The Cape of Good Hope - Cape Point, Chapman's Peak Drive and African Penguins.

We can't say we weren't warned. There were signs everywhere and at least one local told us to lock the car even if we were standing next to it. 'They will open the doors and steal your food'. We have been the victims of car break-ins twice in recent years and it was not an experience we wished to repeat.

David, however, just sometimes won't take advice - and he was hungry. He opened the boot of our car to retrieve a couple of bread rolls from his backpack. Within seconds the thief had leapt from the bushes and dashed toward us. David threw the rolls back into the boot, slammed the lid closed and retreated, leaving me trapped in the front seat with the thief staring malevolently down at me from the roof of the car parked beside us. It was as if he was daring me to be foolish enough to open the door.

The thief was one of the infamous Cape of Good Hope baboons. They are large, agile and predatory. One sniff of food and they pounce. Fortunately, once the bread roll was out of sight, he soon lost interest and I was able to make my escape. However, on our short walk across the car park we saw a half a dozen more sinister looking simians hanging around searching for victims.

The Cape Point baboon sitting on the roof of the car next to us.

Marauding baboons notwithstanding, and truth be told the whole baboon episode was a lot of fun, our drive around the Cape of Good Hope was a great day's excursion from Cape Town.

The Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point

The Cape of Good Hope has a reputation as the southern most tip of Africa. It isn't! That honour belongs to the far lesser know Cape Agulhas about 200 kms to the east, but it is the Cape of Good Hope which has gone down in history and legend. This was where Portugese sailors fought the elements to open up a direct trade route to the Far East in the 15th Century, and where the Flying Dutchman refused to turn back in the face of a terrible gale, dooming his ship to sail on forever never making port or knowing peace.

A five minute trip on the Flying Dutchman Funicular took us up to Cape Point, Lighthouse where 11,642 km from Sydney, according to the sign, we stood in wind so strong it almost knocked us over. Cape Point may not quite be the southern tip of Africa but looking out across the sheer vertical cliffs it was easy to imagine that it was.

Cape Point Lighthouse - as it turned out the lighthouse was built so high up that it was often shrouded in fog. Today it has been decommissioned in favour of a modern lighthouse much further down the cliff.

Home

The sheer cliffs at Cape Point. You can just make out the modern lighthouse in the centre right of the photo.

Just in case you are wondering, David finally got to eat his bread roll. Ten minutes by car from Cape Point we stopped at another car park leading to a sign marking the actual Cape of Good Hope, as opposed to Cape Point where all the facilities are. This time there were no baboons, no lighthouses and no funiculars, just a few curious ostriches by the side of the road.

The Cape of  Good Hope - the language on the right is Afrikaans

A cape ostrich.

African Penguins

Of all the animals I expected to see in South Africa, penguins was about last on the list. I thought South Africa was much closer to the northern hemisphere than it is - geography was never my strong subject. David says, and he is usually right on these things, not only is South Africa firmly anchored in the southern hemisphere but Cape Town is on the same latitude as Sydney. If Sydney can have penguins then South Africa can too. We found them at Boulders Beach, Simon's Town on the way back from the Cape and less than an hour by car from the centre of Cape Town.

Unlike our shy little Fairy Penguins in Australia, African Penguins are unafraid of being out in the daylight.  A small entrance fee gave us access to a boardwalk which wound through the sand dunes above their rookery and out to the beach where dozens of them stood enjoying the sunshine.

An African Penguin at Boulders Beach

We saw lots of baby animals in South Africa. This baby penguin was the first.

Dozens of African Penguins at Boulders Beach

Chapman's Peak Drive

In the north-west of the Cape of Good Hope Peninsula we found Chapman's Peak Drive,  The road is about 15 kilometres long and runs along the cliff-edge creating one of the world's great coastal drives. As a scenic route it rivals the best parts of Victoria's Great Ocean Road.

If you do a round trip of the Cape from Cape Town, Chapman's Peak Drive will either be at the beginning of your route or at the end. South Africans drive on the left (mostly - the road accident statistics are frightening) so if you want to position your car for the best view save it to the end of the day and drive from south to north. We drove it from north to south and found that we were still able to pull in at the scenic viewpoints notwithstanding that they were all on the ocean side.

There is a small toll - under US$3.00, at the time of writing, - and the road is occasionally closed as a result of rock falls so it is worth checking the website to ensure it is open before you set out.

Hout Bay, looking back from Chapman's Peak Drive

Hugging the cliff on Chapman's Peak Drive

Three of the Twelve Apostles on the drive

The topic of next week's post will be Stellenbosch and the beautiful Cape Winelands. Keep an eye out for it next Friday/Saturday.

For last week's posts click here.

For links to the full list of  my South African road trip posts click here.