Cape Town Water Taxi

The water taxi operates between the One and Only Hotel at the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, to the Cape Town International Conference Centre (CTICC) at the Foreshore area of Cape Town. The patch of waterway along which one travels is known as the Roggebaai Canal. It’s a round trip of between 20 and 30 minutes, depending on how many stops are made to load and offload passengers. The cost of the round trip (one can hop off at any of the stops and hop on again later with the same ticket) is R50 for adults and R25 for children.

We boarded the taxi at the One and Only Hotel. We waited about 45 minutes for the taxi to arrive. This is the view from the landing deck. In the foreground you can see some of the hotel rooms that are separate from the main building, and in the background some of the Waterfront apartments, and, of course, Table Mountain.

This is what the taxi looks like. The Zulu word Shosholoza means go forward or make way for the next man. It's also the name of a song very popular at South African sports events.

The water in the canal is kept at a fairly consistent level. Here you can see the spot where the sea water is pumped into the canal, and there are overflow areas for times when the water level gets too high.






This is a look at what some of the apartments look like. We were informed that some of the celebrities that own apartments here include Madonna, John Travolta, and Lance Armstrong.

Taken as we were coming to the end of the trip. It was over far too quickly. The complex on the left is the health and spa section of the hotel, with the main buildings in the background.








The trip is really recommended - it's a great way to spend 20-30 minutes, though unfortunately the time is just not enough to absorb all the information available. We had a building pointed out to us that was apparently the tallest building in South Africa way back in the 1920s, shown a site for a new shopping centre, had a look at proud Egyptian geese parents with their seven three-day old chicks, were told about the possibility that the Wheel of Excellence would move permanently to the Waterfront itself proper, etc., etc., all the time while trying to take photos (of which I missed quite a few)!

Oh, by the way, it was a calm day, but freezing. There's not a lot of sun on the canal so take some warm clothing!

The taxi is operated by Classic Cape Charters. Our guide for the day was Jacques Truter, and he was humorous and informative. Telephone contact is 021 418 0782, or you can have a look at the website at www.capecharters.co.za.