Doing the Peninsula trip at late afternoon and arriving at Cape Point after 17h00 has it advantages too. I had 3 people from Belgium with me and they wanted to visit Kirstenbosch Garden as well as doing the Peninsula trip in one day because they were leaving the next day. I also took them to Hout Bay and they enjoyed the boat ride to Seal Island.
On route we stopped at Imhoff farm for late lunch. I suggested they choose something on the menu very South African but also very Cape Town traditional food. The choice was “Bobotie”. Always a good choice there…….they know how to prepare it. After lunch we also tasted and bought some home made cheese from the farm. This was causing the delay to get to Cape Point earlier.
But once there and seeing all the cars leaving as I drove in, I realized that there would not be many people there and that we will have more privacy to enjoy the beautiful landscape and the spectacular views. What I did not expect was to have the lighthouse area all for ourselves….believe me this is not always possible! Being early evening means that we also encountered a lot of baboons as they were on their way to sleep higher up on the slopes of the mountains.
Due to running late on the trip I missed the gate to the penguins at Boulders by 15min. I still took them on the board walk outside the facility and we were lucky to see a few penguins up close against the fence as they were coming up to their nests for the evening. Walking back to the car we encountered a number of penguins who were outside of the fence and on their way into the neighborhood. They were in the street right in front of us. This is also something one will not easily see during normal day hours.
So in the end we all got back to Cape Town at around 20h00 but it was well worth it!