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Camps Bay Area
A view of the beautiful Camps Bay shoreline and back drop. Today we are signed up for the 8 ½ hour Cape Peninsula tour that will take us to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope, and to Boulders Beach to see the African penguins. Our last stop is the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden.
The Cape of Good Hope is the rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of South Africa. There is a common misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of South Africa because it was once believed to be the dividing line between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Actually, the southern most point is Cape Agulhas, about 90 miles to the east-southeast. The Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet at the point where the warm water Agulhas current meets the cold water Benguela current, about one kilometer east of the Cape of Good Hope between Cape Agulhas and Cape Point. The Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve occupies 19,150 acres.
As one of the great capes of South Africa, the Cape of Good Hope has been a major significance to the sailors for many years, and referred to simply by them as “the Cape”. The first European to reach the cape was the Portuguese
A Small Bay
A small fishing village across the bay sheltered from the ocean. explorer Bartolomeu Dias in 1488, who named it the “Cape of Storms”. It was later renamed Cape of Good Hope by John II of Portugal.
The United Kingdom invaded and occupied the Cape Colony in 1795 and relinquished control in 1803, but returned in 1806 for their second occupation. It was ceded to the UK in the Anglo-Dutch Treaty in 1814. It remained a British colony until incorporated into the independent Union of South Africa in 1910, now known as the Republic of Africa.
We left the ship early and made our way through Camps Bay on our way to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. There were amazing views of the oceans, beaches and rocky crags of the point and their lighthouses. We were able to walk around and go up to the lighthouse. Following that we went to a nice ocean side restaurant near The Boulders, a habitat park for a variety of African penguins. There were a ton of them! They are cute little critters! After quite a bit of time walking the boardwalks they have, to keep people from really disturbing the penguins, we departed for a stop and nice walk through
Beauiful Everything!
The sky, villages, water and beautiful quiet bay on our way to the Cape of Good Hope. a fabulous botanical garden on our way back to the ship. Although this was a tour that we had to pay for, it was well worth the small amount.
Upon return to the ship, we had to scoot over to the huge shopping mall that was almost attached to the pier to see Alon Shina, the owner and jewelry designer for African Designs, who was adapting a nice jade Buddha that Annette purchased for one of her neck rings. We had to go fast because the ship was sailing within the hour. We made it back just in time! We then got changed quickly for a beautiful Cruise Specialists sail away on the back of Deck 5, as we bid farewell to Cape Town.
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