I think I have been saying that just about every beach in Cape Town is my favourite beach, just until I visit the next amazing one. I guess it’s what I am now calling the ‘Cape Town Effect’. You just cannot help but be amazed by the incredible outdoor scenery that this city has to offer.
Noordhoek Beach is located on the west coast of the Cape Peninsula, just off the Chapman’s Peak Drive road. If you take the M3 from the centre of town through Silvermine then it takes about 40 minutes to reach the beach. Alternatively you can take the M6 along Chapman’s Peak Drive, but be aware this road is often closed in the winter months.
The beach itself is 8km in length and a perfect place to watch the sunset. I arrived at the car park at around 4.50pm (for sunset at 6pm) and I got one of the last spots. I didn’t realise how long the beach was so I thought I would have time to walk its length and back and still have time for sunset drone photography. But I was a little mistaken. I ended up getting over half way with numerous photo stops along the way only to realise I was running out of time.
Sadly that meant that I missed out on seeing the Wreck of the Kakapo which was at the far end of the beach. Even my drone couldn’t fly close enough to get a good aerial shot. So you should definitely allow enough time to really walk and visit Noordhoek. For reference I visited for sunset after a day spent at the Cape Peninsular and I was nearly able to squeeze everything in.
One small detail to note about accessing this beach is that there is a lagoon in between the car park and the beach. It made for some nice moonrise reflections and it was a good spot for dogs to run around. I mention the lagoon just because it was a little difficult to access the beach. There was no real path or area of sand to cross. You basically had to side step a rock if you didn’t want to get wet. It made social distances a little difficult, and after sunset I can only image how many people were waiting to get past in the only passable spot (I stayed on the beach until it was basically pitch black). So it is not the most accessible beach, but I am not sure if that is the case all year round, maybe the water was higher because of the recent rain.
Haz Mapz 