Beaches in Western Cape

The South African province where two oceans meet, and the temperature difference across a peninsula forty kilometres wide is the register's sharpest. Camps Bay on the Atlantic side sits at twelve to fifteen degrees; the False Bay beaches on the other side of Table Mountain are ten to fifteen degrees warmer. The Atlantic coast has the spectacular settings and almost no swimmers; False Bay has the swimming, the penguin colony at Boulders and the tidal pools. The south-easter, blowing hard through summer, decides which of them is usable on a given day. The practical rules: check which ocean you are entering, because the temperature difference across the peninsula is fifteen degrees; check the wind, because the summer south-easter closes the Atlantic beaches socially if not physically; and use the tidal pools, of which the peninsula has dozens and which are warmer and calmer than the sea. The penguin colony at Boulders is inside a national park with an entrance fee and boardwalk rules that are enforced.

Each is a different kind: three shores across three beach worlds. The sand is quartz sand throughout. Together they account for 4.1 km of shore. · computed from the 3 records below