Cape Town, Day 2 Western Cape Peninsula Ride

Friday, October 30, 2015

Today we woke up to another beautiful day in Cape Town and departed the hotel for sightseeing and biking on the Cape Peninsula.  We left Cape Town and drove over the mountain range to the Western area of the Cape Peninsula.  Much of this drive was on a two-lane highway that was built on the edge of the cliffs overlooking the Atlantic.  The views were just outstanding.  Our first stop was at an overlook for Hout Bay with a great view of Sentinel Point at the western mouth to the Bay.

Hout Bay, Sentinel Point

South-west from Hout Bay

From there we crossed the peninsula to the eastern side and continued to Boulder, which is in the Table Mountain National Park.  Boulder is a habitat for the African penguins, which are much smaller than the Emperor penguin and only stand about 18 inches tall.  Several of the penguins were molting and that means they must stay out of the water for about 2 weeks, because they have no waterproofing.  When they walk they have a funny waddle to their walk.  

We continued our drive further south along the east coast and then cut inland to enter Cape Peninsula National Park and continued driving to Cape Hope, which is the most southwestern point on the African continent.  Here we took a group picture.  We then continued to Cape Point, which is the location of the most southern lighthouse on the continent.  This point is a mountainous promontory on southwest tip of Africa.  A hike to the old lighthouse gave beautiful views of the peninsula and  of the Atlantic Ocean and False Bay.

Group at Cape of Good Hope

Cape Point Lighthouse Overlook

View from Cape Point Lighthouse

This is the point where we began today’s biking.  We started in the Cape Point parking lot and biked northward, exited the Cape Point exit booth, and turned left onto Plateau Road for a gorgeous ride along the western coastline towards Scarborough and Red Hill.   

 Fortunately, the wind, which was strong, was to our back and that made the ride much easier than a headwind.  At Red Hill we turned into the Cape Farmhouse driveway for our lunch.  As usual, the lunch was more like a dinner than a lunch.  

After lunch, we continued riding to Scarborough and then onto the Beach Rd. for great riding along the coast, a cold tail wind from the ocean, and beautiful views of Misty Cliffs.  

Within a short distance we met the van to take us and our bikes back to Cape Town. The Cape Peninsula is certainly a beautiful area of South Africa with great biking.  After returning to Cape Town, we checked to find that the cable car to Table Mountain was still closed due to high winds.  Maybe the winds will subside tomorrow (our last day in Cape Town) and we can work the ride into the program.