SOUTH AFRICA: THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE

I liked South Africa from the moment we flew into the Cape Town airport, but after a morning on Chapman Peak Drive and a trip to the Cape of Good Hope, I was totally smitten by this magical country. Unending, rugged, stunning vistas like these would steal anyone's heart:

This is a part of the world I have read about since world history in fifth grade, and it was hard to believe I was seeing it with my own eyes. It's not hard to imagine Bartolomeu Dias sailing past this wild shore in 1488:

There are lots of stops along the way for those who love jaw-dropping scenery, and since we had gotten a very early start, we were the ONLY people at the first few places we visited:

Our view of Hout Bay, for example, was breathtaking:

. . . so breathtaking that we had to get in the picture:

. . . and then even our guide Ryan had to get in the picture!

A few more miles down the road, Bob "saw something" and had Ryan pull over:

This is a country of surprises. I did NOT expect to see an ostrich strolling along the beach. (There were two more females with him that I couldn't see from the car but that Bob could see.) Bob got within about 15 yards of this fella before he started showing signs of aggression. At that point Bob started to back away:

No worries. There were plenty of others things to photograph:

. . . such as these ribbons of pale turquoise, peacock blue, foamy white, chocolate brown, and khaki. South Africa is awash with brilliant colors:

Our next stop was THE Cape of Good Hope, a rocky promontory that is the most southwestern tip of the African continent. The southernmost tip of Africa is actually 120 miles southeast at little-known Cape Agulhas:

Some sources say Dias actually named this the "Cape of Storms," but Prince John II of Portugal renamed it to reflect his optimism that a sea route to India had been found.

Mother Nature's installation art is everywhere:

Sir Francis Drake, who saw this area for the first time in 1580 (almost 100 years after Dias), wrote these words in his journal: 

"This cape is the most stately thing and the fairest cape we saw in the whole circumference of the earth."

The Great Explorer Bobtolomeu Cannon-Dias, visiting in 2018, agrees:

The Cape became a stopping point for European ships sailing to the Far East and back, and in 1652 the Dutch East India Trading Company set up a small colony not far from here to provide supplies for hungry sailors. That colony eventually became Cape Town.

This was definitely a "Pinch me--I can't believe I'm here!" moment:

Or "Kiss me, I can't believe I'm here." That works too.

Our next stop was the Cape Point Lighthouse, located less than a mile from where we posed for the pictures above. It is the third lighthouse built on the point.  Earlier locations could be seen too early by ships rounding the point, causing them to come too close to the shore. The previous editions were also built on higher points and therefore more prone to fog that obscured their light. The current lighthouse, built around 1911, solves both those problems.

This active lighthouse sends out a beam that can be seen for 63 miles, making it the most powerful lighthouse on the South African coast. However, it is hard to imagine the lighthouse could outshine this hillside covered in the fiery spikes of the red aloe plant: 

A bus takes tourists partway up the mountain, depositing them at the bottom of the final ascent:

I haven't seen a warning sign quite like this one before:

. . . or like this one:

The meandering walkway overlooks more breathtaking scenery:

The Cape of Good Hope has 1100 species of indigenous plants, many of which do not occur anywhere else on earth.

Near the top we had a good view of Dias Beach, named for the 15th century explorer. I took at least 25 pictures of this spot, and it has been tough to choose just one for this post:

. . . so I chose two:

. . . Okay, make that three:

The legend of the ghost ship The Flying Dutchman comes from the Cape of Good Hope. The story is that in the 17th century, a Dutch East India Company ship came to the Cape in distress during a storm but was unable to get into the harbor. The ship and all her crew were lost. An apparition of the ship, lit by a ghostly light, has been sighted occasionally during really bad weather at the Cape. Seeing it is a portent of doom.

Lucky for us, the weather was gorgeous and we didn't catch even a brief glimpse of The Flying Dutchman.

By the time we got to the lighthouse, several buses had caught up with us and we no longer had the luxury of pictures unblemished by other tourists. I was, however, impressed by the number of languages I heard wafting about me.

I am surprised by how small the Cape Point Lighthouse is for such an important beacon.

I always love signs at tourist spots that give distances to other significant places.  It's good to know that Rio de Janiero is just 6,055 km (3,762 miles) away from Cape Point, Amsterdam is 9,635 km (5,986 miles), London is 9,623 km (5,979 miles), and New York is a mere 12,541 km (7,793 miles). Gulp. Yes, we really were at the end of the earth.

But I could never spend much time looking at man-made things. The sea, barely rippling, hauntingly quiet, kept demanding my attention:

When it was time to leave, rather than take the bus back down to the parking lot, we decided to walk.  I would have liked to take this longer route, but we had Places To Go and so took the more direct route.

Farewell to beautiful Cape Point:

On the drive away from the Cape of Good Hope, we had a troop of about 10 to 15 baboons cross the road in front of us. There are actually men whose job is to track these baboons and make sure they aren't causing problems, such as getting into people's homes or cars, etc. There was one of those men standing at the side of the road when we saw these baboons: