New walking tour of Cape Town

EXPLORE CAMISSA – THE LOST “PLACE OF SWEET WATERS”

A NEW WALKING TOUR TO DISCOVER THE SWEET WATERS OF CAMISSA FOR GUESTS OF THE TABLE BAY HOTEL, CAPE TOWN

The Table Bay hotel, located on Cape Town’s cosmopolitan Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, has created a partnership with Reclaim Camissa, a local non-profit Trust, to offer guests a new authentic experience to discover the history of Cape Town and the surrounding area. Table Bay hotel guests are invited to explore the origins of the waters that stretch between Robben Island and Table Mountain, both world UNESCO Heritage sites. The 1.5 hour Camissa Walk – revealing the complex history of Cape Town – will end at The Table Bay’s exclusive Camissa restaurant where guests are invited to sample an exquisite South African- inspired meal.

Sherwin Banda, General Manager at the Table Bay Hotel says:

“Camissa – ‘the place of sweet waters’ is the original Khoi name for Cape Town and the reason we named our latest restaurant. We also wanted to give our guests the opportunity to discover Cape Town’s cultural and environmental heritage and to learn more about the role of water in the city landscape, linking mountain to sea, past to future and people to the environment.”

During the Camissa Walk, guests will follow the water’s course, from the mountain, through mills, wash houses where slaves took the population’s laundry, the shrines of local saints and other forgotten landmarks to discover the earliest roots of the city of Cape Town. The walk begins uphill to discover De Grendel – the Dutch word for the lock – from where the original main water supply into the city was controlled, after the Dutch settlement. From there they will stop en-route at the Lower Platterklip Waterfall, The Platteklip Dam and Mill, the Wash Houses where legend tells us that Hafiz’s Magic Ring was found, and eventually The Old Oranjezicht Farmstead, home to Cape Town’s first Mayor and the site of the Stadsfontein. For the most adventurous, the tour can include an additional experience that will allow guests to enter underground tunnels that carries the old river to the moat of the Castle of Good Hope.

“For centuries, Camissa was the life blood of the old city bowl, defining its culture, history and even its urban layout. Following the water’s course, the walk offers a fresh and eye-opening perspective on the city,” comments Caron von Zeil, from Reclaim Camissa.

The tour will be guided by Caron von Zeil and has been developed in conjunction with events and team building company, Fo8, which leads the tunnel portion of the tour, providing gumboots, headlamps and other necessary equipment.

The experience, which includes the sweet water tour and the lunch at Camissa, is available for all the Hotel Guests subject to availability. Price on request.

For reservations, please contact www.suninternational.com or tel: +27 11 780 7878.