Baden-Powel drive is one of the many roads that runs along the spectacular False Bay coastline and links various parts of the Cape Town metropole to one another. The road which runs right next to the sandy beach front and crashing waves will often produce views of Cape Cormorants flying in their characteristic V-shaped skeins as well as endangered African Black Oystercatcher foraging amongst the kelp debris together with White-Fronted Plovers. Large huddles of Kelp Gulls that hunker down from the well known Cape doctor in the form of the South-Easter wind are also a regular sight.
What most people do not realise is that just behind the dunes on the inland side of this road lies one of the best birding locations in the entire Cape Peninsula and on hearing the name of this location will be both surprised and also perhaps slightly shocked with a subconscious turning up of the nose. Strandfontein Sewage Works can produce more than 80 species in a single morning and is an ideal destination for both beginner birdwatchers and serious twitchers to test their birding skills from the comfort of their vehicles. The sewage works comprises numerous filtration ponds surrounded by reed beds that attract huge numbers of waterfowl. The road ways between the ponds are verged by lush grasses, shrubs and coastal thicket that also attract a fair share of fynbos specials.
