Early Summer for the Cape Point Peninsula

What a glorious Heritage day weekend on the Cape Point Peninsula, perfect Saturday to light the coals and Sunday is set to be a scorcher! You can’t go wrong!

Being that it was a perfect day, and the missus wanted us out of the house, my daughter and I took the slow, and familiar walk down to Jaegers Walk in Fish Hoek. I was hoping to see some whales before they are gone for the year as I haven’t had the chance to see many this season.

There were no whales but you can’t have everything.

The white flag with the black shark on it was flying- no, the KZN rugby team were not there, this is the flag that warns that a shark has been spotted in the area, and its time to get out of the water, or be sushi in reverse. A life guard was just changing the flag over to the red one (shark spotted in the area recently, swim at your own risk). He told me the shark had been close in to shore, about 200 meters off shore from the yacht club.

I think that nature is trying to tell us something on Fish Hoek beach. There are man eaters out there, so nature has made the water freezing cold- I think she shrugs her shoulders at anyone who doesn’t heed that warning.

Anyway, there were still plenty of people on the beach and grass banks: the Bayside was doing a brisk trade (the Silvermine river enters the sea on the North end of the beach, but there is a gold mine on the south end!)

Its funny how the seasons on the Cape Point Peninsula seem to happen quickly- where I am from the transition is slow (ok, apart from summer, which lasts for two days every 5 years or so), but here it is almost instant. It only seems like last week that we were freezing in the pooring rain, in a few months it will be hard to imagine that there is even a winter.

Cape Point Peninsula Shark warning system working perfectly

When we were walking back towards the beach from the end of the walk the white flag was flying again. We sat for a while and tried to see the shark, with no real look. There was definitely something happening in the area off the yacht club, the water was rougher there and sea birds were feeding on something, but a Jaws style fin was not evident. Still, it shows that you can have confidence in the efficiency of the shark spotting programme. They don’t miss them, and if they can’t see properly they let you know. So be safe and follow the advise, familiarize yourself with the flags and enjoy the water (I will be watching from the shore- its too cold for anything other than my toes!)