Mother Nature & Capetown

In how many places in the world can you live a 10-minute drive from the downtown business district, and enjoy a view of the sea and the mountains while heading to work on the freeway?

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Cape Town is a city built around a core of high-lying wilderness and surrounded by a swirling ocean that carries a myriad forms of life up from the Antarctic and down from the tropics. It's a city where the sun warms ancient rocks and nurtures a unique plant community that wafts its perfume unseen over the shops, streets and houses. A city whose inhabitants, often unconsciously, orientate their lives around that huge central monolith, Table Mountain - otherwise known as Hoerikwaggo, the mountain of the sea.

Yes, there really is more to this city than the Waterfront and the winelands. If you've made the sensible decision to spend the holiday period here, read on and you'll find a whole lot of new reasons why it was such a good move.

We've always called Capetown the Mother City, but probably for the wrong reasons. It is not the birthplace of the South African nation, as many of us were taught in school years ago. But it is the nurturing city. While Johannesburg gets on with the business of business and Durban plays at being the eternal adolescent, Cape Town ensures we remain in touch with our deeper selves.

And yes, there really is something different about this city. There has to be. Otherwise why would we Capetonians put up with a higher cost of living, lower salaries and the South-easter, just so that we can live next to that gorgeous hunk of rock and on the edge of what we still insist on calling our two oceans? And so that we can amble through the fynbos, sniffing the keurboom, rubbing wild rosemary between our fingers and gazing fondly to where the purple hills sweep down to the sea?

Think about it. How many major cities are built around a national park? In how many places in the world can you live a 10-minute drive from the downtown business district, and enjoy a view of the sea and the mountains while heading to work on the freeway? And, when the drive takes much more than 10 minutes, where else can you work off those rush-hour blues by watching baby zebras frolicking in a field of daisies, wildebeest bounding off with their silly tail-swinging gait, and placid eland gazing bemusedly at all the hustle and bustle?

It's a city whose inhabitants sneak off work early on summer afternoons to commune with nature. You'll find some at the roadside kitting up for a quick dive into the Atlantic's mysterious kelp forests. Or some trudging up Lion's Head, either just for a stroll and to watch the sun set on one hand and the full moon rise on the other, or to hang-glide off into the sunset and land at the edge of the ocean. Some may be taking a quick run up Platteklip Gorge, and others a leisurely paddle from Hout Bay or Mouille Point. Yes, living here is qualitatively different to living in almost any other city in South Africa, possibly the world.

Although Cape Point is not officially the meeting place of the Indian and Atlantic oceans, we do know that something happens there. More often than not, if you stand on top of the Point and look out to sea you can see a line of foam stretching from the base of the cliffs to the horizon. The first time I saw this I must have been all of six years old, securely perched on my dad's shoulders, and he said, 'That's where the oceans meet'. Now how could I possibly question such an authoritative source? You can, of course, believe whatever you like - but it does all come together there. Perhaps not the oceans, but something.

Tacked on at the very tip of Africa, Cape Town is the exclamation mark that emphasises the unique character of this most extraordinary of continents. It is here that the tiniest of the world's floral kingdoms exhibits the greatest diversity. It is here that the winds and currents bring strange visitors: Antarctic birds flying over Cape Point, southern right whales turning up to work on family bonding and find refuge from the bitterly cold Southern Ocean. And, from the other direction, baby turtles come wandering past, just marking time as they swim around and around - in current and counter-current - until they're old enough and tough enough to take their place on the coral reefs near the subtropical beaches of their birth.

Cape Town's a place where people, animals and plants - and even rocks and mountains - co-exist in a strange kind of harmony. With deep ocean to the south and west, parched desert to the north and lush forest off in the east, it's a meeting place. A centre of change, of flux. So it is not surprising that it is also, according to an ever-growing body of alternative thinkers, one of the principal energy centres of the earth.

Sounds whacky, I know, but hear it out. The earth has 12 chakras, or energy centres. Eight are situated on lei lines, and four are spinner wheels - more powerful centres that circulate energy to, around and between the other centres and the lei lines. Now, Table Mountain is one of these four spinner wheels. (The others are Haleakala, on the Hawaiian island of Maui, Tongariro in New Zealand, and a spot somewhere near the pyramids of Giza, Sinai and the Mount of Olives.)

