12th day: Cape of Good Hope

Today I left behind the wine regions and drove along coastline of the Cape Peninsula to the most south-western point of South Africa; the Cape of Good Hope. To get there from the direction of Cape Town, you have to pass the scenic Chapman's Peak drive built between 1915-22. It is also part of the route of two of South Africa's biggest mass-participation races, the Cape Argus Cycle Race and the Two Oceans Marathon.

Along the road you ve got amazing views of the ocean and white sand beaches. The landscape and also the lifestyle people live here remembered me to the one in California. You ve got luxury villas everywhere with sweeping views over the ocean, selling in the 1million+ EUR range. 

At the very tip of the Cape Peninsula is the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve accommodating more than 250 species including ostriches, lizards and African penguins.

And there it is the border of two oceans, although "wiki" says something else.(Read further down.)

According to wiki:
there is a misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the southernmost point is Cape Agulhas, about 150 kilometres (90 mi) to the east-southeast. The currents of the two oceans meet at the point where the warm-water Agulhas current meets the cold water Benguela current and turns back on itself—a point that fluctuates between Cape Agulhas and Cape Point (about 1.2 kilometres east of the Cape of Good Hope).
The first European to reach the cape was the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias in 1488, who named it the "Cape of Storms" (Cabo das Tormentas). It was later renamed by John II of Portugal as "Cape of Good Hope" (Cabo da Boa Esperança) because of the great optimism engendered by the opening of a sea route to India and the East.

Today I ll stay for the night in the picturesque Simon's Town, close to the biggest African Penguin colony of the Peninsula, which I visited earlier today.

It is a shame, but because of mass tourism you can not really approach them. In that sense Argentina and the Magellan Penguins were a better experience....
See it here:

http://www.szaip.blogspot.nl/2009/11/welcome-back-to-ushuaia.html

Tomorrow I ll reach my final destination; Cape Town.
For all my pics that far:
https://picasaweb.google.com/szaipandras/SouthAfrica
For the route and geotagged pics:
http://www.a-trip.com/tracks/view/118586