Western Cape, South Africa

Road trip - March 2004

We bought some supplies in the town of Struisbaai and then headed for the lighthouse in Agulhas.  We went up the narrow ladder to the top of the lighthouse and I mailed some postcards in the postbox that dated back to 1902.

Cape Agulhas is the most southerly tip of Africa.  It is also the place where the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean meet.  This is why this area is called the Cape of Storms because of the warm and cold currents clashing and causing severe storms.

There have been many shipwrecks off this coast.  Here is one in sight of the lighthouse.  That night we slept in a cabin in Struisbaai with two bedrooms and a fully furnished kitchen.  It was great to be able to play house after sleeping in a tent for days.  We saw a colourful sunset over the water as the cabin was right on the beach.  The next morning we headed west again, going along a gravel road towards Hermanus.  We didn't get very far when the tyre blew out and we had to stop and change the wheel.  We then drove back to Struisbaai where we found someone to fix it.  Being a Sunday morning we were lucky as most businesses do not work on Sundays.  We then decided to take the paved road to Gordon's Bay and skip Hermanus.

We drove to Franschhoek in the Cape Winelands where the French first settled.  We had lunch at the Huguenot Monument restaurant and looked around the antiques on display in the museum.  Then on to Stellenbosch, the university city.  We drove through the town and had rooibos tea at a tea house with bright painted tablecloths and odds and ends for sale hanging from the thatched roof beams.  Then we went across and down the mountain to the coast.

We had a swim at Gordon's Bay and had lunch at one of the restaurants at the harbour.  We did some souvenir shopping then pushed on west and found a nice campground in Simon's Town where we pitched out tent for the night.  The next morning we went to the little towns along the False Bay coastline, had a seafood lunch at one of the old hotels in Fish Hoek and walked on the beach.  We went to Boulder, where there were what must have been hundreds of Jackass penguins running around.  There were several on nests covering large white eggs.  In the photo above people and penguins share the beach and it is possible to swim with the penguins.

We then went to the Cape of Good Hope, which is the tip of the Cape Peninsula.  We walked up the steep hill to the visitor center and walked around the point for several hours, enjoying the history and the sights.

As we were leaving Cape Point we saw two ostriches along the beach.  It was quite strange to see them in this environment after seeing them in arid Oudtshoorn.  We also saw a large baboon sitting on a rock.  Robert got out of the car and went closer to take some photos, keeping his distance though.  Later, as we were driving the two lane road we came to a T junction. I stopped the car and just at that moment a troop of baboons came marching along, father, mother and two young ones.  The father jumped on the hood of the car, made his way up the windscreen and sat on the roof, while the rest of them crossed the road.  Another car pulled up to the junction, filled with Japanese tourists, who enjoyed the scene very much and snapped lots of photos.  As the baboon showed no sign of wanting to get off the car, I eventually turned and started to drive away.  He got the message and jumped off, and we continued our trip to Milnerton, just north of Cape Town, where we were to stay with my Aunt and Uncle.

We had one more day in Milnerton, spent with my cousins and my parents.  I got to see my cousin Nicky whom I hadn't seen since 1987 as he lives in England.  It was nice all sitting around the table telling tales of years gone by.  That evening Robert and I headed off to the airport and caught the South African Airlines flight back to Atlanta.  We went via the Cape Verde Islands so it took 18 hours to get home.  In all it was a fabulous trip.

The End.

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