Baboon Palace? Welcome to Ape Town!
The cache, a small camo-taped tablet pot, is hidden with the kind permission of management in a specially and recently constructed multi-function area on the edge of the milkwood forest inside this freely accessible holiday resort.
Hiding of the cache became possible with the archiving of Gameranger365’s GC88JF7 Milkwood forest cache which was hidden on 29/5/19 and archived on 17/8/22 after some 12 finds.
The area is usually active each Sunday from 10:00-18:00 so you would be most likely to encounter muggle clients then, otherwise it is usually very peaceful. Parking is available nearby.
To find the cache: click on the image above to access a jigsaw, completion of which will reveal the cache coordinates - and a helpful hint!
Despite its name, I could not find any record of baboons visiting the Noordhoek area, although they are very active elsewhere. The Cape Peninsula has around 11-14 troops of Cape or Chacma baboon (Papio ursinus ursinus) – one of 6 species found in Africa – with 20-70 individuals in each and a total of 450-500. Depending on the source of info the troops have been identified as follows:
- Simon’s Town area (approx. 150): Waterfall (Redhill), Da Gama Park, Smitswinkel
- Tokai area: Tokai, Mountain, Constantia, Zwaanswyk
- Cape of Good Hope area: Cape Point, Kanonkop, Klein Olifantsbos, Buffels Bay, Groot Olifansbos, Plateau Road
There are also periodic breakaway or splinter groups off the main troops resulting from troops becoming too large or conflict for dominance.
Although popular with the so-called ‘bunny huggers’ and visiting tourists, they have become a nuisance (ie. pest) in some (peri-)urban areas (eg. Simon’s Town, Scarborough, Kommetjie, Tokai, Da Gama Park, Constantia) due to their frequent raids on and into properties foraging for nutrient-rich foods.
These marauding incursions can cause great distress to the human residents and significant associated damage to houses and gardens, and have sadly led to polarisation of stances on how to deal (or not) with the issue. Views range from culling to relocation on one side to humans living alongside the baboons and tolerating the disruptions and associated costs – or failing that - moving out!
Substantial research has been carried out into the human-baboon interface and associated interactions and the reasons for the invasions and methods to discourage this identified. However, implementation has proved difficult and the measures employed have largely failed so far – not least due to undisciplined human behaviour and practices, eg. actually feeding the baboons, failure to prevent access to waster food, and to keep doors and windows securely closed. The first two are illegal, the third simply careless.
In March 2022, the Simon’s Town Civic Association (STCA) acknowledged that the behaviour of the three troops in the area represented a crisis and is working with residents and the various organisations involved to develop and implement a comprehensive, integrated and sustainable baboon management plan . . .
See here for a recent article on Cape baboon management and here for a well-illustrated article on Cape Town’s Baboon Troops (with maps).
Videos: of the many available, see here (baboon management 
challenges), here (feature length film on baboons in Pringle Bay), here (Baboon Bandits 52m, about baboons in the Cape Peninsula) and here (baboon attacks at Cape Point).