Friday, February 11, 2011

Day Trip Around the Peninsula - Part One

Cloud bank over Cape Town
After a discussion with friends from Bulgaria I realized that in the ten years that I have been living in Cape Town, I have never really gone to Cape Point. I have been there before, but that was even before we've moved to Cape Town. So, I took a day off and at 7 am I was ready for my day trip around the Peninsula. But, as fate would have it, after 3 weeks of solid sunshine my morning started out rather disappointing when I woke up and saw that it was totally overcast. I didn't want to go for a long bike ride, just a short one with my camera. According to WeatherSA there were only 3 towns with sunshine predicted for the day, and the closest one of them was Worcester. At 8:40 I made up my mind and decided that I would do a trip in that direction hoping to find sunshine. When I left the house the sun was winking at me through holes in the clouds, but I knew she was just flirting and had no intentions of going all the way with me today. But, my luck turned when I reached Durbanville and saw blue skies. I was already getting hot in my bike jacket. I looked around and saw the cloud bank that was rolling in from the Atlantic that was causing the overcast conditions in Cape Town. I was really not in the mood for a 300km trip and decided to turn around and go do the "Day trip around the Peninsula" as I had initially planned, whether there were sunshine for nice pictures or not.

After a detour of about 50 kilometres I reached the M5 again heading towards Muizenburg. That would be my first stop for the day.

MUIZENBERG
When I reached Muizenberg, I was basically back underneath the cloud cover. The sun was occasionally breaking through and I tried to get a few pictures of Surfer's Corner. I have never surfed at surfer's corner before, and even though I am pretty much aware of "the best surf spot in False Bay" for beginners and pros alike, I have never actually felt the need to drive this far to go surf there. The water was crowded, I counted over 70 surfers and was told that this was a "quiet" day. I was watching the guys and girls (mainly longboarders) doing there stuff and didn't see any interference by anyone on another's wave. There is just so much space. The waves were small, but what convinced me to come back was the awesome surfing vibe the place has. I think I saw about 7 surf shops in a radius of one kilometer. It reminded me so much of Durban. I think what Kite beach is for the kitesurfers, surfer's corner is for the surfers. The water here is slightly warmer than on the Atlantic, but they have one huge problem there. SHARKS!


Surfer's Corner in the background.


One of the many surf shops at Surfer's corner.


Crowded? You decide.


A longboarder getting ready to join his mates for a morning session. I have to admit, the waves seemed to favour longboard riding. Definitely the best place to learn to surf...if you are not afraid of sharks of course.


Another cosy restaurant with a surf theme. If I wasn't still stuffed from the previous night's braai, I would've stopped here for another breakfast review. It was still early do I decided to head further southwards. The sun was showing signs of conquering the fog, but at this stage I was still getting cold on the bike.

End of Part One......

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