotel terrace looks out over the harbour, and bed is a few steps away.

Along the way today

• Table MountainThe flat-topped mountain over the city, by cable car or on foot.
• The Bo-KaapPainted houses and cobbled lanes on the slopes above the city.
• The Castle of Good HopeThe oldest building in South Africa, finished in 1679.
• The Company’s GardenThe garden the Dutch planted in 1652 to feed the passing ships.
• Hout BayThe fishing harbour under the Sentinel, and the boats out to the seals.
• Chapman’s Peak DriveNine kilometres cut into the cliff face above the Atlantic.
• Cape Point and the Cape of Good HopeThe old lighthouse, with False Bay on one side and the Atlantic on the other.
• Café CapriceLunch across the road from the beach at Camps Bay.

Films▶ Two Oceans by helicopter▶ Table Mountain▶ Chapman’s Peak▶ Cape Point

Who is where