Cape of Good Hope

On one of Craig and Rachel’s last days, we drove down to the tip of the Cape Peninsula (about an hour away), to stand on the most south-western point of the continent. The Cape of Good Hope is where the cold Benguela current (Atlantic ocean) and the warm Agulhas current (Indian ocean) meet. Portuguese explorers were the first to come here by ship: Bartholomew Dias arrived in 1488 and named it “Cape of Storms”, and Vasco de Gama rounded it in 1497. (Wow, that's a long time ago.) Along the rocky coastline of the cape there have been 23 known shipwrecks, and remains of several can still be seen. It was later – in the excitement of trade and exploration, perhaps – renamed by the King of Portugal to “Cape of Good Hope”.

The Cape Point Nature Reserve covers a huge area, and one can spend days hiking along the trails and up the many peaks near the cape. It is also a very popular tourist destination! But you do have to watch out for the baboons – they are protected on the nature reserve but can get pretty aggressive demanding food from tourists. One sign said, “Do NOT roll down your windows.” We were amazed to see so many people there, but it was beautiful and impressive nonetheless!





Here you can see the sign that shows we are twice as far from New York (12,000+ km) as we are from the South Pole (6,000+ km)!