Dive into nature. The small village of Simon’s Town in Cape Town is a gateway for the ocean nature lover. Snorkeling, diving, and boat-based viewing will bring you closer to the wildlife like never before. The below activities are all located within a few minutes of each other. Stay overnight and do them all.
- Shark cage diving in Cape Town
Get up close and personal with the Apex Predators of the sea. Just outside the city center, your 4-hour experience will offer you not only shark, seal, and penguin sightings, but possibly whale and dolphin sightings too. Our Shark cage diving in Cape Town area is Seal Island in False Bay, and this island is famous having been featured on many doccies including Air Jaws on the Discovery Channel. The close-up views of the 65 000 strong Cape Fur seal colony as well as various sea birds will not leave you disappointed.
- Snorkel with Seals
Become one with the seals as they swim gracefully in their natural environment. Interact with these boisterous animals in their underwater playground. The action begins as soon as you enter the water as these furry counterpart’s swim beside you, often mimicking your movements. The dive is located at an exposed haul-out spot for seals. A shallow section of the reef, known as the Amphitheatre, is the best spot to interact with the seals. The deeper sections of the reef offer beautiful marine life, swim-throughs, and large sea fans.
- Kelp Forest Snorkel
My Octopus Teacher. Get ready to be enchanted when going Kelp Forest Diving in Cape Town. The underwater Kelp Forests are truly beautiful and serene. These forests are tall and are home to a large variety of marine life including octopus, and several rarely seen shark species including the gully shark, shy shark, pyjama shark, crabs, and many species of fish. In between the Kelp Forests are stunning reefs, with gullies and swim-throughs. These forests fulfil a similar function to their California counterparts, providing food and shelter for a wealth of marine life, ranging from commercial species like lobster, crayfish, and abalone to predators like the Cape fur seal.
Both the seal and Kelp Forest snorkeling activities require no previous experience, but swimming ability is essential.
- Swim with Penguins
Boulders Beach Penguin Colony is five minutes from the shark cage diving location and is home to the African Penguin. Experience these delightful birds up close in their own habitat. The sandy, compact cove with large boulders, offers a home to waddling penguins and their nesting areas. It is one of the few sites where this vulnerable bird can be observed at close range, wandering freely in a protected natural environment. From just two breeding pairs in 1982, the penguin colony has grown to about 3,000 birds in recent years. Bordered mainly by indigenous bush above the high-water mark on the one side, and the clear water of False Bay on the other, the area comprises several small, sheltered bays, partially enclosed by granite boulders that are 540 million years old.
- The Cape of Good Hope
Located 10 minutes further down the road from Boulders Beach Penguin Colony is The Cape of Good Hope, also known as Cape Point. Cape Point, a World Heritage Site, and protected Nature Reserve is the only place on the planet where one finds an area of vast natural beauty, world renown for it natural vegetation and rich bio-diversity, home to an array of fynbos, over 250 species of birds, buck, baboons and Cape mountain zebra. The area is of rich cultural and historical significance and includes monuments to early explorers such as Vasco da Gama and Bartolomeu Dias. Have a picnic, explore the many paths on foot or mountain bike, and swim in the tidal pools on almost isolated beaches.
Also read: Fun things to do in the Cape Town inner city
Article provided by https://apexpredators.com
