Diving in Cape Town: What to Know Before You Go
South Africa gets a bad rap, mostly for its safety. People deem it as unsafe to visit and don’t bother going, but if you’re sensible, a trip to South Africa can be incredible. These are the things I learned, would do again and would do differently next time.
We had 7 days in South Africa and based ourselves in Cape Town. If you’re not into geography, that is a town on the Southwest side of South Africa. Coming into the Cape Town airport was easy, we travel with UK passports and no VISA was required. We went through immigration and customs then left the airport to hire a rental car. It’s worth noting that if you’re coming from a yellow fever country, they will check your yellow fever vaccination, so make sure you have one at least 10 days prior to travel.
We hired a rental car. This worked great for us, but I would only recommend it if you’re planning to do lots of driving and have a safe and secure parking spot to leave it in. Otherwise it is a slight safety risk. We did a mostly self-guided stay, although we did use a tour guide for the national park!
The Diving:
Cape Town is well known for its kelp and seal diving, of which we intended to do both. We dived with Pisces Divers, they were incredible. From check in to surface interval snacks, the whole day went smoothly. Unfortunately, the seal dives are postponed for all of Cape Town due to a case of seal rabies. It is the first documented case of marine rabies. It causes the seals to become aggressive to humans, therefore they don’t allow diving with them. No worries, we opted for a kelp and reef dive instead!
The kelp forest is amazing. It is the same kelp forest where well regarded documentary My Octopus Teacher was filmed. The day we went was rather swelly, but as the kelp is a plant not an animal, it is okay to hold on to for stability. The kelp was unlike any other dive I have done. It was amazing the way the kelp moves through the water while fully encompassing you. It is worth noting that you can quite easily get tangled in kelp and lost in the forest. So, make sure you stay close to your buddy and have a cutting tool encase of emergency. There wasn’t a huge amount of animal life in the kelp, so one dive was perfect, as the contrast with the reef site was great.
Following the first dive, we went back to the pier for a warm surface interval with snacks and tea. This was great as the boat had no cover so would get chilly in the wind. The water when we were visiting was a balmy 15 degrees. I wore a 5mm wetsuit with a 7mm on top (rented from Pisces, thank you!) and a hood and gloves. I wasn’t warm, but I also wasn’t freezing! The rented suit was a very good fourth element suit with no rips or tears.
The second dive was a very colourful reef site. We did see a sealion here which was a nice treat! We also saw a small shy shark and many crayfish. There was an octopus nestled in the rocks and a few crabs. This dive was not swelly and was very relaxing.
Following the second dive, we made our way back to the dive centre where they had lunch prepared. The poke bowl was amazing! We had planned to book another day diving as it was such a great day out, but our trip had other ideas.
The Hiking:
Cape Town is well known for its hiking, from Table Mountain to Lions Head and beyond, youll be spoiled for choice. We hiked up Platteklip Gorge to Table Mountain. This was a natural ‘stairmaster’ climb and never went downhill! It is about 3k up, make note that if you hike up and choose to cable car back down, the walk back to the Platteklip car park is 1.6k from the cable car. Our plan was to hike both ways as it featured lovely views. However, Mark took a spill and we ended up in the first aid room and got to have a look at the local hospital instead! This is why it remains so important to hold travel insurance whenever you travel as you never know when an accident can happen.
This cut the trip a bit short as being in a boot makes it tough to hike and dive; everything we came to Cape Town for! Rather, we explored areas like Boulders Beach with the South African Penguins and spots in the city.
The Safety:
We did not feel unsafe in Cape Town. We stayed in a town called Simons Town in an Air BnB with great security. The biggest concern was the baboon troop that runs wild around the town! We did listen to tourist guides that recommended staying out of the city at night. Although I did have to briefly pop to the shop to get snacks while waiting in the ER in the pitch black, but had no issues. Many of the shops and car parks have security guards who watch over the cars. There are often people trying to sell you bits and bobs through the car windows, but as long as you look straight and keep the windows rolled up, you shouldn’t have a problem.
Overall, we loved Cape Town despite not getting to do as much as we had hoped there. I’d recommend visiting boulder beach, Table Mountain (in the morning before the big busses turn up!) and go for a dive with Pisces Divers!
