Day 12 (cont’d) – The Cape of Good Hope

Even with all the intensity and emotion of our trip to Robben Island, the entire tour (ferry rides to/from, bus trip and prison tour) only took a few hours.

By late morning, we found ourselves on our way south – I mean really south – to almost the most southern portion of the continent. Our destination was the Cape of Good Hope, which (putting on my Geography Teacher hat for a moment), is technically the most southwestern point on the African continent. From Cape Town harbor, it was about 50 miles due south.

Ben, our ever-thoughtful driver and guide, took us on a route that hugged the coastline. He said that, with such a beautiful day, we would really see the amazing coastline in all its glory. He was not wrong! The ride by van was only about 45 minutes, but it seemed much shorter, as most of us were glued to the windows, taking in the sights.

At one point, Ben pulled off the road to let us enjoy a ‘Kodak moment’ (as he put it). We walked along a path, turned a bend and stared straight into this:

The coastal road had many twists and turns and a variety of hills and dips. The way the road snaked around blind corners and left little margin for error if you should stray too close to the guard rail, I was very glad Ben was the one doing the driving and not me! You can imagine my surprise when Ben told me that this road was the route used by a yearly bike race, called the Cape Argus PicknPay Cycle Tour.  I did some research and found that the race is 110km (68 miles) and it is not an easy road to travel. A route map from the race website has a section showing the elevation of the course:

This map really shows you what I mean by ‘hills and dips’. If you look closely, you’ll see some places where the elevation rises to almost 600 feet! Ben said this was a very popular race, with hundreds coming from out of the country to take part in it!

In almost no time, we found ourselves at the main gate of Cape Point. We each paid our admission price of $10 (actually, Brenna pre-paid for all of us!) and we were in! There was a sign announcing that the gates closed at 5pm and that there was a $60 fine for vehicles that were still in the park past closing time. The area within this park was vast - an excellent map from Cape Town Info shows just how vast:

Our destination within the park was a lighthouse almost on the tip of the Cape (the one at the very bottom of the map!). From the main gate, it took at least 20 minutes – and not driving slow! – for us to reach an upper parking area where we could walk to the lighthouse:

(Our goal – the Cape Point Lighthouse)

The distance from the parking area to the lighthouse was only about 400 feet, but the way was steep and travel was via a stone staircase. We opted not to take the electric tram car and walk instead…Twenty minutes later, at the top, we wondered if the tram car might not have been a wiser choice!

(Looking down from the lighthouse back at where we started our climb)

No matter what route you took to the top. The view was something so stunning it almost looked fake:

The long ridge of rock and earth is the place where two oceans come together. On the left, facing west, you are looking at the Atlantic Ocean and on the right, facing east, is the Indian Ocean. (NOTE: My picture doesn’t do justice to what we saw from this point. For something better, please check out this fabulous moveable aerial panorama from AirPano.com!

After circling the exterior of the lighthouse, we began the walk back down. When we reached the parking area, however, there was no Ben and no van. It hit us that we told Ben we would meet him in the lower parking area. When he explained that the ‘walk’ from upper to lower areas would entail a 50-minute hike, we just nodded and said “Sure – we’ll see you there.” I am sure he was thinking “Tourists…” as he drove away…

Our hike was actually challenging, as we had to climb up and over a rocky hill and down a long, winding flight of wooden stairs that were hammered into the terrain. If there was one saving grace, it had to be the surrounding view. It was as almost as amazing as the view from the lighthouse. Here are just a few examples:

We had to walk past this cliff and beach – probably close to 600 feet high:

To give you a sense of just how high this is, two of our group decided to ‘pop’ down there, via a switch-back staircase:

When they got to the bottom, I took this shot of them on the beach:

 (In case you can’t see them, I’ve circled them)

By the time we got to the other side of these cliffs, we were so far away from the giant lighthouse we started from that it looked like a toy in the distance:

After passing the cliffs, we had to make it over this rocky ridge:

There was a walking path marked out by rocks, but that didn’t make the climb up and down the other side that much easier. Along the way, we passed these rather creepy, snake-like cacti:

Once on the other side, we ducked under this rocky outcropping (which looked too much like an animal’s head):

Finally, probably 30-35 minutes later, we had to walk down this long, winding staircase to the bottom:

 (FYI – Two of our group are standing at the bottom of the staircase!)

Off to the left – just off camera – was Ben, in his van, waiting patiently for us to appear (no ‘I told you so’ was forthcoming!!)..

After the powerful trip to Robben Island this morning (was it only this morning?), this visit to this beautiful natural feature was a perfect way to end our day!