Day Tour to Cape of Good Hope

Coastline on Way to Cape Point

At Hout Bay

Hout Bay Marina

Another Beautiful Beach

Resident of Ostrich Farm

Peter, Mark the Guide, Robert

Rock Hyrax, Related to Elephant

Coastal Vegetation near Cape Point

Contemplating the Meaning of Life ....

Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden

Wasp Dragging Paralyzed Spider at KBG

On Wednesday night we telephoned Rachel at her home and booked a day trip on a minibus to the Cape Point at the southern tip of the Cape peninsula for the next day.  There is a lighthouse at Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope is a group of low lying rocks only 100 meters or so to the west.  What attracted us about the tour was that it would give us the opportunity to see both sides of the Cape peninsula, including Hout Bay and Simonstown.

We were picked up here at RCYC at 8.30 AM on Thursday morning by Mark the driver/guide then we proceeded to pick up the two other members of the tour, Peter from Sweden and Unis (?), a Moroccan from the Canary Islands. 

The drive along the western coastline to Hout Bay gave us a chance to see the beautiful beaches (though too cold for the average person) and the many residences with splendid views of the beach and ocean.

Hout Bay was as I had seen on the charts and Google images; nevertheless it was good to see it in real life.  The marina is well sheltered behind good breakwaters but I've been informed that it is subject to periodic bouts of katabatic winds.  Tom, a local acquaintance, told me that at times “the boats jump on the jetties and the jetties jump on the boats”.

We then proceeded through through sections of the Table Mountain National Park where we got good views of the native vegetation.  Brenda commented that the colors and plant families of the coastal heath vegetation were very similar to that of the southern part of Western Australia.  I suggested to Brenda that it looked so good for Western Ground Parrots that she might consider smuggling in a breeding pair.  (Just kidding.)

We then visited the Cape of Good Hope, discovered in 1487 by the Portuguese explorer Bartholomeu Diaz.  It is the southwestern-most tip of the continent of Africa.  It is not very impressive to look at, being low lying rocks little more than a reef.  (But as they say, location location location!)

We then drove a hundred yards or so to the base of Cape Point, site of a light house and good tourist facilities including a restaurant.  We began that visit with lunch at the restaurant then three of us took the funicular to the base of the original lighthouse and enjoyed the panoramic views of the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and False Bay to the north.

Then we drove along the eastern side of the peninsula through Simonstown and visited a small colony of “Jackass” penguins (because of the noise they make) and Mark took us to see “Lucy”, a penguin sitting on an egg very close to the carpark wall. 

We then drove through some wine country and visited Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens at the southern base of Table Mountain.  This area was very lush because it gets the most rain in the Cape Town area due to Table Mountain.  The garden was large, beautifully designed and maintained, and contained a wide variety of indigenous flora.  For Brenda the visit to Kirstenbosch was an appetizer and she plans to go back to make a day of it.

At 4.30 PM we were dropped back at RCYC and bid farewell to our three companions of the day.