Friday, Oct 18: Good Hope
Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. When most people I talked to about being on the Cape Peninsula thought of was “southernmost point of Africa” and “Vasco de Gama was the first to go by it.” Both of those thoughts are wrong.
Cape Agulhas is the southernmost point of Africa. The Cape of Good Hope is the point where European explorers started going more east than south when sailing down Africa’s coast. Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias is given the distinction of being the first semi-modern European to go around the Cape. He named it Cabo das Tormentas, the Cape of Storms. King John II of Portugal renamed the cape “Cape of Good Hope” as part of a marketing scheme. If you were going to go around the southern tip of Africa on the way to India, would you rather go around the Cape of Storms or the Cape of Good Hope?
Anyway, we got up fairly early so we could begin our trek south from Claremont to the south end of the Cape Peninsula. We drove down the M3, caught the M4 and went through towns like St. James, Kalk Bay, and Fish Hoek.
We stopped in Simon’s Town and wandered through some of the stores along the main road. Victorian, I guess, buildings with names like London House, Sartorial House, and Central Hotel, and businesses like the Tasty Table, Pearl Alley, Matchmaker, Nostalgie, and Simonstad Drankwinkel. Simon’s Town is also the location of one of South Africa’s Naval Bases and Boulder Bay, where a colony of African penguins reside.
Here is a slideshow. Click the arrows to view the images.
The harbor light in Simon's Town
They are everywhere!
The downtown strip of Simon's Town looks old. Lots of stores to spend time and money in.
South African Naval Base.
The harbor. People were out swimming in it.
Famous stairs in Simon's Town
White sand and boulders.
Looking back at the light and steep hillside.
Wonder why they call this Boulder Beach?
More of the boulders.
Watch for children...
Penguins and people crossing get a flashing light!
We left Simon’s Town and continued south on the M4 until we passed Bluegums Restplatz (a long way since the last reststop, I guess) and then turned right at Smitswinkel Valley. We found ourselves at the end of M4 and at the Cape of Good Hope Table Mountain National Park Entrance. We paid a nominal fee to enter and then continued driving south until we reached the parking lot of the Flying Dutchman funicular.
We were going to ride up to the top of a hill that has the old Cape Point lighthouse on top. The crowd of people was, well, crowded. A couple of tour buses had disgorged, and people were everywhere.
We rode to the top of the funicular and looked around and took in the view of the Cape of Good Hope west of us by a few thousand feet.
Here is a slideshow. Click the arrows to view the images.
Looking toward the Cape of Good Hope from the funicular.
…and from the top of the ride.
There were still stairs to go.
Looking back up the Cape Peninsula.
A long way to anywhere.
Us.
Looking toward the end of Cape Point. The working light is way down there.
six hundred feet or so down.
About the old light
Looking toward Cape Town.
I never saw this guy look up from his phone while we were there. He even looked at it while walking up and down.
Out building at the top.
Looking up at the light.
We could have walked down a trail about 2500 feet to a lookout where you can get a peek at the new Cape Point light, but we didn’t.
We rode the funicular back down. We could have walked, but how often do you get to ride a funicular?
And then we had an early dinner at the Two Oceans restaurant. D’Arcy ordered calamari. I usually do not like calamari because I find it too rubbery for my tastes. I tried some of hers. It was really good. Our waiter informed us that some of the best calamari comes from around there. Just then we saw whale spouts in the water. The waiter commented that there haven’t been too many whales yet this season. We were lucky again. But these were not southern right whales. They were humpbacks. After watching them for a bit, we decided we had to head back north.
Here is a slideshow. Click the arrows to view the images.
We stopped at the Two Oceans restaurant at the point. This bird had just taken a bath.
Still wet, just shaking it off.
Drying in the sun.
Looking much more dignified now.
The view from our table.
Humpback whale.
The back.
There she blows!
Rock cropping near the light.
I zoomed in to see Rafiki's cousin taking a nap.
We passed by the two crosses used as markers for ships at sea. The crosses are the Dias Cross and the de Gama cross, to honor the two explorers, and then stopped briefly at the closed tourist information center. D’Arcy later painted a picture of one of the buildings there.
Here is a slideshow. Click the arrows to view the images.
Dias cross. The Dias cross and the de Gama cross are used like range markers by sailors.
de Gama cross.
While I looked at the tree and scenery, D'Arcy took the next picture.
D'Arcy painted a picture of this building when we got home.
Our last look at the point.
Fynbos
The light green stuff was all a small-leafed plant that looked like a vine. Do not know the name of it.
Ancient rock and fynbos.
From a distance it looked like grazing sheep. But it was a field full of flowers.
A clump of the white flowers.
After exiting the park, we turned left and went up the west side of the peninsula toward Kommetjie. I wanted to see the Slangkop Lighthouse.
We then crossed the peninsula to Fish Hoek. As we crossed the middle of the peninsula, a blanket cloud started rolling over the top of the hill. Fun to watch as it did.
We wound up getting home after dark, but it was a great day out. Oh, what the heck? Why not see the cloud slowly try and come over the hill?
