Blogs from Cape of Good Hope, Western Cape, South Africa, Africa

After breakfast, we set out with Ben to drive the Cape Peninsula. We first drove along the Chapman Peak Road which winds along the mountains edge and was subject to rock slides and wash out, so with much engineering the road is usually in passable conditions. The weather was sunny, but the wind was howling making taking photos a challenge. We drove by coastal towns and bays along the way. Hout Bay gave us sights of the harbor the mountains of the Table Mountain Range. Finally reaching Chapman's Peak the views were nice giving us a look south toward Cape Point and the Kommetjie Lighthouse. With the strong wind we passed many wind surfers along the way taking advantage of the conditions. We stopped at a "shop" along the way where many beautiful works of art ... read more

Today, our guide Jenny picked us up early and drove us all the way around the peninsula. I’ve attached a map of the peninsula. The coastline of this area is like Yosemite but with even more fabulous mountain peaks and they are right at the ocean. There are many sandy beaches and most of the coastline is a national park and therefore has not been developed. We drove to the most southwestern point of the African continent, The Cape of Good Hope. We also rode a tram up to a lighthouse which gave us amazing views of the coastline and the vast Atlantic Ocean where we lunched there at a very nice restaurant. We saw a colony of penguins, an Ostrich farm, a huge eland (a very large antelope) and a mongoose. There are several tribes ... read more

Driving south from Simon's Town the entry to the Good Hope Reserve section of Table Mountain National Park is just over half hour and costs non-residents ZAR303. We spent the entire day exploring the park and could have spent more - walking trails, spectacular views, wildlife spotting, delicious food, historical sites. Platboom Road past Dias Cross gave us sweeping vistas along the coastline with no other soul in sight. The south western most point was obviously a must do stop for all tourists, they jump out take a photo at the Cape of Good Hope sign and head off. We explored the rocky beach, climbed the track to get a view from above and spotted seals, terns, lizards and a snake. We also took a photos at the sign ?. We then headed up to the ... read more

Deuxième journée qui sera elle aussi bien remplie... Nous partons ce matin pour une journée complète vers le Sud... Le Cap de Bonne Espérance ! Le cap de Bonne-Espérance est un promontoire rocheux sur la côte atlantique de l'Afrique du Sud, à l'extrémité de la péninsule du Cap située au sud de la ville du Capet qui ferme à l'ouest la False Bay (traduction anglaise du terme signifiant « fausse baie » ou Valsbaai en afrikaans). Ce promontoire rocheux se termine à url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Point... read more

An unserem letzten Tag mit dem Mietauto (hier in Südafrika ein Feiertag auch wenn uns niemand so recht sagen kann welcher) haben wir uns den Klassiker jeder Südafrikareise vorgenommen: Die Strände der Kaphalbinsel und ihre berühmte Spitze: das stürmische Kap der guten Hoffnung. Leider hatten außer uns noch ein, zwei Südafrikaner die super Idee an diesem unfassbar heißen Dienstag aus Kapstadt heraus und an den Strand zu fahren. Als wir uns Muizenberg, dem Kapstadt am nächsten gelegegenen Strandbad mit seiner endlosen Sandbucht, den bunt gestrichenen Umkleidehäusschen an der Promenade und seinen hippen Surfshops nähern, schiebt sich eine Autokolonne vor uns her, die unser Tempo auf ganze 2 km/ h drosselt. Alle suchen einen Parkplatz an der Promenade, verstopfen die Kreisverkehre, bleiben in zweiter Reihe stehen, blockieren den Gegenverkehr mit ständigen Wendemanövern sobald irgendwer den A... read more