South Africa: West Coast Flowers and the Whale Coast

Arrive in Cape Town

Cape Town International Airport to your hotel, then the Green Point sea front and the V&A Waterfront

• Welcome dinner
• Stay in Cape Town
• Drive about 30 min

Afternoon

Plan to land by about 2 pm if you want to join the afternoon walk; the exact meeting time comes with your final itinerary. Mid-afternoon your See Sight Tours guide meets the group and we drive the few minutes to Mouille Point, then walk the flat sea-front promenade past the Green Point lighthouse and Cape Town Stadium, built for the 2010 football World Cup, into the V&A Waterfront, the working harbour where Table Mountain fills the view behind the fishing boats. It is an easy walk of about 4 km to shake off the flight, with the Atlantic on one side and Signal Hill on the other.

Evening

In August and September it is dark by about 6:30 to 7 pm, so we finish with a short briefing on the week ahead (what the flowers need, how whale season works, what to pack for cold nights in the Cederberg) and a welcome dinner together at a local restaurant.

Included

• Pick-up at Cape Town International Airport (CPT)
• Guided walk along the Green Point sea front to the V&A Waterfront
• Welcome briefing and welcome dinner

Table Mountain early, the Bo-Kaap at lunch

Table Mountain Aerial Cableway, then the Bo-Kaap and a free afternoon in the city

• Breakfast and lunch
• Stay in Cape Town
• Drive about 30 min

Morning

We go up Table Mountain first thing, on one of the first cable cars of the morning, before the queues build and while the air is usually at its clearest. The Table Mountain Aerial Cableway climbs to the plateau at about 1,067 m in a few minutes, and the floor of the car turns so everyone gets the view. On top your guide walks the easy paths to the viewpoints over Lion's Head, Robben Island and the Twelve Apostles, and shows you the fynbos, the shrubland unique to the Cape, much of it in flower in spring. The cableway stops in strong wind or thick cloud; if it is closed all morning we drive up Signal Hill instead for the view back over the city and the mountain.

Afternoon

Late morning we walk the steep, cobbled streets of the Bo-Kaap, with its brightly painted houses and the Auwal Mosque, founded in 1794, with a local guide who tells the story of the Cape Malay community, then sit down to a Cape Malay lunch of curries and bobotie. The afternoon is yours.

Included

• Table Mountain Aerial Cableway return ticket, on an early car
• Guided walk on the summit plateau
• Bo-Kaap walk with a local guide
• Cape Malay lunch in the Bo-Kaap

Optional experiences

• Robben Island ferry and tour from the V&A Waterfront (book well ahead; we can book it for you at cost)

West Coast flowers: Darling and the Postberg

Cape Town north on the R27 to Darling, then the West Coast National Park and Langebaan

• Breakfast and lunch
• Stay in Langebaan
• Drive about 2.5 h

Afternoon

Lunch is at !Khwa ttu, a San heritage centre just off the coast road, with time in its exhibition on the first people of the Cape. In the afternoon we enter the West Coast National Park and drive into the Postberg section, which opens to visitors only in the flower season, for fields of orange, white and yellow above the turquoise Langebaan Lagoon, with antelope and ostriches grazing among them. The display depends on the winter rain and on the weather on the day, so your guide picks the best fields each morning from the latest reports.

Evening

We stay tonight in Langebaan, on the lagoon.

Included

• Flower reserves around Darling with your guide
• Lunch and the exhibition at !Khwa ttu San Heritage Centre
• West Coast National Park entry, including the Postberg flower section in season

North to Clanwilliam and the Sevilla rock art

Langebaan to Velddrif and Piketberg, over the Piekenierskloof Pass to Clanwilliam, then the Pakhuis Pass to the Sevilla Rock Art Trail

• Breakfast and lunch
• Stay in Clanwilliam
• Drive about 3.5 h

Afternoon

We reach Clanwilliam, a small town at the northern edge of the Cederberg, in time for a sit-down lunch. In the afternoon we drive over the Pakhuis Pass, among orange sandstone boulders and past the grave of the poet C. Louis Leipoldt, to the Sevilla Rock Art Trail on the farm Travellers Rest. A local guide walks with us along a river valley to a series of overhangs painted by San hunter-gatherers: people, animals and figures in red and white ochre, left hundreds to a few thousand years ago. The trail is about 4 km there and back, mostly flat on sand and rock, and the afternoon light is kind to the paintings. In flower season we stop on the way back where the roadside is in bloom.

