Visit to Cape Point & the Cape of Good Hope

I didn't drive around in Cape Town but took organized tours. A family of five, Nigerians who were working in Kazakhstan (of all places) were in the minibus with me on this trip. The wife didn't seem to appreciate my Borat jokes, although the husband didn't seem to mind.



On the way, we stopped at Hout Bay to take a boat trip to the seal island. As in most tourist spots, the locals were displaying their handicrafts and paintings on the sidewalks. Unemployment is high in South Africa, so the singing and dancing groups at the Cape Town

waterfront do it not for recreation but for sheer survival. The same could be said of some handicrafts sellers because the items they display are sometimes crude and worth next to nothing. The photo shows handicrafts being displayed at Hout Bay.

A boat took us to the Seal island. Although the stench was overpowering, I had not seen so many seals in one place before, not even in New Zealand. The bucolic scenery was spoilt by yet

another township (more about them later) clinging precariously to a steep hillside.

Seal Island in Hout Bay

We then drove all the way south to the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve, a desolate area which contains both Cape Point as well as the Cape of Good Hope. We took the tram up to Cape Point and walked down, which took about 15 minutes. The views were spectacular. We had a nice lunch at Cape Point.


Cape Point tram

At Cape Point. At 200+ feet above sea level, the view is spectacular.

An dream fulfilled. Finally, at the Cape of Good Hope.

Seeing the Cape of Hood Hope was probably the crowning moment of my visit to South Africa. I had read about the Cape in history and geography books from primary school. The Cape is where currents from the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet, and the sea is very dangerous to shipping. The sea is littered with shipwrecks. Till the Suez Canal was dug in the 1800s, the route from Europe to Asia was around the Cape. Long, treacherous voyages.

An African Penguin.

We then drove up to Simonstown to see penguins, and were fortunate to see hundreds of them at close quarters. . (I hadn't seen any any New Zealand, so this was a treat.) Because of their braying, they used to be called Jackass Penguins, but that has now been changed to the more dignified African Penguin. The penguin population is sharply down and only about 20,000 remain. They look harmless but are said to have sharp beaks.

The penguin colony at Boulders near Simonstown.

We drove back to Cape Town with a stop at the beautiful Kirstenbosch Botanical garden.