Welcome to Cape Town, one of the most beautiful cities in the world!
Today I will take you on a ride to show you my 3 most favourite routes
in and around Cape Town. We're starting right here in Hout Bay at the harbour.
A great place to grab some fresh fish and energy, before heading over there to Chapman's Peak Drive.
Chapman's Peak is named after John Chapman, captain's mate of an English ship that
sailed into Hout Bay in 1607. He was sent ashore to find provisions not knowing it
would one day be the location of one of the world's most famous roads!
In 1915, construction started on the steep slopes. Seven years later the road was opened.
What an amazing view. And you have so many different viewing points here.
You can just stop and basically spend the whole day enjoying the view.
What's really cool: it's changing all the time. The weather changes, the clouds are changing,
the sun is coming out, it's just awesome. Just make sure you take
some snacks with you or a picnic box. There are no restaurants and shops along the way.
Chapman's Peak Drive, also known as 'Chappies' amongst the locals,
is a 9 kilometer long drive along the coast.
It also forms part of two big sports events: The Two Oceans Marathon
and the Cape Town Cycle Tour. During the tour, around 35,000 bicycles pass by here.
The road has 114 curves right between the ocean and the cliffs.
There have been some rock falls and landslides in the past
so keep your eyes on the street while driving.
This is where you arrive in the end of the drive: at this beautiful Nordhoek beach, right next to Nordhoek.
You can see, it is very long and has beautiful sand.
Normally you would see more now, but as I told you earlier, the weather is changing all the time here.
Now it is even drizzling a bit and all the clouds came up.
That's the reason why I will not jump in the water for a refreshment today,
which is ice cold anyways. Some people though are daring there in there.
In case you are planning to do it, go ahead!
But be aware of the rip currents.
You've got to be a good swimmer if you're out in the water there.
We are heading to our next destination now, to another beautiful route a little bit outside of Cape Town.
Alright, let's get ready for route number 2:
Bainskloof Pass between the towns of Wellington and Ceres round about 1,5 hours from Cape Town by road.
It was named – you guessed it – after the guy who built it: Andrew Bain. But he obviously did not do
most of the hard work. Yes, he was the road engineer
and it is a fine piece of road engineering. But most of the work like at Chapman's Peak
was done by convicts who were forced to the hard labour. Many of them died.
The road was opened in 1854. Last time I got here, it was a bit bumpy and narrow
so you could feel it's old. Let's see how it looks like this time around. Let's go!
The most exciting part of this mountain pass is about 18 km long. It is quite a narrow road and
the landscape is amazing. No wonder it is labelled a national monument.
Bad news: it's closed due to maintenance work.
At least parts of it. You can see they are constructing, the road here is closed.
But at least we will be able to see the first part of this wonderful pass.
The entire pass is scheduled to be reopened in June, but perhaps be smarter than me,
and check before you get here. It was supposed to have reopened a long time ago.
This is Borcherd's Bridge. A nice spot to have a break and enjoy the beautiful scenery.
And the stream that is passing through here. It is also the place where the Limietberg Hiking Trail is passing through.
It's a 2 to 3 day hike through the Limietberg Nature Reserve,
and I heard it's a beautiful hike with rock pools along the way as well as a nice camping spot
where you can stay overnight. As I said, I just heard about it.
It's still on my to do list. I have to come back to do that hike actually.
In winter, the high mountain peaks are sometimes capped with snow. And in summer
it gets extremely hot and dry. After the mist earlier, the sun is burning now.
My highlight of this tour is a stop along the Witte river that flows down here.
So, you just stop and make shure to jump into the crystal clear water.
Find one of the rare parking spots along here, make sure you park properly because the road is very narrow.
And then it's just like a 2 minutes hike down where you can refresh yourself.
Which is obviously amazing on a hot day ike today.
My best idea today was certainly to bring along my swimming gear.
It's more than 30 degrees and on the bike it can get really hot with all the protective gear.
But now if you come down here you'll forget about all of that.
Look at this wonderful view, this wonderful water that just waits for me to jump in.
Oh, it feels so good!
If I was one of the construction workers up there
I would secretly slip down here and spend the whole day in the water.
I start wrapping up my Bainskloof Pass ride. On the way back you can
stop at one of the wine estates along the way, which are also open for visitors.
I'm heading to my third route: Franschhoek Pass.
It starts at theTheewaterskloof Dam. The largest lake in the region provides water for half of Cape Town.
Soon afterwards, the long, steep and dramatic scenery starts.
It was South Africa's first properly engineered road.
If you can, try to come here during the week though it gets quite busy on weekends.
If you are lucky, you will come across some Baboons along your way.
20 years ago the Cape Peninsula baboon population was heading towards extinction.
But luckily that has changed.
So enjoy the time, watch them, observe them, but remember: they are wild animals,
so be careful! They can be dangerous. Sometimes they are snatching food
even bags and cameras. So be very careful and please, don't feed them!
You can see there are even installed special dust bins along the way where you can throw your stuff.
And they have a baboon protector here so they can't just open it.
As you turn through the magnificent pass, you will reach another highlight.
From up here you have this fantastic view on Franschhoek. I could spend hours here.
Less than 20.000 people live down there
but it is still one of the most popular tourist destinations in South Africa.
Franschhoek means 'French Corner' in Africaans and this is exactly how it feels like down there.
It has a little bit of this French vibe.
I enjoyed the ride down from the mountains to the Franschhoek valley,
home to some amazing restaurants and vineyards.
We spent much more time than we actually planned on the pass
because it's just so beautiful and it's so much fun to drive through these curvy roads.
We got to town right on time for a sundowner which we are having here right now
at a small restaurant in the city center.
That's actually the major challenge when you get to Franschhoek
to decide where you want to go. There are so many wine farms and restaurants here.
It makes it very difficult to decide.
I had a really great time on these 3 different scenic routes. I hope you enjoyed it as well.
Until next time – cheers!