Surfer's Corner

I don't surf at Muizenberg and the only reason for that probably is the distance from my house. Two weekends ago the Atlantic side was flat, but a friend on mine told me that she was surfing at Muizenburg on that same day. This weekend it was once again flat on the Atlantic side but I was in a desperate need to get into  the water so I decided to drive through to Muizenburg with the hope of finding a wave as per her claims.

In hindsight the drive to Muizenburg is not really that bad. Onto the N7, then the N1 and finally the M5 and I'm there. OK, it took me 45 minutes in Sunday traffic, but it is such a mellow drive and such a lame excuse to have never gone to Muizenburg for regular visits. Parking is a bit of a problem though. People seem to be arriving and leaving all the time and with a bit of patience a parking spot will soon become available. Unfortunately I wasn't born with much patience but I managed to find a spot not too far from where all the action seemed to be.

When I looked at the surf I was quite surprised. It looked like a public holiday on South Beach in Durban. In the water I counted more than 150 surfers, and I am not lying. In Muizenburg everyone in the water seems to be surfing or learning how to surf. From the age of 4 I guess up to over 70. If it can float and you have a reasonable chance of standing on it, you have an argument to be called a "surfer". When I saw the amount of people in the water I was a bit reluctant to go in at first. The word "crowded" pops up indiscriminately, but once you are in you realize that you can surf wherever you find a suitable wave breaking close to you. What was fantastic though was the temperature of the water. Although my friend told me that she recently bought booties for the cold I was rather pleased with the water which is probably 5 degrees warmer than on the Atlantic side where I do most of my surfing. 

After my hour and a half surf session I went out to get something to eat and hoping to enjoy the surf atmosphere you find at Surfer's Corner. Not difficult with so many surf shops and nice places to grab a surfer meal. In my case it was a coffee and two samoosas. 

I think I have missed out a lot in the past because of what I believed was "too far to drive". From now on I will make more frequent trips to Muizenburg.....

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......

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five