Breathtaking views of the ocean and the majestical mountains is what you will be enjoying if you choose to venture out and explore the spectacular Clarence Drive.
The coastal route from Cape Town takes you through the small seaside towns of Betty’s Bay and Kleinmond to Hermanus, Stanford, Gansbaai and Cape Agulhas. This route then continues inland towards the towns of Swellendam and Riversdale.
Our Experience:
We took an early morning drive to explore this route with the intention to do a hike at the Harold Porter National Botanical Gardens.
The views were breathtaking along the windy Clarence Drive, albeit cloudy on the day we drove there.
As we drove towards the town of Bettys Bay we saw signs saying penguins. Our curiosity got the better of us and made a detour to follow those penguin signs.
When we arrived around 9 am on a public holiday the parking lot was empty. We got to be up close to the penguins in the parking lot. Then we took a walk to Stony Point Nature Reserve.
Pictured above is the boardwalk where we could view the penguins and the ocean. It was amazing seeing the penguins venture in and out of the ocean and into their little ‘houses’. We had to pay an entrance fee to enter this walk. The entrance fee was R25 for adults and R15 for kids (4-12). We thought it was worth the price and would highly recommend this walk if you head towards Bettys Bay. When we were leaving about an hour later more people started coming.
Tip: Go early to avoid the crowds. There is also no shade so being there when the weather is still cool also plays a big part in the experience you will have when you are there.
When we were done walking along the boardwalk we saw some penguins on the other side of the parking lot by the beach. This is where the Stony Point Penguin Colony is. So the kids ran off to see more penguins. There were only a few people in this section. We ended up spending another hour here with the kids collecting seashells and climbing up the rocks by the ocean and interacting and playing with the penguins.
When we headed back to our car at around 11 am the parking lot was absolutely full.
Harold Porter National Botanical Gardens was just 5.3km away so we decided to carry on our intended plan.
Full write up of the Harold Porter National Botanical Gardens will be in the next blog post.
Have you been to any of these places? Have you been to any other fun places that you would recommend we try out on our next trip along the Cape Whale Coast?
Let us know in the comments below.
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