Evening

Dinner tonight is your choice in town; Cederberg nights in late winter can be close to freezing.

Included

• Drive to Clanwilliam over the Piekenierskloof Pass
• Sit-down lunch in Clanwilliam
• Sevilla Rock Art Trail with a local guide, permit included

Optional experiences

• The Clanwilliam Wildflower Show, if your dates fall on it (usually late August or early September)

The long road to the whale coast

Clanwilliam south on the N7, around Cape Town to Gordon's Bay, Clarence Drive and Betty's Bay, then Hermanus

• Breakfast and lunch
• Stay in Hermanus
• Drive about 5 h

Afternoon

Then we take Clarence Drive slowly, a cliff road above False Bay where whales are sometimes seen from the lay-bys in season, about 45 minutes to a sit-down lunch near Betty's Bay. After lunch we walk the boardwalk at Stony Point, a mainland colony of African penguins, a species now listed as critically endangered. The last leg, about 45 minutes past the Kogelberg mountains and the Bot River lagoon, reaches Hermanus, our base for two nights, by about 4:15 pm.

Evening

Walk down to the cliff path before dinner: whales are often visible from the town itself.

Included

• Coffee stop in Piketberg
• Clarence Drive (R44) along False Bay
• Sit-down lunch near Betty's Bay
• Stony Point penguin colony, entry included

Walker Bay by boat and the cliff path

Hermanus: a morning whale-watching boat from the New Harbour, then the cliff path

• Breakfast and dinner
• Stay in Hermanus
• By boat

Morning

We go out in the morning, when the sea is often calmer, with a licensed Walker Bay whale-watching operator from the New Harbour, for about two hours on the water. Permitted boats are allowed closer to the whales than other craft, and the skipper switches off near a mother and calf so you can hear them breathe.

Afternoon

Back on land, lunch is on your own in town. In the afternoon your guide walks the cliff path with you from Gearing's Point to the Old Harbour, where the whales often come in close to the rocks and the benches look straight down into the bay; this shore-based watching is what Hermanus is known for. Late afternoon is free.

Evening

In the evening we meet for a farewell dinner together at a local restaurant.

Included

• Whale-watching boat trip in Walker Bay with a licensed operator, about 2 hours
• Guided cliff path walk from Gearing's Point to the Old Harbour
• Farewell dinner

The cliff path at breakfast, Kirstenbosch and home

Hermanus over Sir Lowry's Pass to Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, then Cape Town International Airport

• Breakfast and lunch
• Drive about 2.5 h

Morning

Start with an early walk on the cliff path while the bay is still and the whales are easiest to spot, then breakfast. We leave at about 9:30 am and drive back over Sir Lowry's Pass, with the view over False Bay and the Cape Flats, about an hour and three quarters to Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, on the eastern slopes of Table Mountain. Kirstenbosch grows only plants native to southern Africa, and spring is its finest season: proteas, pincushions, ericas and the bulbs and daisies you saw wild on the West Coast.

Afternoon

Walk the Boomslang, a curved steel walkway through the treetops, and the fynbos beds with your guide, then sit down to a last lunch in the garden. From Kirstenbosch it is about 25 minutes to Cape Town International Airport, where we arrive at about 2:30 pm; we can drop you in the city centre or at the Waterfront instead if you are staying on. Your guide checks your flight before saying goodbye.

Included

• Early cliff path walk in Hermanus
• Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden entry and a guided walk, with the Boomslang canopy walkway
• Lunch at Kirstenbosch
• Drop-off at Cape Town International Airport (CPT) or in central Cape Town