There is an urban legend I was told when I moved to Cape Town. It tells that the wind, nicknamed the Cape Doctor, is sometimes so strong that city dwellers caught outside during a feisty gust have been known to hang onto street lamps and park benches to avoid being blown away. It’s called the Cape Doctor because the city streets and air are left clear and purified after a visit from the blustering physician. Perhaps you haven’t ventured outside today, but I have, and I am now certain that the Cape Doctor is in fact, well – fact! Wind is made here and exported to the rest of the country!
With some forecasts predicting gusts of up to 45 knots in and around the city, I do hope by the hair on my chinny chin chin that my house is built on strong foundations. You might be wondering what to fill your time with while the conditions outside are not conducive to more conventional leisure activities. You need only look to the locals for some inspiration…
Cape Town and her many beaches provide the setting for some of finest wind surfing and kite boarding on the continent. From Big Bay, the aptly named Kite Beach and Sunset Beach on the West Coast, Camps Bay, Noordhoek and Witsand on the Atlantic Seaboard and Muizenberg to Struisbaai on the Cape south coast, you can take your pick of more than 30 adrenaline inducing spots. And on days like today, the beaches also become spots for the not so extreme locals to sit and watch hundreds of kites moving across the shoreline.
Kite surfing is exhilarating and spectacular. As the name suggests, it combines surfing with flying a kite to the extent that you literally take off from the Ocean and hang in the thermals. It’s not as easy as it looks and lessons are a must for any novices! Fortunately, most of the hotels on the Peninsula offer lessons and equipment for the not so good to the semi-pros.
Now let’s just hope the Cape Doctor is here long enough to administer some windswept, festive fun before the holiday is over.
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