I can’t seriously believe we had committed ourselves to this international house sit for two weeks in Simon’s Town near to Cape Town, South Africa. No pets, but to sit and drink wine or beer in this chair and watch the sunset every night for the next 14 days. Life is so not bad!

Simon’s Town and Boulder Beach: swimming with the penguins

Our next sit was only an hour drive from the last one in Cape Town in Simon’s Town famous for Boulders Beach where you can swim and see penguins at the beach. The waters here are actually warmer than in Cape Town (water is super cold in Cape Town!) and you can swim with the African penguins.

A great house sitting for us, no animals and a luxury 3 floor huge house with beautiful views overlooking the Simon’s Town and the beach. We had our very own funicular that went from the garage all the way up to the living room and kitchen, with a stop at the downstairs bedrooms on route.

The house was high up on the side of the mountain pictured above, hence the need for a funicular!

We had electric fences, 8 cameras, motion sensor beams inside and out, video intercom system, and of course the panic buttons where armed guards would show up in minutes of you pressing it. This house had two security companies under contract, just in case the first one didn’t show up fast enough.

Beach in Noordhoek

Simonstown itself has no real supermarket so we headed to nearby Noordhoek which had just about everything you could need including our favorite supermarket in South Africa, Food Lovers Market.

We were lucky to have such a great kitchen in this house along with a braai (BBQ) out on the deck, so we stocked up on some South African typical meats including our new favorite, ostrich steak, and not forgetting some wonderful and inexpensive South African wines to complement it all.

While we were in Noordhoek we decided to check out Noordhoek Beach, just a short drive from the supermarket, and we were not to be dissapointed.

There were so many more beaches and small towns to explore in this area, and with animals to take care of, we had plenty of time to get out and explore.

Hike in Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope

Just a short drive south from Simons Town was Cape Point National Park, famous for the Cape of Good Hope. There is a lot more to the park than the obligatory picture seen above, but most people only seem to get out of the car at a couple of viewpoints for a picture and call it good.

We decided to hit the hiking trail that ran from the lighthouse parking lot all the way down to the Cape of Good Hope, about a 3 hour round trip with photos and side trips. The trail offers some of the best views in the park, yet so few people do it, and it’s not that difficult of a trail.. About half way along the trail you will come to some wooden steps leading down to Diaz Beach (Gods Beach), quite a few wooden steps actually!

 Going down these steps will lead you to just another unbelievable beach, and once again you are likely to have it to yourself. Once again you won’t be swimming here, but just walking in the sand is amazing enough. A short walk around the cliffs at the end will lead to a view of another equally beautiful beach. After climbing the wooden steps back to the main trail you realize why there is nobody else down there!

The rest of the trail will take you along some rugged cliff tops with clear blue ocean down below. The wind is strong along the edge so be careful when taking those stupid selfies!

 The trail eventually heads down the cliffs and you will end up in the parking lot at the Cape of Good Hope, and once again you will see people, lots of them, just getting out of the car or off of their tour bus to line up to have their photo taken with with the famous sign.

Of course we did that too, but we still had an hour hike back up to our car where our lunch was waiting. Most of you are probably wondering why we didn’t just bring our lunch with us and eat at the beach or at some spectacular view point?

Well unless you like sharing (or donating ) your lunch with baboons, it is strongly advised to leave all food and drink in your vehicle as these guys will snatch it straight from you, no matter what it is, even just a bottle of water will be gone in seconds.

In fact I think one of the funnest things to do at Cape Point is to just sit and watch the baboons steal stuff from dumb tourists who ignored all the signs telling them to leave all food and drink behind, it is quite entertaining!

Baboons are not the only animals you have to watch out, just driving on the roads around the park can be quite treacherous if you’re not paying attention!

 A small sub section of Cape Point National Park just happened to be down the street from our house and made a nice walk some evenings to swim with the penguins at sunset. Boulders Beach and the Penguin Colony are included on your pass for Cape Point or your Wildcard annual pass. As we had purchased a Wildcard annual pass we were free to visit the penguins anytime we wanted.

It can get very crowded here during the day, but by sunset most of the day trippers from Cape Town have gone home and you can get some alone time with the penguins. The beach itself is really pretty and is fun to explore all the hidden sections behind the rocks, just be careful not to piss off any penguins as they do bite , ask Vanessa!

Just a short walk away is The Penguin Colony viewing area, also included with your pass, and here you will likely see hundreds of sunbathing and swimming penguins from the boardwalks, but be prepared to fight for your position with equally as many selfie taking tourists.

After a few weeks here the penguins almost became part of life and passing a few penguins walking down the street just seemed normal to us, and I’d laugh at tourists taking their pictures, like ” what, have you never seen penguins walking down the street before?”

Kalk Bay

Just north along the coast from Simons Town were lots of colorful little towns spread out along the coastline. Kalk Bay was one of the closest and was full of colorful little stores and restaurants and some colorful characters to match. A quick wonder around the harbor is a great way to end the day, with seal viewing, fish markets and some of the best fish and chips around at Kalky’s Fish and Chip shop, a lively place always full of locals getting their fill of some of the freshest fish around.

St James Beach & Muizenberg Beach

Further north are the beaches of St James and Muizenburg, both of them famous for their colorful beach changing rooms. St James Beach is small but pretty but Muizenburg Beach is much longer and a lot more fun to walk along.  It is a really popular place to learn to surf, but don’t even think about it without a wet suit, and watch out for those sharks!

There are so many wonderful places to explore outside of Cape Town itself, there was no chance of us getting bored during our stay here, I guess we’ll just have to come back next year and explore some more!