Cape Peninsula tidal pools cut into the rock

The peninsula puts two very different seas within half an hour of each other, and the tidal pools make the contrast measurable. False Bay water sits several degrees above the Atlantic side, where upwelling can drop temperatures into single figures in summer, so the choice of coast matters more than the choice of pool. Each entry gives the facing, the state of tide that fills and empties it, and what the walls do to the southeasterly.

Places in this collection

  • Soetwater Tidal Pool — Two pools on the exposed coast below the Slangkop Lighthouse at Kommetjie, inside the Soetwater Recreational Area, which was proclaimed a c…
  • Glencairn Tidal Pool — A wide basin built in the 1920s and later restored, its rock walls enclosing a floor of soft golden sand, on the False Bay coast between Fi…
  • Dalebrook Tidal Pool — Cut into the rock in 1907 between St James and Kalk Bay, wedged between the railway line and the sea, with large boulders standing in the m…
  • St James Tidal Pool — Built in 1903 on the False Bay coast between Muizenberg and Kalk Bay, this one has a sandy floor rather than rock underfoot and no steps: y…
  • Camps Bay Tidal Pool — Cut into the smooth granite at the southern end of Camps Bay Beach, below Victoria Road on the Bakoven side, with a strip of white sand alo…

Related collections