Living in Simon’s Town
You wake up in the morning and look across the beautiful bay just as the sun peeks over the mountains. Walking down the road to the coast you encounter penguins waddling towards the clear, cool sea. Out of the corner of your eye you see three otters running along the beach and launching into the waves. Raising your eyes as you walk along, you see a Southern Right whale breeching for the pure joy of it. You must be in Simon’s Town.

Just a short walk up the road and you are in the Table Mountain National Park. The Old Mule Track zig zags up through the pristine fynbos. Just past the Blockhouse you suddenly notice the Erica quadrisulcata – one of the plants that are endemic to this particular mountain-side ...read on

Things about Simon’s Town
The town officially called Simon’s Town, but often referred to as Simonstown, was originally named Simon’s Vlek after Simon van der Stel, the Dutch governor of the Cape Colony between 1677 and 1699, who surveyed the bay east of Cape Town in 1687 and earmarked it as a safe winter harbour during the months of May to September for which it was finally proclaimed in 1741

Progress may have come slowly to Simon’s Town, but it has certainly left its mark. The town grew rapidly when it became a Royal Naval Base and the home of the South Atlantic Squadron under the second British occupation of the Cape in 1806, thanks largely to the construction of a huge man-made sandstone breakwater. One of the tasks of this squadron was the care of a certain Napoleon Bonaparte during his exil ....read on