Cape of Good Hope

Our day tour of the peninsula culminated with a visit to the Cape of Good Hope & Cape Point, both part of Table Mountain National Park at the most southern place in South Africa.



Cape Point is the (slightly) more easterly of the Points and the one that has some developments and buildings on it, including a light house. We took a small train car to the top of the point & then hiked up to the lighthouse.



The 360 degree views from the top are spectacular. The sun was getting low in the sky though & it made for some very dramatic lighting on the outcroppings.



It was both very cold and very windy up there. The sailing around the point is notoriously treacherous. Once sailors had made it past all the rocks and challenging currents, there was hope they would make it the rest of their journey- thus the name, Cape of Good Hope.



There was a tiny little isolated beach between the Cape of Good Hope & Cape Point. The sun had long ago set behind the COGH, but the beach was filled with a surreal misty air.



Looking north back up the coastline, all the beautiful mountains were shrouded in a late day haze & fog mixture.



Wish we had some pictures of us up there, but we did have a funny story about a group of African men that wanted to take numerous photos with anybody that would pose with them. H was the lucky devil in that quirky story. Even the beautiful stone stairs added interest & character to this place.



Next we drove down to the Cape of Good Hope, where you could walk along the beach and climb on the rocks as the waves crashed beside you.



This was the ride that we were forced to pimp around all 3 days. Our tour guides really hooked us up & it was fun cruisin' in style.



The late-afternoon lighting was perfect to make the mountain aglow in reds and yellows, as the waves provided quite a spectacular show on the rocks.



H wanted a photo with our tour guide- we really enjoyed learning so much from a life-long local and he went out of his way to make our trip extra-special.



We also saw several interesting animals on the drive along the coast. These baboons must have thought it was Christmas as they found this abandoned ice chest and were having a field day with it. They were too funny to watch.



Yup, that is a wild ostrich roaming by the seaside.



A bit blurry, but some type of big animal. You'd think after spending a few days on safari that I could name them all, but nope!



One last gorgeous photo of the rocky beach in the setting sunlight. This whole day & all the many things we saw was probably one of my favorite days of the whole trip.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Doing a full-day wine tour of the Texas Hill country today with my best girlfriend.