False Bay hotspot for biodiversity and entertainment

Amazing marine wildlife makes False Bay, near Cape Town, a biodiversity hotspot, but buzzy resorts around its edge provide entertainment for landlubbers too, says this writer.

SITTING in a forest holding on to a tree, I wait for the big beasts to arrive. All I can hear is the sound of my own breathing, but there is plenty to see: bright orange and blue creatures crawling around the forest floor, or tucked in rocky crevices waving their metre-long antennae at me. The trees are uniformly bronze, as thick as my wrist, rising to a mop of flattened fronds that move in a dream-like manner. My buddy, Matt van der Venter, has settled down too. A few small animals hover in front of us, but we are hoping for something much bigger.