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Published: January 28th 2021
New development on the return travel front; SWISS is now flying as originally scheduled. We can fly, but must go 10 days into self-quarantine at home. With my parents under the same roof that would be very logical to do. Hotels are not taking you into quarantine and the Swiss Government has prepared nothing. What an unprofessional and pathetic way to handle the pandemic; what a mess !!! Our decision is clear, Namibia. We have to leave South Africa latest 27th. So Nui, Nenad start organising ! Travel 25th to Pretoria, shift flight to Zurich to January, book a flight to Windhoek. Nenad does not need a visa, Nui can get it on arrival. Our Covid-19 test has to be done before departure. In Pretoria we have access to a good medical center, called Pathcare. Our agent in Pretoria, Nicole is frantically putting a program together with all the issues and places we told her we like to do and see.
Back to our last day program at the Cape, the visit of the 'Cape of Good Hope' !!! This famous point is further away from town than we originally thought. It takes a good hour by car, passing by
Cape Hope Detail
common misconceptionsandy and rocky beaches and driving below mountain peaks, a very attractive ride indeed. A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is the most Southern tip of Africa. This misconception was based on the misbelief that the Cape was the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Contemporary geographic knowledge instead states the southernmost point of Africa is Cape Agulhas about 150 kilometers southeast. We also fell for this misconception, if you remember our description from an earlier blog. Correction: the Chapmans peak does not divide Indian and Atlantic coasts. The currents of the two oceans meet at the point where the warm water Agulhas current meets the cold water Benguela current and turns back on itself. That oceanic meeting point fluctuates between the Cape Agulhas and the Cape Point, about 1.2 kilometers to the East of the Cape of Good Hope. The Cape of Good Hope is at the southern tip of the Cape Peninsula. When following the western side of the African coastline from the equator, the Cape of Good Hope marks the point where a ship begins to travel more eastward than southward. The first modern rounding of the cape in 1488 by
Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias was a milestone in the attempts by the Portuguese to establish direct trade relations with the Far East. Herodotus, an ancient Greek writer, mentioned however that the Phoenicians had done the same earlier, without delivering a solid proof. Dias called the cape Cabo das Tormentas ("Cape of Storms", or later with the Dutch Stormkaap).
We spent a gorgeous sunny day wandering around the Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. Relieved of the decision taken to continue our Africa discoveries we were looking forward to a Christmas eve celebration, tete-a-tete, just the two of us; on the verandah of the African Dream bungalow high above Camps Bay. We loved the Codfather fish and seafood so much that we decided to have take away from him as our festive dinner and serving it to ourselves on that veranda. Wine of course South African, the best Graff bottle we bought at the estate will be sacrificed for the occasion.
Marry Christmas, Glueckliche Weihnachten, Sretan Bozic, Joyeux Noel, Feliz Navidad.... to you all family & friends. (Nui told me in Thailand they also use the English saying for the Christmas wishes). Thinking of you all, as
the sun is setting into the Southern Atlantic Ocean (NOT Indian Ocean).
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