Clifton 4th Beach

This guide to Clifton 4th Beach in Cape Town explains two collisions of hot and cold, old and new: the summer upwelling that can plunge the Atlantic here below fourteen degrees Celsius even as the sand blisters underfoot, and the ancient granite boulders that carve the beach into four coves. You'll hear how the Benguela Current drives that shock of cold water, and how those old corestones double as windbreaks against the region's fierce southeasterly gales. A good spot to feel both stories at once: bare feet in the sand, hand on the rock.