Bakoven

I am in Cape Town for around two weeks but I’d hedged my bets and booked somewhere for half the time in case I wanted to mix things up. I had such a pleasant time buying coffee this morning in Hout Bay that I extended my accommodation on the basis of that, hoping to return to the same friendly ladies daily for a tasty latte.

Caffeinated, I boarded the bus towards Cape Town city centre. The route in that direction from Hout Bay must be one of the best bus rides in the world, travelling the narrow stretch of land between the gorgeous bays and steep sides of Table Mountain National Park. My plan was simply to amble so I got off around Bakoven, which is apparently named in Dutch for ‘baking oven’, perhaps relating to an oven-shaped rock somewhere in the bay.

I basked on some rocks for a while and then spent the afternoon wandering into Cape Town city, via the string of beaches and bays that occupy this western coastline of the Cape Peninsula: Camps Bay, Clifton, Bantry Bay. It gets edgier and slightly less elite upon entering Sea Point which has a mega-long promenade and some vast tidal rock pools, where I also perched for a while. The day culminated in an açai bowl and return bus ride to Hout Bay as the sun set over the Atlantic. Simple days of exploring can be the best.