I don't know what that really means, but it's not hard to believe that Table Mountain, and Cape Town, are centres of change, of alternative culture. Remember the fuss in the late 1980s when many New Age thinkers, among them the then mayor of Cape Town, planted 'peace poles' on the Mountain as a kind of planetary acupuncture? Now that may sound weird, but a lot of Christian fundamentalists, and others who are threatened by change, felt strongly enough about it to protest in a not entirely peaceful way. Perhaps there is something in it? Otherwise, surely the pole-planters would have just been laughed off the slopes of the (now that I think about it) rather ominously named Devil's Peak?

But seriously, there is a respectable history of people who felt the Mountain to be a source of energy and renewal, not least among them Jan Smuts who regularly retreated to its slopes for strength, inspiration and re-creation. Perhaps it was on the summit, looking out over Table Bay and Robben Island, that he formulated the ideas he would contribute to the formation of the League of Nations, later the United Nations. Nor can we forget that it was here that the new South Africa was born, after decades of long gestation on that lowest and most isolated of Table Mountain's peaks, Robben Island. Subsequent meetings at Pollsmoor and at Victor Verster prisons, and then long negotiations all led up to that triumphal moment when the new nation took its first breath and Nelson Mandela gave his first speech as a free man - on the Grand Parade, in the shadow of Table Mountain.

More prosaically, though, Table Mountain is a great piece of open space conveniently situated in the middle of the city. It is a refuge - but only one of them. When you're in Cape Town again, take the time to appreciate what a wonderful natural destination it is - you'll find much more than you would ever have imagined. You could...

• Take a walk on the Mountain. This is the obvious one. But don't be silly - this is no little urban hill. More people have died on Table Mountain than on Everest. Probably because very few people take Everest for granted or head up its slopes unprepared. So, either go on an escorted walk, or stick close to the cableway station, or buy a good guide book and follow the routes. You would be amazed at how many walks there are. Capetonians reckon you could do a different walk every week of the year.

• Find a deserted beach. Not as hard as it sounds. One of the best places to start is in the reserve at Cape Point, now part of the Cape Peninsula National Park (CPNP). Some of the least visited beaches there are Bordjiesdrif, Platbank, Platboom and Gifkommetjie. A great way to get far from the madding crowd.

• Head off to Sandy Bay, near Llandudno, for a different type of Mother Nature experience. For those not in the know, Sandy Bay is Cape Town's unofficial naturist beach.

• Kirstenbosch Gardens. Once you've left the lawns and flowerbeds behind, there are pockets of indigenous forest in the kloofs.

• Birding at Rondevlei. This is probably Cape Town's best-kept secret - a small piece of heaven tucked away in a little-known corner of the Cape Flats. Five hides, a one-kilometre wheelchair-accessible walk, and observation towers complete the picture.

• Or find more birds at the Strandfontein Waste Water Treatment Works. Surprisingly, this is one of the best birding venues in the Cape Town area and although it's obviously far from pristine wilderness and neither glamorous nor romantic, almost 200 species of birds have been recorded there.

• Visit Cape Point. There are a whole lot of reasons. First, the reserve there is beautiful, with rolling, flower-strewn hills and deserted beaches. Then there is the game - zebra, bontebok, baboons and more. And, of course, you'll want to go to the Point to see the line of foam where the two oceans don't meet.

• Take the Cape Point overnight hike. Now this is seriously worthwhile. You leave your car at the gate and walk along the western side of the reserve until you reach the hut near the Point. It is probably the most fantastic piece of residential property in Cape Town, with views to rival anything in the world. Next day, you hike back to the car via the eastern shore. Bookings open two months in advance and are usually all taken in the first half hour.

• Alternatively, walk from the upper cableway station on Table Mountain itself to Constantia and then stay in a B&B. (There are no official overnight hikes on the Mountain.) It needs some planning and you could, perhaps, extend it.

• Escape from the urban hassle at Tygerberg Nature Reserve, near Bellville. Great views, pretty flowers, short day walks and birds are the main attractions, and you may even spot a grysbok - or a tortoise if you're quick.

• Go up Lion's Head, one of the most popular walking venues in Cape Town. On a full-moon night it gets quite social. This is an excellent way to get a 'feel' for Cape Town if you have limited time.

• Or go up the Mountain by cableway. Even if you don't go further than a few hundred metres from the upper station, you'll be able to see for miles on a clear day. Take a picnic too, but be careful of the predatory dassies - they've been known to reduce a muffin to bare raisins in 10 seconds.

• Visit the Helderberg Nature Reserve, near Somerset West. It's a lovely spot for a pleasant day walk. The flowers are typically fynbos, and the views across the Cape Flats towards the city are well worth the puff of getting up the hill.

