A Visit to the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa

A picture of me standing at the Cape of Good Hope, in South Africa. This was taken this past Tuesday, although now that I am back in New Jersey, it is hard to believe that this was only three days ago as I write this.

The Cape of Good Hope is another of the frankly can't miss places for any visit in and around Cape Town. 

This is the southwestern most point on the African continent. 

It is also a stunningly beautiful place. 

One of the places which I had really wanted to go to during my visit to South Africa was Cape Agulas, where the Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean officially meet. it also happens to be officially the southernmost point on the African continent. Certainly something worth seeing. But visiting that place seemed to be unnecessarily complicated. It is something like a two and a half hour drive from Cape Town, and there were no buses or tours that could take me there. It was too far away, and too little known, to be point of interest on that level, and getting a driver to go me started at thousands of rands (the first driver that the hotel called wanted 6,500 rands (about $350 American), which was simply far too steep. It annoyed me a bit not to be able to make it to that place, since it had been somewhat of a priority prior to the actual trip occuring.

However, I felt a bit better about missing Cape Agulhas after this visit to the Cape of Good Hope, which is the southwesterly most point in Africa. It is also the de facto point where the two oceans meet. Our guide explained this to us, telling us that there were different traits to each ocean, and that this was the place where those two different bodies of water carrying those traits actually met, rather than on Cape Agulhas. Not the least of these differences is the temperature. On the Indian Ocean side of the peninsula, the guide explained, the water temperature is 21° Celsius (69.8 °F) , while the water on the Atlantic side is much colder, at only 11° Celsius (51.8°F). Plus, there are other aspects to this place which really make it the de facto place where the Indian Ocean and Atlantic Ocean meet, even if it is not precisely "official."

Plus, the tail end of this tour (which I booked through the "hop on, hop off" buses within Cape Town, and was associated with it) featured the penguins at Boulder Beach. 

What a trip! Really beautiful place, and incredible memories.

Below are some pictures which I took (or were taken of me during this visit). 

Enjoy.

A wild ostrich on the Cape of Good Hope. There were actually a few of these guys around, but this one in particular was right next to the hiking path which we took. I had just seen some ostriches on the safari, but that was a game preserve, which means that the animals inside are kind of locked in. This one, on the other hand, was apparently free and, indeed, "wild." What a privilege to behold.

Liked the name of this restaurant, which was one which insists that, yes, the Cape of Good Hope is indeed where the two oceans actually meet in real life, even if the official point where they meet is more arbitrary, and a bit less than two hundred kilometers to the east.

This bird flew right next to me and kept me company while I was eating my sandwich (this was only real opportunity to eat lunch during this organized tour to the Cape of Good Hope). I was tempted to give the little guy a piece, as he or she clearly expected. However, they are insistent to make sure that tourists not feed any wildlife, that it is actually doing wildlife a disservice and taking them to a comfort zone that actually weakens their natural survival instincts, which made sense to me. So no, I did not feed the bird.

There were signs (like this one) everywhere around the Cape of Good Hope warning about baboons. Unfortunately, I saw no sign of any of them, much less actually saw one with my own eyes, during our visit to this place. Still a small thrill to think that they are in their natural habitat here.