CAPE TOWN | CAPE POINT | TABLE MOUNTAIN | WINELANDS

Cape Town and the Cape Peninsula
Cape Town is a cosmopolitan and modern city at the southern tip of Africa. The central city is somewhat small by world standards, being confined as it is between mountain and sea, but the wider metropolitan area is enormous, with the distance from Simon's Town in the south to Table View in the north being almost 100 kms (60 miles).

The city is at the northern end of a 54 km long peninsula which culminates in the dramatic headland at Cape Point, often mistakenly referred to as the southernmost tip of Africa. That distinction belongs to Cape Agulhas, a few hundred kms to the east.

There is a dramatic difference in the ocean on either side of the peninsula. The western, Atlantic side is influenced by the cold Benguela current and experiences near freezing temperatures, even in summer. The False Bay side however experiences temperatures several degrees warmer making it more pleasant for swimming.

Beaches
The Cape Peninsula has some of the best beaches in the world which are packed with locals, up-country visitors and foreign tourists on hot summer days.

The Atlantic coast beaches of Clifton, Camps Bay and Llandudno are popular venues overlooked by multimillion Rand mansions and apartments. On the False Bay side are the warm water beaches of Muizenberg, Fish Hoek and Boulders Beach in Simon's Town where sun worshippers share the beach with the only land based penguin breeding colony in Africa.

Scenic Africa
There is none of the classical Africa here, no wild animals circling your tented safari camp at night, no dusty veld stretching to the distant horizon and no steaming mangrove swamps.

The countryside has been settled for too long for that and the city is too old. This is rather a land of gentle green vines, towering mountains and trout filled streams. The area known as the Western Cape has been settled since the 17th century and the land which once teemed with game such as elephant, lion, rhino, hippo and vast herds of antelope, has been subdued and put to the farmers plough.

Although leopards are said to still roam the most inaccessible mountain peaks, the wild game has long since been hunted to extinction.