Cape of Good Hope

Our tour began in Cape Town. If you have looked at our photos from Cape Town (especially the ones taken from the top of Table Mountain), it would be easy to believe that you were at the very tip of Africa.

However, look at a map of the region and you quickly realize there is more land south. That is where we are heading today.

Hint: Click on any photo to enlarge it.

Since entering Table Mountain National Park we seem to be traveling through a wasteland. But our tour guide, Hein, encourages to look more closely…and he is correct. This area is alive with beauty.

In truth we are traveling through a World Heritage Site…the Cape Floristic Region

These bushes (also known as sugarbush) will bloom into large flowers known as proteas. Sometimes see these flowers in North American floral shops. We saw proteas in bloom during our visit to the Kirstenbosch Gardens near Cape Town.

Restios …striking plant! Hein tells us there are numerous varieties here on the Cape.

There is hardly any traffic. (We learn most tourists go as far as Cape Point and then turn back, and they miss out on all this.) So why are we stopped in the middle of “nowhere”?

Look again.  (Hint: Click on any photo to enlarge it)

See there…near the pavement…Yes, a little turtle is holding us up!

(well, he does have to cross the road, doesn’t he.)

Soon the landscape begins to change…

we are nearing the ocean

complete with sand dunes

and crashing waves

It is easy to imagine why so many ships have run into trouble in this area, and why the early Portuguese sailors searching for a route to India named this area Cape of Storms.

Aside: Check out where Vasco do Gama and others learned navigational skills at Prince Henry the

now where did you come from!! (Got your attention though, eh)

Prince Henry the Navigator’s  Navigation School in Sagres

Sagres is at the most SW tip of Europe. Coincidence? Hmm.

And here we are…. at the  most south-western point of the African continent!

(Click on the photo to read the writing clearly)

Note: The sign does not say “the southern most tip of Africa” as there is a bit of land farther south than this…Cape Agulhas…several kms southeast of here.

So now let’s head over to Cape Point

(where most tourists end their journey to the tip of Africa)