Contents Show
Between wine, waves and whales
There are actually more comfortable ways to move in the Cape region than in the Porsche Macan. For the good wine you can chauffeur better and for the Walroute is just on 440 PS strengthened turbo actually too fast. But on the other hand, there are fantastic mountain passes, where you can also drive quite sober in snake lines.
The first kilometers are still comparatively boring and Africa still seems a long way away even after a dozen hours of flight. Because if you switch to the car in Cape Town as a plane, you think you are apart from the warmer temperatures and the somewhat older fleet, as in any other - attention left-hand traffic - English city. And the “Stuttgart Sunrise” breakfast in the Dinkel Bakery doesn't exactly stir up wanderlust either.
Scrambled eggs, Table Mountain and Porsche
But it only takes 15 minutes, two portions of scrambled eggs and a few slices of wholemeal bread, then motorists know why they flew so far. Most of them are obvious because of nature or culture and maybe also because of the water. But even the Klof Nek Road with the Lions Head to the right and the Table Mountain with its icing from misty clouds to the left, offers a fascinating panorama - and that's only the beginning.
Because with the 1.087 meter high Table Mountain in the rearview mirror, you can quickly get out of the city - to the Cape of Good Hope, which motorists also know as the Cape of good curves. Because the 200-kilometer tour to the top of the continent is one of the most beautiful routes that Africa has to offer: Past corrugated iron settlements, the route leads over the N2, M3 and M42 from the center towards Muizenberg and there to the banks of the “False Bay”, the bay that seafarers used to confuse with the Atlantic on their way from east to west.
This is where the winding Boyes Drive begins, which leads with fascinating views of snow-white beaches through villages such as Kalk Bay or Fish Hoek to the first stop at “Boulders Beach” in Simon's Town. The beach is no more beautiful there than in the neighboring towns - but the bathers are more illustrious. Because there you share the sand with a large colony of penguins who waddle back and forth between the sea and their nests in the midst of the tourists. Sometimes the clumsy-looking tailcoats also get lost on the street, which is why there are zebra crossings and traffic signs for them. Then they doze in the shade under the parked cars or stand in the green areas like the garden gnomes at home.
Monkeys, monkeys everywhere
From Simon's Town, it's another quarter of an hour south until a control point blocks the way. The South Africans protect flora and fauna in places where a military restricted area might begin due to the exposed location. Because the last kilometers to the Cape lead through a nature reserve. Strict traffic rules and a strict speed limit apply. Curiosity also slows down on the tour through the rugged landscape. And the monkeys. Because baboons sit on the boulders on every second corner. They often stare dreamily and absent-mindedly into nowhere. But they are wide awake and are just waiting for visitors to stop and take pictures. Not only because there are usually a few goodies. But mainly because the monkeys steal everything that is not riveted and nail-proof from open cars.
The Cape of the good Porsche
From the end of the road to the end of the world there are only a few more steps: on foot or with a cogwheel train you go up a last mountain, you climb another 133 steps - and look at the Cape of Good Hope. Even if, strictly speaking, the Indian and Atlantic Ocean only meet 300 kilometers further in the south-east, the view of the sea is simply breathtaking. The “new” lighthouse also stands for foresight. While the first “lighthouse”, built at Cape Point in 1860, was hardly visible from the sea, especially in bad weather, since 1919 a second tower has been shining a little brighter into the night.
Today its light can be seen up to 63 kilometers away and warns the more than 20.000 ships per year that make the Cape one of the busiest shipping routes today. The first captain on this route was the Portuguese Bartholomeu Diaz, who sailed around the rock in search of a sea route to India in 1488 and named it "Cape of Storms". And rightly so: Even if the thermometer in the city still shows 30 degrees Celsius, a windbreaker is advisable on this tour.
Strengthened, not just the Porsche Macan
Strengthened by a snack in the “Two Oceans” restaurant, we head back north - this time, however, not with a view of the Indian, but of the Atlantic Ocean. Shortly behind the park you pass many stands with African carving art. Then it goes on towards Scarborough and from there past long beaches or beautiful bays such as the “Misty Cliffs” - where a steady breeze cools pleasantly even in the greatest heat and the spray of the waves often sprays onto the road. Chapman's Peak Drive begins in Noordhoek, and travel guides unanimously praise it as one of the most beautiful coastal roads in the world. After the route was closed for three years due to many rockfalls, it now costs “entry”, but has been thoroughly renovated and freshly cleaned up.
Although the 1922 serpentine road built by Italian prisoners of war to Hout Bay is just over ten kilometers long, it is considered by many to be the highlight of a tour to the end of the world. Because the panorama is almost indescribable: Under the thunderous sea and above the rugged rock you can enjoy a new view after every bend. If you have enough storage space on the digital camera and you have started early enough in the morning, this track almost twitches at a walking pace and keeps stopping.
The last 20 kilometers back to Cape Town are also extremely photogenic. Well-developed roads lead past the seaside resort of Llandudno, which is surrounded by high cliffs, down to Camps Bay. While the mountain range “Twelve Apostles” bores majestically into the blue sky on the right, the large Atlantic breakers roll gently on the white sandy beaches on the left.
However, it is still too early for the city, so the tour continues along the coast to the southeast, where the bends continue and the roads become emptier. As tempting as the track may be, there's a tingling sensation in the right foot, as under the big toe, 550 Nm are just waiting to catapult the Macan Turbo into 4,3 seconds on 100 and the road slips to 270 km / h top speed would give it here, moderation is advised. Finally, we are on the Walroute and now in the European winter, the marine mammals are here right on the coast and wave to the Passat with their huge Fluken. And this is a spectacle against which all the temptations of an SUV fade - even if it is still so sporty.
The car for this tour between vineyards and whales is the newly revamped Porsche Macan Turbo, which is now being launched just over a year after the big facelift. Of course, the top model, for which call the German dealer 91 922 Euro, in South Africa is still much more upmarket and hardly anyone can afford the 1,5 million rand, which are in the price list. But fits the Macan Turbo still best of all Porsche models in the picture. Not as pretentious as his big brother Cayenne, not as loud as the GTS and of course only half as conspicuous as Cayman, Boxster or the 911, although he stands out from the tide of pickups and the Golf 1 out here the streetscape determine. But because he wears the mink inside and out only a small spoiler and a few black attachments, he remains so discreet and restrained that it neither hits back disgust nor anyone wants to discuss the climate.
Along the coast, in view of the panorama, you are forced to hold back a little and therefore enjoy the Macan more as a relaxed glider with a surprisingly high degree of long-distance comfort than as a curvy fighter. Its hour strikes less than a hundred kilometers later when it comes to Hermanus in the hinterland - first over a few wide plains and, given the endlessly long traffic light phases in front of barely visible construction sites, sometimes over a few dirt roads and then over a chain of hills into the wine valleys of Franschhoek. With a pass height of 740 meters they are hardly worth mentioning and the green peaks do not look as imposing as Table Mountain & Co. But the South Africans have milled an even more beautiful pass road into the mountain, which is so perfectly developed that the 80 km / h speed limit degenerates into a farce - especially because the police cannot be seen here far and wide. So you switch to the sportiest driving profile on the new GT steering wheel and become a summiteer, chase one bend after the other and feel very close to the sky at the top of the pass.
Because it was so beautiful, many of them drive the pass again in the opposite direction. And again, and again and again, collecting so many curves that after the evening at the winery they don't really know why they're still lining up on the way to bed. Was it the Merlot - or did all the curves go to their heads? No idea! Perhaps that will clear up the next day: after all, there is enough wine here, the full Macan is already waiting and the way back to the coast - so a coincidence - again over the pass.