Walking Tour of Muizenberg
A great way to get to understand any place, be it a city, village or mountain, is to ditch the wheels, put on your sneakers, and go walking. In that way you get under the skin of the area.
There is no shortage of wonderful places to walk in Cape Town. The city bowl is always very popular, as are certain hiking routes on the mountain.
One very easy and compact walk is in Muizenberg. It follows no prescribed route, but offers numerous alternatives. A guide is recommended to get the most out of your time spent in this corner of Cape Town which can be considered to be The Soul of the South.
A good place to start is probably at the western end of the esplanade. You will have the sea on your left and the mountain on the right. The raised walkway provides a bird's eye view of the beach and sea, all the way across False Bay on a clear day. (Try to remember to sing, whistle or hum, "under the boardwalk, down by the sea,…").
After a short walk, you will be in the heart of Surfer's Corner. There is always plenty of activity here. Sunbathers, surfers catching waves, others walkers, people jogging, or just chilling.
Next you get onto the St. James Walkway. It is sandwiched between the sea and the road. After a few hundred meters you will reach the only house on the sea side. Known as Bailey's Cottage, this is a good time to exit the walkway under the railway line, and get onto Main road.
You should carry on in the direction of Kalk Bay. Once you see Rhodes' Cottage, if it is open cross over the road (be careful). The cottage is a museum, which opens for a few hours each morning. If not, your guide will no doubt have many a tale to tell about the man; the politician, the extremely wealthy but sickly mining magnate, visionary and all round nasty guy.
Turn around and head back to Surfer's Corner; there are a number of architecturally interesting buildings. The Casa Labia is a magnificent house, now a restaurant, art gallery and function venue, styled on Count Labia's residence in Venice.
Further along is the Posthuis. The oldest existing structure built by the Dutch in Cape Town, (completed before the Castle) it was never in fact a post office. But the original post office, an elegant building, is still there, clearly signed.
Take note of the stately Muizenberg station building, surely the finest railway station in the city.
Finally, at the end of the park, up to the left and near to each other is the local synagogue, and a bit further up is a krammat, a resting place of a holy Muslim man. The Jewish faith and Muslim faith, virtually side by side.
Turning back and heading for the beach area, you cross Main road and walk down York road. You could pop into the Paper Moon book shop squeezed into a space not much bigger than a cupboard, but stocked ceiling high with good books.
Now is probably a good time to stop for some light refreshments; a good cappuccino, Americano or a flat white. Alternatively, depending on the time of day, perhaps a cold Windhoek lager or a wonderful glass of fine Cape chardonnay. There are a myriad of options along the beachfront to choose from.
The Muizenberg hike as described should take around one hour, or longer if you spend time in the Rhodes museum.
IMAGE CREDITS
- Morné van Rooyen, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Hilton1949 at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
- __MV__ from Mannheim, Germany, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons