Scuba Diving
Diving Cape Town’s icy Atlantic side is a temperature test, but the curse of cold upwelling brings perfect, clear conditions. Once you’ve adapted to the chill the rewards are considerable: giant pinnacles, boulder-strewn reefs, caves and swim-throughs. But it’s not only the kaleidoscopic marine life that offers excitement.
The Cape’s notorious storms have also produced a graveyard of shipwrecks to explore. Looking like a Michelin man in seven-millimetre wetsuit, hood, gloves and booties you scramble inelegantly over boulders and into the water at Oudekraal. You descend to a spot known as Coral Gardens. Caves and boulders are coated with noble coral (Allopora nobilis) - a collage of orange, red and purple polyps covering every rocky surface.
At 20 metres down the water is a numbing 8°C, but the spectacle is worth it, so you fin on... Later, you tip off the gunwale into Miller’s Point blue and kick down to the Pietermaritzburg, a naval vessel scuttled in False Bay shallows. There it is, standing upright and encrusted with mussels and starfish at around 15 metres. You find a hatch and enter the hull’s dark interior.
False Bay's Seal Island
But for a greater rush, try bobbing about like bait in a cage off False Bay’s Seal Island, waiting for an audience with the man in the grey suit. Before you’ve had time to compose yourself, its dark shape looms from the murk: three, maybe four, metres of raw power and a very sharp business end coursing lazily in your direction. How great is the white! The monster closes and you see its deadly smile - rows of teeth as big as your fingers.
Is it you he wants? All your risk-taking bravado and adrenaline questing seems suddenly pointless: trivialized by this super-predator. Snowy underbelly, pectorals - then a giant flick of dorsal and he’s gone, leaving the sea terrifyingly empty. You emerge well iced, sobered, and chug back to Kalk Bay all atingle.
Your troop meanders to the Brass Bell for a frosty in its cosy pub where other thrill junkies are doing the same. You settle down to share tales of close shaves and plan the next day’s madness. It’s summer, it’s Cape Town, what else is there to do?
Hobie Catting
You’re waist-deep in the shore break and holding onto one of the hulls. A big set is looming. Skipper Brent Coetzee cleats the jib, hauls in the main sheet and shouts for you to jump on. You need no encouraging. The Hobie 18 Pacific punches the first crest, water gushing over the trampoline. You consider pointing out that you’ve already had a shower, but think better of it. A big wave looms at the back and Brent bears off the wind, letting the cat accelerate.
At the last minute he hardens up and the hulls puncture the lip, launching into the air. You’re whooping again. The waters of Fish Hoek Bay are pale green and warm. The southeaster is up and Brent orders you out on trapeze. The Pacific is designed for long distance ocean crossings and is much faster than its smaller cousins, the Hobies 14 and 16. It’s also fitted with outriggers, so when on trapeze, you’re a long way from deck and water, more so when you’re flying a hull.
It’s so much fun you just keep going, further and deeper into False Bay, high on neat speed. When Fish Hoek Beach has been reduced to a sliver of icing, you gybe and run for home. The cat responds to a gust and you’re surfing a powerful comber, playing its face like a surfboard. A southern right whale surfaces unexpectedly in the trough in front of you. Brent slams the rudders over and you miss the beast with nothing to spare. A blast of fishy air and a flipper for thanks.
By Justin Fox
False Bay is so named because many sailors returning from the East used to mistake Cape Hangklip (near Hermanus) for Cape Point. As a result...
Self drive routes from Cape Town invite visitors to the Mother City to experience the natural splendour, fun activities and scenic attractio...