Rondevlei Nature Reserve

Unlike Intaka Island’s constructed urban wetland, Rondevlei is a large natural freshwater reserve where visitors experience expansive reed beds, open water and indigenous wildlife in a much wilder setting. It is also the only place in the south-western Cape where hippopotamuses are still found.

Rondevlei is one of six sections of the False Bay Nature Reserve, alongside Zeekoevlei, the Strandfontein Birding Section, Pelican Park, Slangetjiebos and the Zandwolf coastal strip, and it forms part of the greater False Bay Ecology Park. Concerned bird lovers established Rondevlei as a bird sanctuary in 1952, and its 290 hectares today hold a permanent wetland fringed by Cape Flats sand fynbos in the north, with seasonal wetlands and Cape Flats dune strandveld in the south. The City of Cape Town describes the wider reserve as the fifth most important habitat for wetland birds in southern Africa.

About 250 bird species have been recorded across the False Bay Nature Reserve, and at times as many as 30 000 birds gather in the area, among them fish eagles, pelicans and flamingos. A network of footpaths, viewing towers and several bird hides, each named after a well-known birder, allows visitors to watch this activity without disturbing it, while a museum and auditorium at the reserve explain the ecology of the Cape Flats wetlands.

Rondevlei is also known for its hippopotamuses, the only ones remaining in the south-western Cape. They were introduced to the vlei in 1981 and 1983 and have lived here ever since, although the City itself describes them as elusive and sightings are never guaranteed. Patient visitors watching from the hides and viewing towers early in the morning have the best chance, and the possibility alone makes a walk here unlike any other wetland outing in the city.