Muizenberg beach is confidently characterised for it’s long stretch of white sand, with 2 rows of colourful beach huts, which were traditionally used as bathing boxes in Muizenberg’s heyday at the beginning of last century.
Today Muizenberg is regaining it’s fame as a hot spot of surf culture and the seafront and beach is crowded with surfers with flowing sun kissed locks, carrying various length boards and battling to stand in the gentle waves. Others are mere observers, sitting at the restaurants and cafes calming sipping on steaming capuccino’s and pretending to read the morning paper.
Further round the corner, kitesurfers try their luck at that combination sport of surfing and flying a kite – the latest in balance skills. Younger children shriek as the fly down the giant waterslide at the supertube, and others still put their best foot forward as they attempt the championship trophy of their own tournament at the mini –golf putt-putt.
Yes Muizenberg is buzzing and the bathing huts have prime viewing of all the action and activity that happens on Muizenberg beach. But here is the Cape Point Route HOT TIP of the day – I bet you didn’t know you could hire one to use yourself? Daily, monthly and annual rentals are possible – and for a bargain at today’s places. A day rental is R43.10 and a monthly rental is R299.20. Contact Edwin Genade at the City of Cape Town : edwingenade@capetown.gov.za if you would like to apply for a bathing box of your own.
I’d like to quote an excerpt written by Despine King/Burton in the book “Muizenberg Remembered” by Barbara Titley (2008) about her time as a child on Muizenberg beach around 1915. “In those days the beach was a very splendid one, dazzling white and stretching for countless miles, and a gently sloping floor. At low tide one walked a considerable distance to meet the first small waves. Very small children were allowed to swim unchaperoned as it is absolutely safe. High tide provided more problems as the waves broke high up the beach at the foot of the bathing boxes. No beach that I have seen in Europe, in North or South America, was as beautiful and safe as Muizenberg was in those early days. There were two rows of bathing boxes well to the left of the pavilion. Ours was number 18, a double box in the front row. I think that we had it for the best part of twenty years. The pavilion was in constant use by all the people who did not hire bathing boxes. Beyond the pavilion, close to the rocks below the railway line, was an area reserved for the young bucks of the day and their current girlfriends. We used to stand in great awe of them as we watched them on what were then called Hawaiian surfboards. The young men were extremely adept on these. Behind the bathing boxes was a long white stretch of hot sand where we warmed up after swimming.”
For additional information on what to see and do in Muizenberg or on the Cape Point Route please call +27 21 7829356.
Thanks to Peter Haarhof from Cape Photogaphic Company for some of these Muizenberg pictures!
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