Boulders and African Penguins Travel Guide

by Travel Writer Sasha Arms

Travel south along the Cape Peninsula, away from Cape Town's city centre, and the scenery becomes more rugged and raw. Boulders Beach and Foxy Beach are home to 3,000 or so African Penguins, going about their business before a stunning backdrop. So rare is the opportunity to see penguins in the wild first-hand, visitors to the Cape should take the chance to see nature doing its thing.

To explore this part of the Cape, hiring a car gives visitors a lot more freedom and opportunities to get to know the area. Boulders is just down the road from Simon's Town and can be accessed off the main road that continues down to Cape Point. Turn off at Seaforth Road and you'll find a car park that's a short walk away from the entrance to the national park. Walk along Kleintuin Road to reach the entrance and if you have time, stop to watch the African dancers who are often performing, have a look at the craft stalls and pop into the shop selling aloe vera based products.

Once you've bought your ticket to get into Boulders, head straight into the visitor centre just past the entrance, where you'll find displays about marine birds and can watch a DVD about the African Penguins you're about to see in the flesh. To get to the beach, you'll see there are two possible routes to take. Most visitors go along the more prominent boardwalk that is directly opposite the entrance. The slightly concealed boardwalk on the right is also worth taking, as it goes through more vegetation and you can see penguins through the trees, and in the special containers that hold their eggs during breeding time. Both boardwalks take you down to viewing platforms on Foxy Beach, which is where most of the penguins congregate.

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African Penguins at Boulders

It's incredible just how close you get to the penguins at Boulders. The boardwalks provide an excellent solution to keeping humans and penguins apart, yet in close proximity. While a lot of penguins cluster on the granite boulders joining Foxy Beach and the sea, many others can be seen waddling along the beach and chilling out next to and even underneath the boardwalks.

The African Penguin is sometimes still referred to by an old name – the Jackass Penguin – called so because of the donkey-like noise it makes. It's the only species of penguin to breed in Africa. Growing up to 70cm tall, penguins mainly feed on anchovies, pilchards and squid. They have a black stripe and black spots on their white chest – each penguin has a different pattern of spots. They also have prominent pink glands above their eyes that get pinker the hotter a penguin gets.

Depending on when you visit Boulders, you'll see the penguins at a different point of their annual cycle. Normally covered in feathers, December is the time when penguins moult, so you'll see them at various stages of losing them. They don't feed while they're moulting, so will head out to see for food as soon as they've lost their feathers. Returning to land in January, they mate and are nesting between February and August.

To see the thriving colony at Boulders today is an especially touching sight as there was a huge decline of the species during the 20th Century, leading to the African Penguin being listed as a vulnerable species in the Red Data Book. This happened when the African Penguin population fell from an estimated 1.5million during the early 1900s to just 10% of that at the end of the 20th Century. At Boulders, there were only two breeding pairs in 1982, increasing to the consistent 3,000 African Penguins there are today.

There have been a stream of threats facing the African Penguin that led to such a rapid decline before the turn of the century. Penguin eggs were used as food and were thought of as a delicacy until recent years, meaning that eggs were harvested frequently by humans.

Guano scraping was another problem, as guano (excrement from seabirds, seals etc) was removed by humans to be used as fertiliser. Guano is also used by African Penguins for burrowing, and the removal of guano also put the species into decline.

There was also a relatively recent threat to their survival in 2000 when there was an oil spill near Robben Island. The reaction was quick – while oiled birds were nursed back to health in an abandoned Cape Town warehouse, un-oiled birds were transported up the coast to Port Elizabeth, where they were released back into the wild. It took them about three weeks to make their way back to Boulders, by which time the sea has been cleaned up and their habitat was safe again.

To ensure the penguins continue to thrive at Boulders, fishing has also been restricted in the whole False Bay area, meaning that their food source is ample and protected. It's impressive to see such a range of robust measures being implemented to protect the African Penguin.

Boulders Beach

Back outside of the entrance to Boulders is another pathway called Willis Walk. If you walk along here, you'll reach Boulders Beach. You have to pay an entrance fee, but it's a secluded beach just along the bay from where the majority of penguins congregate at Foxy Beach. You can lay on the beach and swim, and you're quite likely to see some of those famous penguins on the rocks nearby. You can also reach Boulders Beach by driving further along the main Cape Point road and turning off into Bellevue Road.

Anyone wishing to stay in the Boulders area should think about Boulders Beach Lodge. With just 14 rooms, two of which are self-catering, it's nowhere near as expensive as many hotels on the Cape and they also serve delicious Pacific Rim cuisine. There are also plenty of accommodation options in nearby Simon's Town.

Sasha Arms is a freelance writer, editor and web communications strategist. She has travelled extensively, particularly across South Africa, Europe and the Americas and has contributed to a number of notable publications, including the Lonely Planet Bluelist. Read more about Sasha Arms

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