beach – Notes from the Cape

Published June 22, 2024

Mulberry Harbour

Mulberry Harbour is a most extraordinary piece of engineering. It is literally a floating harbour that was built around the Normandy beach to allow supplies into France during the D-Day landings. They allowed the Allies to land over two million men, half a million vehicles, and four million tons of supplies in the first 100 days following the D-Day landings. To make the breakwater, they deliberately sank over 30 several old war ships as well as other old ships.

Parts of the harbour are still on the beach and floating in the water, and if you look on Google Maps, you can still see parts of the floating harbour in the sea, still floating.

Travel

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Published March 5, 2020

Sunset from the beach

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March and April are the best time of the year to visit Cape Town. It is still warm, but the wind starts to drop. And what better way to spend an evening than a picnic on the beach watching the sunset.

Cape Town

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Published November 20, 2017

Lazy sunset

Just another lazy sunset on the lovely island of Aegina, Greece.

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Travel

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Published September 10, 2017

On the beach

Continuing on the theme of taking photos on a run, here are two photos that I took of St James beach. I have run to this beach over 1000 times; it is generally by turning point on my mid-week runs.

The second photo was taken just a couple of days ago. It is the same beach in low-tide on a wind-free day. Doesn’t it look lovely?
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And the first photo was taken about a week ago in a very windy high tide. Waves were crashing over the boardwalk between Muizenberg and St James beaches, and the beach was covered in water. I took this shot from the end of the subway onto the beach. The subway was flooded and covered and sand and shells.
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It amazes me how the same places are constantly changing, and every time I pass the same places on the same running routes, it looks differet, or I see something new.

Cape Town

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Published June 25, 2017

Zandvlei from the mountain

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I took this photo from Muizenberg Peak, just above Lakeside. I see this mountain from my bedroom window, but it as a magic peak for a trail-run destination. My house is in the little suburb on the bottom left, just below the grass in front of the lake. The lake is actually an estuary that is fed from many of the rivers the flow off the mountain. It empties into the sea on the right, at Muizenberg beach.

Here are a few more pics from the run.

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False Bay

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Part of the trail

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I saw this written on the trail. Just something nice, and in a zen way – impermanent.

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At the top of Muizenberg Peak

Cape Town

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Published May 25, 2016

Langebaan beach

One of the things I love about going for early morning runs is that you have the entire world to yourself, and the day has that wonderful brand-new feeling; feeling you can sometimes literally smell in the air.

In this case, it was an early morning run along the main beach at Langebaan – there was no wind, it was lovely and cool, and it felt like I was the only person on the beach.

The tide was way out, and this little rowing boat was stranded high and dry, waiting for the tide to come in.
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South Africa

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Published April 30, 2016

Muizenberg Monster Beach Run

13095782 1017156178353528 72789102799863587 n Running on the beach at sunrise (pic from Energy Events)

Wednesday was the second Muizenberg Monster Beach Run – a 20k “there and back again” dash starting on Muizenberg beach. Only about 45 or so peopled entered, and I ran it in 2:01, with a very respectable position of 22nd. But it was tough running on the beach – even though most of the sand is hard, there are still soft spots, and you are always running on a slight camber.

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The start line

My trail shoes were so full of sand by the end that I had to wash them with the hose-pipe afterwards. But it was amazing running on the beach as the sun slowly rose, and the sky went from almost black, to a golden yellow sunrise, and then into the day.

I will be back next year!

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One of the water crossings

Cape Town Running

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Published April 25, 2016

On the beach

A small fishing boat waits on Fish Hoek beach before going out for the day.
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Cape Town

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Published December 10, 2015

Langebaan beach in the mist

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Langebaan public boat launcher on the main beach in the mist.

Running South Africa

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Published June 4, 2014

Beach Houses

Two pics of the Muizenberg beach houses; shot on 35mm film. Yeah I know that everybody loves to shoot these houses, but they still make for a great subject.

Cape Town

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