Here’s a random photo of us all on Table Mountain. Nothing to do with today’s fun.

And so, to today……. There are some places you have to go (Pyramids of Egypt, Eiffel Tower, Grand Canyon – stuff like that) and the Cape of Good Hope is one. The most south westerly point in the continent of Africa (most southern point is Point Agula – about 200km east from here) is somewhere that travellers like to go. It has a great name, it has history, and it is spectacular.
We left Cape Town this morning and travelled by car with a local guide along the eastern side of the Cape. The whole region has many historic buildings due to its Dutch and English colonisation, not to mention the Portuguese influence. We saw some beautiful old buildings from centuries ago, especially at Simon’s Town. Here we visited a penguin colony where there is now a population of over 3000 birds, which was nurtured from just one pair some years ago.

The landscape is wind blown and treeless, reminiscent of Scotland. The vegetation of local wildflowers and shrubs was lush with winter rains, and whilst we didn’t see any zebras, there were quite a few antelopes (can’t remember their correct name) and ostriches wanderings around.
So we made it to the fabled Cape of Good Hope –

Unreal! It was really windy there, making for a bad hair day. We walked up to the point (didn’t get blown off) and then across to Cape Point where the light houses are. The first one they built was too high and got lost in the fog too often, so they built one down lower at 87m above the sea.

This is looking back to the Cape of Good Hope from the lighthouse. We drove back along the Atlantic coast of the Cape to have a late lunch in Hout Bay. The road here cuts into the cliff side and puts the Great Ocean Road to shame. Can you believe I said that? It was spectacular.
Leaving Cape Town tomorrow, and driving east for a few days.
Gee, and I thought I’d write a short paragraph at the end of each day!