• Or drive further afield to the Harold Porter Gardens at Betty's Bay. The birding is good, and there are some wonderfully cool kloofs to meander through.

• Take a boat ride out to Seal Island to see the seals, maybe some dolphins or even a great white shark breaching. In late winter or spring, there's a good chance you'll sight a southern right whale or two. Of course, there's more than one Seal Island (I guess the guys who named them weren't too imaginative). You can choose between one in the middle of False Bay and one off Hout Bay.

• Take another boat ride to Robben Island, which means - you guessed it - Seals Island. The flowers are amazing in spring, and you may see some springbok and other small antelope bounding around. The birds are amazing too, two specials being the African black oystercatcher and the African penguin (previously known as the jackass penguin). A third is the chukar partridge, an exotic species which was released on the island some time ago and seems to have made itself at home.

• Go and see a lot more penguins at Boulders Beach, near Simon's Town, now part of the CPNP. A beach has been fenced off for them to breed in, but if you just hang around on the main swimming beach or stand in the clear, calm water, the chances are they'll pop up to check you out. Funny, curious little birds. But be warned, they bite.

• Stroll gently in the Silvermine Nature Reserve, also part of the CPNP. There's a mountain-bike trail there too. The reserve was closed after the disastrous fires at the beginning of 2000, but it is due to re-open in December. The Tokai Arboretum is also a good place for a relaxing walk. With all its exotic trees and plants it's not exactly wilderness, but it is interesting and quiet.

• Take a longer ramble in Newlands Forest, which is not a forest but a plantation of exotic pines. The character of this part of Cape Town is soon to change, for SA National Parks officials are hacking away at the pines at a tremendous rate. Yes, they are exotics, and they do take in a lot of water, and they do crowd out some of the natural vegetation, but they still make Newlands Forest a shady spot to be in on a hot summer's day.

You can do many of the above as suggested, or you can try a more adventurous option. Mountain-bike at Silvermine or in the forest at Tokai instead of walking. Paddle a kayak out to look at seals or penguins instead of hopping on to a conventional boat. And then there's always surfing, or scuba-diving or snorkeling to explore the wonderfully varied underwater environments on either side of the Peninsula. In Cape Town there's more to do than you can ever imagine. It's a city of opportunity - a place to broaden your horizons, stretch your limbs, flap your wings and take off.

'Cape Town is the place I dream of when I'm away. Of the tiny black dots on Clifton beach as seen from high up on Table Mountain, of fishing boats coming into Kalk Bay harbour seen from Muizenberg Peak, of the smell of fynbos, of struggling in a north-westerly storm on an easier rock route, but mostly of waking in the morning to a view of the whole of Table Mountain from my bedroom window. It's home.'
ED FEBRUARY
Mountain Club of South Africa

'It's the sounds that I love about Cape Town. They inspire me to make music ... all the different languages, the Xhosa clicks, the Coons in carnival, the ocean waves. You can pick up some seaweed on the beach and play Kwela with it - Cape Town is full of music.'
DIZU PLAATJIES
Amampondo marimba band

'The Mother City is my sanctuary. I travel all over Africa, and am often dealing with environmental disaster areas, but in Cape Town I find strength in the sea, strength in the mountains, and also in the people. There is a culture here of using the environment - people walk in it, look at it, breathe it in - that's what it's all about...'
NICHOLAS ELLENBOGEN
Theatre for Africa

'My love for Cape Town is my love for the sea - it's part of my inheritance. You don't just become a fisherman ... there's got to be some salt in your blood. Fishing in False Bay is about predicting the weather. I mean, we don't watch the forecast on TV! We watch the clouds on Kalk Bay mountains and the Hottentots Holland, and the ring around the moon.'
KAPITIE MANUEL
5th-generation Kalk Bay fisherman

'It's the variety the city offers that so enchants me. The sylvan walks of the Constantia Valley versus the craggy experience of the mountain chain further south, the family outing on a Sunday morning to Fish Hoek beach and the body beautiful experience of Clifton's sands, the hip young rollerbladers sharing Sea Point promenade with the OAPs walking equally rickety dogs, the pulsing, on-the-edge life of Long Street a relatively short drive from the tranquil village life of Noordhoek - it's the many worlds in one city that keep me here.'
JOHN MAYTHAM
Radio talk show host

'Cape Town strikes me with its incomparable diversity of landscapes, people, light and moods. It's an exciting city caught somewhere between the First and Third worlds, and as such is packed with paradoxes.'
ALAIN PROUST
Photographer

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