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South Africa road trip | CN Traveller

Written by Travel Adventures

In Cape Town, there are mountain people and there are sea people. To hear someone say ‘I get my energy from the mountain’ isn’t unusual here. But the ocean is a more compelling muse; a swirling, surging part of the local identity. The two come together in the indigenous name for Table Mountain- Hoerikwaggo in the Khoi language, or sea mountain- its age-creased front etched by the powerful tides millions of years ago. Recently, during lockdown, I’d open my windows to let in the scent and amplify the growl of the breaking waves. Depending on the city’s ever-changing weather, they might be a tropical blue- masking their bone-numbing temperature- or a moody metallic grey.


Chapman’s Peak cliffs

Josh Tarr

My drive south then east along the coast is a familiar weekend route, often travelled with a wetsuit in the back, past the suburb of Hout Bay and out along Chapman’s Peak Drive, known as the Chappies. It carves an audacious course along the Atlantic coast, sheer sandstone above and below, shielded from rockfall by curving catch fences. When it ends, I cut across the peninsula to see the African penguins at Boulders Beach- an endangered colony that was reduced to just two breeding pairs in the 1980s but has since clung on, growing in numbers in what is now a Marine Protected Area. I wander down the boardwalk, watching the little braying birds pop out on their bellies and waddle onto shore.


Farmhouse on the road to Hermanus

Josh Tarr

Further east, though, are bigger beasts. Staying close to the sea along the winding road, I continue to Hermanus, from where it’s possible to spot Southern Right whales without even leaving land as they breach or sunbathe with their calves. One lobtails, high-fiving the surface with the broad flukes of its tail, and from his lookout point the whale crier blows his horn, alerting visitors to another sighting. After a couple of hours’ drive I turn the car onto the dirt track to De Hoop Nature Reserve. As a troop of baboons lopes across, I back off the accelerator, calming the dust cloud behind me, and roll down my window. The fresh, earthy smell of fynbos mingles with the minty scent of eucalyptus.


Eco residences at Lekkerwater Beach Lodge

Josh Tarr

My guide, Billy Robertson from Lekkerwater Beach Lodge, is waiting to meet me. We pile into a four-wheel-drive and roar into the high, white sand dunes, up and over, reconnecting with the sea again as the surf beats out its white-noise rhythm. Lekkerwater means ‘good water’ in Afrikaans, and the name suits. I left the cold Atlantic behind when I passed the southernmost tip of Africa (next stop, Antarctica); this is the Indian Ocean. Bottlenose dolphins leap in the frothing shallows and a pair of black oystercatchers totters over the sand. In the hills behind, a Cape leopard skulks, unseen aside for its spoor on the sandy trails. That evening, the moon rises full from beneath a fine layer of silvery mist that hangs above the wild waves.


View of Camps Bay and Clifton from Table Mountain

Josh Tarr

Living by the ocean has been shown to improve mental health- simply gazing out, watching eddies of light play on it, is uplifting and restorative. I’m definitely a sea person.

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