Day Three

The day, hour by hour

• Early

  Breakfast, then away before the coast fills up

  Three vehicles, four guests in each, a Russian-speaking guide in every car. Everyone has a window, and the cars can separate if half the party wants longer somewhere.

• Morning

  Chapman’s Peak Drive↗

  One of the great coastal roads anywhere: carved into the cliff face, Hout Bay below, the drop to the Atlantic on the right the whole way. We stop where the light is good rather than where the signs say to.

• Late morning

  Cape Point↗

  Up to the old lighthouse — on foot, or by funicular — and the long view back down the peninsula, with False Bay on one side and the Atlantic on the other. A look here.

• 1.30

  Lunch on the water at Simon’s Town

  With the sea directly below the table, and nothing to rush for.

• Afternoon

  Swimming with the penguins

  A few minutes from the table, and nowhere near the boardwalk where everyone else goes. A quiet beach further along that the coaches do not visit, where guests get into the water and the birds come and go around them. There is no queue because there is nothing to queue for.

• Afternoon

  Home the slow way

  Back up the False Bay side and through the oak avenues of Constantia rather than the motorway. Anyone who wants to stop, stops.

• Evening

  Dinner at the house

  After a full day out, most parties want their own table and no one else in the room. The chef cooks; nobody goes anywhere.

Along the way today

• 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.
• Boulders BeachAfrican penguins in the granite coves, and the quiet beach where we swim with them.

Films▶ Chapman’s Peak▶ The penguins at Boulders

Who is where