I had been waiting for a good winter's day for a return trip to the Cape Point Reserve, and one presented itself last week, with temperatures soaring after a week of cold, wet misery.

It seemed as though everyone in Cape Town was out and about enjoying the sunshine.

The drive to the reserve was a joy, blue seas, green mountains and a plethora of people making the most of the weather. Yachts bobbed in the gentle breezes just off shore and wetsuited figures geared up for shore dives all along the beachfront.

There was a time when I neglected the Cape Point Reserve as it all seemed too much like a tourist trap. I was unable to see past the endless trinkets and tour buses.

However, the bigger picture is that it's a wonderful and varied landscape where near total isolation is easily within grasp for just a little effort and an entry fee that, provided you have a Wild Card, is negligible.

Certainly the lighthouse, the point and the shops are still there, but winter isn't prime season and there is plenty of solitude to be found. There are wonderful strolls along deserted beaches, shipwrecks, monuments and if you are fortunate a glimpse of one of the buck that inhabit the park. There is also a useful visitors centre on the hills above Buffels Bay where you can gather information about indigenous fauna and flora in the park and pick up brochures of a variety of walks.

I decided on a circular walk along the coastline on the western side and back along the cliffs to the carpark. The kick-off point is Gifkommetjie, and for once it is a walk in the Western Cape that actually starts downhill.

There was a moderate, clean ocean swell wrapping into the coast. From atop the cliffs I could see at least one group of surfers readying themselves to hit the waves.

The path meandered downwards over zig-zagging steps to the beach and I followed the narrow trail through a "tunnel" formed by the tangled masses of milkwoods that formed an impenetrable wall of green on either side of me. Egrets sailed along over the kelp that had washed ashore in the recent storms and the occasional twin-collared sunbird sang in the greenery. They are tricky to photograph and proved camera shy. How such tiny creatures manage to survive the harshness of Cape winters always amazes me, but there they were after the previous week's torrential rains and freezing temperatures, singing in the sun, bright jewels among the foliage.

On the rapidly warming rocks at my feet, dark lizards could be seen enjoying the warmth, and from atop a cairn of rocks, there was a perfect view along the coastline. I walked towards the small wreck of the Phyllisia in the distance and watched an angler for a while. He was casting into the deep gullies just inshore of the kelp line seeking out galjoen in the foamy waters.

The return journey took me high up onto the cliff tops, providing wondrous views along the coast in both directions and affording a near aerial view of the surfers, now mere dots in the blue waters. Occasional early flowering ericas dotted the ground with bright red bells, and here and there a sugarbush protea began to show its flowers.

The hike had turned out to be far more pleasant and interesting than I had expected, not too long nor overly taxing. So along with the divers, sailors, surfers and anglers I felt that I had made the most of an unseasonable break in the storms, and returned home feeling suitably self-righteous having enjoyed some fresh air and a little exercise.

I will no doubt have to batten down the hatches again soon, but at least winter does occasionally provide some respite from the dark days and it is best to seize such opportunities and make the most of them; we certainly live in one of the best places in the world to do that.
 

Source: News24.com - www.news24.com

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