Cape Town offers a truly unique opportunity to reconnect with nature by exploring its oceans. Dotted around the Cape Peninsula are kelp forests, considered as some of the most productive and dynamic ecosystems on the planet. They provide food and shelter to a plethora of marine life and some species of fish found nowhere else on earth.
Also read: 7 New species discovered in Cape kelp forests
You don’t need to be an expert diver or marine biologist to appreciate this immensely rare diversity of sea life that takes refuge in Cape Town’s kelp forests. All you need is a sense of adventure, some basic snorkelling gear, and a guideline of where you can go and what you might see.
Here are a selection of beaches I have frequented as a beginner in the world of snorkelling and some of the marine life I have been blessed enough to encounter, writes Cape {town} Etc’s James Redman.
Windmill Beach in Simon’s Town is the perfect location to start your snorkelling endeavours. The water is much warmer as Simon’s Town is situated on the Southern Peninsula, but a wetsuit is still a good idea to get the most out of your experience. This is a 200m long beach in the Froggy Pond area of Simon’s Town, near Cape Town. Located just south of Boulder’s Beach, it’s fairly sheltered from the wind and its shallow waters make it perfect for families with little ones.
The entry point to the water is easy to navigate with immaculate visibility and its inland rocky reef is home to a variety of invertebrate and fish species, including starfish. Explore a little deeper and you’ll find yourself immersed in the kelp forest. Use the kelp as an anchor to pull yourself deeper. Before you know it, you’ll be swimming amongst large schools of fish and perhaps even spot pyjama sharks patrolling the ocean bed (don’t worry, these small sharks keep their distance).
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Due to Windmill’s proximity to Boulder’s Beach, it’s not uncommon to bump into a penguin or two, and if you’re lucky, you might even catch a glimpse of an octopus sneaking in or out of its den.
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The Glencairn tidal pool is another popular snorkelling location. You can spend some time getting comfortable in the tidal pool’s water before accessing one of the snorkelling spots to the left or right of the pool.
You do, however, need to be slightly more experienced when tackling this spot as the entry points from the beach are a lot more challenging and you will be more vulnerable to the ocean’s currents. If you can overcome these obstacles, the visibility is generally very good, and you can expect to find lots of interesting looking urchins, as well as schools of fish and shysharks (Haploblepharus).
Most shysharks are small, growing no larger than 73 centimetres. In the areas surrounding the tidal pool, you’ll spot a few around the size of an adult hand.
Finally, Cosy Bay Beach. The most demanding of the locations I have visited, and often incredibly cold due to its position on the Atlantic side of the Peninsula.
Despite the cold and difficulty accessing the snorkelling spot, the marine life at Cosy Bay is incredible. You can swim with playful sea otters and seals amongst the kelp and experience much larger sea life than the aforementioned beaches. If you go during the right season, you may even encounter a whale call.
Also read:
Cape kelp forests named one of the Seven Wonders of the World
Picture: martineviljoen