There are famous coastal roads all over the world, and this is the one I would put above all of them.
Chapman's Peak Drive runs from Hout Bay to Noordhoek, carved into the face of the mountain between the layers of red sandstone and the granite below. On one side the rock rises almost straight up; on the other it falls away to the sea. Every bend opens a new view: back over Hout Bay and the Sentinel, or south down the long white sweep of Noordhoek Beach towards Kommetjie.
I have driven it more times than I can count, and I still slow down at the same corners. We take it at the pace of the light, stopping at the lookouts, and if the hour is right, with a glass of something cold as the sun goes into the sea.
John Sparks
The drive, in two minutes
The cliff road from the air and from our own car, the Atlantic straight below, the rock overhang, Noordhoek Beach, my family at the lookout above Hout Bay, and my boys holding up the sun beside the Sentinel. Filmed over several days; the light changes from one evening to the next. Sound on.
A road with a story
Chapman's chance
In 1607 an English ship lay becalmed off Hout Bay, and the captain sent his mate, John Chapman, ashore for food. The bay was marked on the charts as Chapman's Chaunce, and the peak above it still carries his name.
Built by hand
Sir Frederic de Waal, the first Administrator of the Cape Province, insisted the road go along the cliffs. Work began in 1915 with convict labour, from Hout Bay and Noordhoek at once.
Opened in 1922
Prince Arthur of Connaught opened the road on 6 May 1922. It had taken seven years and cost twenty thousand pounds. It turned a hundred in 2022.
Closed, and reborn
After rockfalls the road was closed in 2000. It was rebuilt with catch fences and a covered gallery cut into the cliff, and reopened as a toll road in December 2003.
Two kinds of rock
Look up and you see the layered sandstone of the Table Mountain range; look down and the road sits on ancient granite boulders. The join between them is the ledge the road was built on.
Weather permitting
The road closes in heavy rain or when there is a risk of rockfall. We check it on the morning, and if it is closed we simply come round the other way.
The drive, the way I like it
The right light
Early morning or late afternoon, when the low sun turns the sandstone red and gold. Midday is fine; the evening is something else.
The lookouts
We stop where the view opens over Hout Bay and the Sentinel, and again on the Noordhoek side, with time to stand at the wall and take it in.
Sundowners
On a still evening we pause at the top with a glass of Cape wine as the sun goes down over the Atlantic.
On to Cape Point
The drive is the start of the day round the peninsula: down through Noordhoek and Kommetjie to the Cape of Good Hope, and home past the penguins at Boulders.
Photographs and videos to keep
Forty-three photographs of the drive to view large and download, and the Chapman's Peak films on YouTube.
Open the gallery ↗I still slow down at the same corners.
Before you go
Where
Between Hout Bay and Noordhoek on the Atlantic side of the Cape Peninsula, about half an hour from the city.
How long
Twenty minutes if you simply drive it. With us, as long as the light and the view deserve.
Bring
A jacket. Even on a warm day the wind can be sharp at the lookouts.
Pairs well with
A night at Tintswalo Atlantic at the foot of the drive, swimming with the seals in Hout Bay, and Cape Point.
A Private Consultation
A 45-minute call with me, confidential and with no obligation, to talk through where this fits in your time with us. Write to john@visitorstoafrica.com or find us on WhatsApp at @visitorstoafrica.