The Cape, Privately · Sunday 7 February 2027
The Peninsula from the air, the city on foot, and the mountain at sunset.
Three entirely different registers in one day, with a long lunch and an unhurried afternoon between them. They see the shape of the Cape from the air first, which makes everything they do on the ground for the rest of the week make sense.
The day ends on the mountain, because that is the photograph they will send home that night, and because a summit at sunset is worth more on the second evening than on the first, when they are still carrying the flight.
Nothing starts early. They will still be on Moscow hours.
Laid by the resident chef, with no fixed time. The Twelve Apostles behind, the Atlantic below. People come down when they come down.
An hour in the air. Down the Atlantic seaboard past Clifton and Camps Bay, so they see the house from above; along the Twelve Apostles; over Hout Bay and Chapman’s Peak; around Cape Point where the currents meet; and back over the False Bay side. Two machines, six guests in each.
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.
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.
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.
Over Kloof Nek and down to the sea, to a table across the road from the beach, with the Twelve Apostles behind and the Atlantic in front. Long and unhurried; nothing needs to happen until the mountain.
Diamonds and tanzanite. A private viewing at one of the cutting houses, in the workshop rather than at a counter, with a master cutter talking through the stones. Tanzanite is found on one hillside on earth, and few visitors ever see it properly explained.
Art. A private walk-through at Everard Read or one of the Waterfront galleries, led by someone who knows the artists themselves rather than the catalogue.
Cape brandy and cigars. A tasting of South African potstill brandies, which have been quietly beating the French at international competition for years, with cigars for those who want them.
Each group goes with its own Russian-speaking guide. Everything is within a few minutes’ walk, so the cars wait in one place and the party reassembles together.
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.
Our own table and chairs, carried up and set in position, with something light to eat and something cold to drink, as the sun goes into the Atlantic from a thousand metres up. Fast-tracked down once it is dark.
Booked well in advance, and chosen once we know the party.
Films▶ Two Oceans by helicopter▶ Table Mountain▶ Chapman’s Peak▶ Cape Point
| Trip guide | With the party throughout, in Russian. |
|---|---|
| Second guide | Joins for the afternoon, so the three groups each have their own. |
| John Sparks | With the party all day; handles the mountain arrangement personally. |
| Guests | 12 |
|---|---|
| Helicopters | 2 × six-seat, one hour |
| Vehicles | 2, with the guides driving |
| Accommodation | 21 Nettleton, night 2 of 5 |
The proposal
Not tours. Living chapters.February · The Cape
The Cape, three waysThe Cape, PrivatelyThe Cape, HostedThe Cape, EssentialApril · For the Families
For the FamiliesApril · Lesotho
Lesotho and the High CountrySeptember · The whales
The Whales, and Deep TimeWhere they stay
21 NettletonTintswalo AtlanticRadisson CollectionLanzeracGrootbosThe MarineHarbour HouseThe Shark BaySanbonaNambiti HillsEsiweni Luxury Safari LodgeCleopatra Mountain FarmhouseWhere they eat
Café CapriceStellenrustTwo Oceans RestaurantLa ColombeBeau ConstantiaCreationAlong the way
Table MountainThe Bo-KaapThe Castle of Good HopeThe Company’s GardenHout BayBoulders BeachGroot ConstantiaKlein ConstantiaBuitenverwachtingStellenboschRustenbergHermanus and Walker BayRiding at Pearly BeachThe Art of the BlendFranschhoekChapman’s PeakCape of Good HopeSnorkelling with SealsGreat White Shark DivingThe whales: the trailerTalk to me
john@visitorstoafrica.comWhatsApp