'Visitors to Cape Point usually drive there and back the same day," says Sally Grierson of the destination marketing company Cape Point Route. To entice visitors to remain longer, she and her partner Barbara Elshove-Schmidt invited tour guides from the Cape Tourist Guide Association to find out more about the attractions of the South Peninsula.

After an early start, we headed for Muizenberg to be enthralled by guide Andre Rudman and his tales of its former residents, hotels, holidaymakers and its history.

The drive to Kalk Bay over Boyes Drive did not produce any whale sightings, unfortunately - too much wind and choppy seas. This also meant that we had to forego the water taxi ride to Simon's Town. These water taxis operate "every lovely day" from either Kalk Bay or Simon's Town, offering a new perspective on the False Bay coastline.

However our disappointment was assuaged on arriving at Glencairn and meeting Jenny Trethowan of Baboon Matters, an organisation dedicated to protecting the remaining Chacma baboons in the southern Peninsula. In addition to running the baboon monitoring project, Baboon Matters also offers baboon walks.

Baboon monitors found a troop for us in the upper reaches of Glencairn. Our guide Chris pointed out George, the scarred dominant male, bleeding from a recent encounter with a younger male. A not so common sight was that of the baboons jumping into a pond and doing their version of doggy paddle.

'Every lovely day'
We enjoyed an undisturbed view of the sea while lunching on the terrace of Flukes Restaurant in the restored Southern Right Hotel.

A convoy of motorbikes with vintage sidecars, courtesy of Cape Sidecar Adventures, transported us to the Cape Farm House Restaurant at the bottom of Red Hill Road for tea and snacks.

On the farm is an "artsy" craft shop with striking metal sculptures. The metal horse near the entrance provides quite a contrast to the artefacts displayed on the road.

Sunscene Outdoor adventures has a site where individuals and teams can swing from ropes, climb trees, cross wonky bridges and fly over a dam suspended from a rope. Nobody in our party accepted the invitation.

We said goodbye to the sidecars at Noordhoek Farm Village, where we checked into the new De Noordhoek Hotel for the night. A tour of the hotel revealed the comfortable, modern amenities. A guiding principle behind its design was flexibility and adaptability providing for a combination of tourist groups - families, adults only and four suites for disabled guests.

At Noordhoek Farm Village we explored the shops, enjoyed a wine tasting at Manuka fine wine boutique and admired the paintings for sale in the Eatwell Gallery.

An excellent dinner was provided at the The Toad in the Village (a nod to the endangered western leopard toad). The following morning I went for an early walk round the area - tranquil, quiet and green.

FullCycle, which has a worm farm at the Mount Nelson Hotel, has a worm container in the village where an effective and efficient method of organic waste disposal was demonstrated.

After breakfast at Café Roux, we went for a high-speed boat trip out of Hout Bay harbour run by Bugaloo adventures. It is the perfect solution to adventure tourist enquiries and we had to steer clear of a nearby whale.

Source: News24.com - www.news24.com

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