Cape Point: Gifkommetjie ...

Click to enlarge ...

A dead shark, a brooding panorama. A desolate landscape, a baboon's skull. A rusted wreck and a hazy, rock-littered, guano-splattered headland. These are pictures I have of Gifkommetjie, a walk I thoroughly enjoy.

From the parking area, you can head down to the beach or take the path leading along Kleinkommetjie ridge to Die Hoek van Bobbejaan and what remains of the wreck of the Phyllisia. The ridge is the best way to go, delivering awesome views of both the bay and of the pristine stretch of coast leading to Brightwater further north.

Alternatively, you can walk up from Platboom or down from Olifantsbos.

It's a beautiful place, but it's not photogenic. Perhaps the snakes got to me? I don't know. Perhaps the mountains of rotting kelp bulldozed onto the rocks by the remorseless sea put me off it? The thorns, the unfriendly birds, or the brutal barricades of milkwood capable of turning a path to a leopard crawl through hell?

Who knows? Fishermen love the place and so do I. I'm just keen to get past it and Brightwater — a blinding beach supposedly privately owned, and head towards Olifantsbos, a really awesome stretch of coast along which I've walked many, many miles.

And further afield — we've a long way to go. I've been avoiding blogging Gifkommetjie a while now — I've felt my view of it to be jaundiced and haven't wanted to spoil it for others.

Gif translates to poison and a kom, or its diminutive, kommetjie, is a Dutch word meaning bowl. It's use — to describe bays and lagoons around the Cape Peninsula, is notable.

So yes, forget the pics. And the bowl of poison. The image above is of Kommetjie Peak from Die Hoek van Bobbejaan (The Baboon's Corner), a place of sun, sea and solitude.

It's just not photogenic ...