17 Things to Do in Blouberg When the Southeaster Is Howling — Guides · Blouberg, Cape Town

The southeaster does not ask whether you had beach plans. When the flags along Marine Drive snap out horizontal and the sand starts travelling at shin height, half of Blouberg retreats indoors muttering — and the other half grabs a kite and sprints for the water. This guide is for both halves.

Here’s the reframe nobody selling you a “perfect beach day” will offer: 30 knots off Table View is not a ruined afternoon. It is, at minimum, the best free spectator sport in Cape Town, and at best an excuse to finally do the dozen things around here that don’t involve lying on a towel. Seventeen options, tested against reality, in no particular order of dignity.

1. Watch the kitesurfers: seriously, this is the show

Kite Beach, between Table View and Big Bay, is rated among the best kitesurfing venues on the planet, and the reason is exactly the wind you’re cursing. On a proper blow the sky fills with kites and the good riders start throwing loops ten storeys up. Park along Marine Drive or Otto du Plessis, bring coffee, stay an hour. It costs nothing and it beats most things you’d pay for.

2. Put King of the Air in your diary

Red Bull’s big-air contest runs right here at Kite Beach, and the organisers deliberately wait for the most violent wind day they can get. If you’re going to live in a wind tunnel, you may as well live in the one where the world’s best come to jump. The waiting window falls in late November and early December, so watch for the event announcements.

3. Outsmart it: go early

The southeaster is a heat-driven wind. It typically builds through the day as the land warms and peaks mid-to-late afternoon, which means mornings are often perfectly civil even in a windy spell. Check the live beachfront weather station before you leave the house. If it’s already pumping at 09:00, adjust; if it’s quiet, you’ve got a window.

4. Learn the villain’s backstory

The wind has a name, a folk legend involving a pipe-smoking pirate, and a genuinely interesting meteorology behind it. We’ve written the whole thing up in The Cape Doctor: Why Cape Town Howls in Summer. Knowing why it blows won’t stop it blowing, but it does make you insufferable at braais, which is its own reward.

5. Photograph the tablecloth

The same southeaster that’s flaying the beachfront is pouring that famous white cloud over Table Mountain like a slow waterfall. Blouberg’s view across the bay is the classic angle for it. A howling day is often a clear day everywhere except the mountain’s summit: golden light, whitecaps, cloth on the table. Your phone will do fine.

6. Sit in an actual hide at Rietvlei

A bird hide is, structurally speaking, a small wooden building designed to keep you hidden and, conveniently, out of the wind. The Rietvlei section of the Table Bay Nature Reserve, entered at the southern end of Grey Avenue in Table View, has two of them overlooking the water, with something like 180 bird species recorded, including pelicans and flamingos. Entry is pocket change (around R16 for adults as of September 2026; confirm before you go).

7. Or the hides at Intaka Island

Ten to fifteen minutes inland at Century City, Intaka Island is a 16-hectare wetland completely surrounded by office blocks, with about 120 bird species, two hides and flat, wheelchair-friendly paths. It sounds unpromising on paper. It is quietly one of the best small nature outings on this side of the city.

8. Movies at Bayside

The Ster-Kinekor at Bayside Mall, on the corner of Blaauwberg Road and West Coast Road, is the closest big-screen escape to the beachfront. Its operating days have been reduced at times in recent years, so check the programme online before driving over rather than after.

9. Do the Table Bay Mall loop

Further up the R27, Table Bay Mall is the area’s newer, larger retail option: open until evening most days, air-conditioned, and entirely indifferent to wind speed. If you’re new to the neighbourhood and still mapping what’s where, our complete local’s area guide covers how the malls, beaches and suburbs fit together.

10. Stop spectating and book a lesson

Several kitesurfing schools operate between Table View and Big Bay, and this is one of the few places on earth where world-class instruction happens on your doorstep. One honest note: a full-gale day can be too much wind for a first lesson, so book with a school and let them call the conditions; they’d rather move your slot than launch you into orbit. Check current rates directly; they vary by format.

11. Retreat to the Durbanville vines

Twenty-five-odd minutes inland, the Durbanville Wine Valley carries on pouring sauvignon blanc regardless of what the coast is doing. Tasting rooms are indoors, the hills block the worst of it, and you return to Blouberg at dusk when the wind often starts to think about easing.

12. Go stand in a kelp forest

The Two Oceans Aquarium at the V&A Waterfront is about half an hour down the R27, open daily, and completely windproof. Ragged-tooth sharks, a penguin exhibit, an ocean tank with turtles. And small children exhaust themselves in the basement play area, which on day three of a blow is not a small consideration.

13. Chase the last flowers up the R27

This one is urgent: the Postberg section of the West Coast National Park, the most famous wildflower display within reach of Cape Town, only opens for flower season and closes at the end of September. That gives you a couple of weekends left this year. It’s about an hour up the R27 to the park gate, with Postberg a little further inside, the blooms open best on sunny late mornings, and a car is excellent wind shelter.

14. Walk Koeberg Nature Reserve

At Melkbosstrand, the Koeberg Nature Reserve has free entry and two marked trails: the Grysbok (about 5.5 km, with a 2.5 km short option) and the much longer Dikkop. It’s open sunrise to an hour before sunset, and you’ll need your ID for registration at the gate on Otto du Plessis Drive. No promises about shelter (the wind lives here too), but a walk you didn’t pay for stings less when it’s blustery.

15. Brave the Milnerton Flea Market (early)

Saturday and Sunday mornings on Marine Drive at Paarden Eiland, just south of Milnerton, a couple of hundred stalls of records, tools, furniture and genuine oddities, with Table Mountain straight ahead. The honest answer is that it’s exposed, so go at opening time before the wind gets ambitious, and hold onto anything lighter than a gearbox.

16. Sundowners on the right side of the glass

The southeaster often relents somewhat in the evening, and even when it doesn’t, a window seat turns whitecaps into scenery. Our ranking of ten beachfront sundowner spots tells you which places along the strip earn their view. On a windy day, skip the outside tables unless you like your chips airborne, and ask for a table indoors facing the sea.

17. Or just walk into it

Ten minutes on the beachfront in a proper blow — jacket zipped, eyes narrowed, shins lightly sandblasted — and you’ll understand this coast better than a month of postcard days could teach you. Then go inside and order something hot. You’ve earned it, and the kitesurfers out the back are still jumping.

Sources & further reading

Featured image: Kites by Elsie esq., via Openverse (flickr) — BY 2.0