Cape Town   -   Cape of Good Hope
 

An absolutely must on a trip to Cape Town is to visit the Cape of Good Hope. Why is this point so famous? It is not the southern-most point of Africa, this is Cape Agulhas. In the year 1488 sailed Bartolomeo Diaz as the first European araound this point. He came into a storm and was drifting a large distance to the south. After this he had to sail in a nothern directory back to the land. This was the reason that he thougt that this is the southern-most point of the continent. Many people all over the world think also today that this is right, but it's wrong.

A trip to the southern-most point of the cape peninsula is a good possibility to combine it with other interesting places. You should drive from Cape Town anticlockwise. So you can see first the beaches of Clifton, Camps Bay an Llandudno before you reach Hout Bay. Here you can visit the Mariner's Wharf, the first of its style in South Africa, older than the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town. On the other hand you can make a tour with a boat to Duiker Island, where you can see a great colony of seals. You have also a great view to on of the most popular streets all over the world: the Chapmans Peak Drive. This street was build between 1915 and 1922 from prisoners. Until these days the building of this street is an very famous thing.

If you drive southwards you'll reach the entrance of the Cape Peninsula National Park. There are a lot of small roads inside the park. At the entrance you can get a small map and travel guide through the park. With this untensil it is no problem to find all interesting points. If you drive first to the south, you'll reach Cape Point. This is not the southern-most point of the peninsula, but it is more worth to visit than the true Cape of Good Hope. Because Cape Point is located on a high rock, whereas the Cape of Good Hope pass very shallow into the sea. You can reach the top with a rack railway, but this is very expensive. Otherwise you have to walk the 125 steps and this isn't really a problem. From the highest point you have a great view to False Bay and to Cape of Good Hope.

On the way back from the Cape on the eastern side of the peninsula you'll reach after a few kilometres another attraction: The penguin-colony on the Boulders next to Simons Town. This penguins are totally unimpressed by the people who are walking on wooden footbridges inside the area. You can't get so close to the animals normally. And this is the natural environment of these birds. From Simons Town you'll need half an hour to go back to Cape Town.