Exploring Simon’s Town

On Wednesday we went exploring Simon’s Town on foot. Simon’s Town is the home to the South African Navy on the shores of False Bay. It was named after Simon van der Stel. It was the official winter anchorage for the Dutch East India Company’s ships in 1743 but only became known as Simon’s Town after the Second British occupation in 1806.

It was a very windy day and we decided to take the canvas off the gazebo since we would be out all day and the next day.

We walked across the road and up a bit of a hill (which had cyclists whizzing down it) to part of the golf course and along the sea-side barrier.

We wandered along a number of footpaths leading in the general direction we were wanting to go.

Soon after the golf course we saw some activity on a small beach.

On enquiry, we discovered that they were filming an advert for some diabetes product.

Later we got on to a pathway leading to Boulders Beach where a breeding colony of penguins is established.  We didn’t go into Boulders itself because there was an entrance fee that would be waived if we had our wild card with us but we didn’t. We did see some penguins though.

We saw the Pier and had fish and chips at Salty Sea Dog.

We spent some time wandering through the Naval Museum. Excellent displays!

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Naturally the knots caught my eye as an ex-Guider, then there was the Compass Binnacle,

the Skerpion Missile Container, MK1 helicopter,

the standard diver of the early 19th century,

and the sea chest, as owned by every sea cadet and midshipman in the Royal Navy at that time.

We could have a look into the interior of a submarine and see the controls on the bridge of a ship. There is even a chapel which is still in use for weddings and funerals with naval scenes adorning the wall.

We looked at the Transformation section of how the Navy is today, including many leading Naval figures who were trained by Umkhonto We Sizwe.

We learned a lot and saw a lot and were too tired to face the 3km walk back to the caravan park so we jumped on a little tuc tuc that we had noticed in the square earlier and got a ride home.