PETS NEED A Break too!
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BOSKY DELL ON BOULDERS BEACH
There is a bosky dell of rounded milkwood trees trying to encircle the timber path between Boulders and Seaforth beaches.
Bosky Dell is the name given to one of the original Boulder’s properties, just steps away from the now-famous African (Jackass) penguin reserve near Simonstown.
Perhaps it is because the images of giant granite boulders, the aquamarine-coloured sea, and the black-and-white, dinner-suited penguins have become one of the hero snapshots used by Cape Town Tourism in promoting the city — but this area is extremely popular with visitors.
While its natural beauty is undisputed, prior to the 1980s — when the endangered penguins began to make the area home — it was just another, albeit exquisite, cove along the South Peninsula’s coastline. Today, visitors — especially international ones — consider a visit to the Western Cape incomplete without a stop at Boulders Beach. A stay at Bosky Dell, in its original 1850s house or in the now-converted outbuildings, is something special. Bosky Dell offers direct access to Boulders from its garden gate, heaps of charm, and excellent value for money. Getting closer to the action, while also further removed from the hubbub, may be difficult elsewhere.
Simonstown is less than two kilometres away, and the highly recommended Lighthouse Café is a must-visit. Order their famous tomato tart or venison carpaccio to start, and relish their seafood-brimming bouillabaisse. Let them know you’re dining with your dog, and a special table with a water bowl will be ready for you.
A more recent arrival from their previous location in Grabouw is The Hickory Shack, now teamed with Charlie’s Garage Craft Brewery at 98 St George’s Street. You and your pets are welcome here too. Minari Korean Kitchen, Frans, and SAVEUR restaurants are also nearby.
Bosky Dell’s accommodations are self-catering, and each unit includes an outdoor braai area.
Though located in older buildings, the units are freshly painted and very well maintained. The excellent attention to detail is unexpected in such an affordable offering.
The management team clearly care about Bosky Dell and genuinely want their guests to have a great time.
Neighbours include the upscale Tintswalo Boulders and the budget-friendly Boulders Beach Hotel. None, however, offers the garden space that Bosky Dell does. Its large, flat lawns are ideal for a marquee tent, and the views over the beach and mountains beyond are truly magnificent.
As this is a pet-friendly property — with resident cats and other dogs — your pets must be fully under your control or on a lead when outside. Julie is typically not happy with other dogs around, and there was much barking from the car when we arrived.
But after we allowed her and the other dogs to connect and run around off-lead for a while, all was peaceful.
Regular readers may recall Julie’s particular fascination with dassies. Walking with her along the Boulders walkway, she almost entirely ignored the penguins in favour of the dassies. And, in a first for Julie, she was entranced to find a dassie couple, happily posing for photographs, suspended in a tree. I asked ChatGPT to write her a rhyme about it:
ON BOULDERS’ WALKWAY NEAR OLD BOSKY DELL, JULIE STOOD STILL, CAUGHT IN A DASSIE’S SPELL—
SHE PASSED THE PENGUINS WITH BARELY A GRIN, ENTRANCED BY THE TREE WHERE THE DASSIES SAT IN.
