Overview of the Tour

Claire and I took a full day tour down the Cape of Good Hope, the most Southwestern point of Africa. Per the map below, we started in Cape Town, took the bus down the western side of the peninsula to Hout Bay, before crossing the peninsula to Simonstown, and then down to the Cape of Good Hope. The Cape is historically significant, as it’s the point that Europeans would been to pass on trade routes with India.

Our guide was Mark on the left - a friendly, chatty and informative Cape Town native. Freddy on the right was our driver, and was full of songs and play-on-words.

#The tour begins and Hout Bay

We were two of seven Americans on the tour, as well as eleven Brazilians. Mark spoke as much Portugues as he knew, which wasn't a lot, and only one of the eleven Brazilians spoke English. Mark introduced the day while the one English speaking Brazilian translated as fast as she could.

We started the day in beautiful Hout Bay. We were offered a quick cruise around the bay to an island populated by seals for additional money, but we decided instead to walk around on our own.

The bay was full of vendors selling crafts and souvenirs.

From the dock we could see seals and jellyfish in the water.

We were happy with how we spent our time. We enjoyed the beautiful day and until it was time to return the bus. I took quite a few photos.

We then drove up the windy road to Chapman's Peak, where we stopped for photos and a light breakfast. Directly behind us across the water is Hout Bay, where we'd just been.

Boulder's Beach and a stop for lunch

After Chapman's Peak, we were on to Simonstown, where we'd hang out with the penguins at Boulder's Beach. Mark was hitting us with trivia and history left and right. We learned the color coded flag lingo for reporting great white sharks, and that Simonstown was named after a British explorer who wanted Cape Town named after him but the powers that be said no, but we'll name Simonstown after you, hence Simonstown (yes, I'd get a C- on a high school history paper for this explanation). At this point, many of the Brazilians are either asleep or having side conversations in Portugues. We couldn't blame them - they didn't understand the language of the tour guide.

We stopped in Simonstown, and paid the entrance fee to Boulder's Beach to see the penguins. Penguins first migrated to Boulder's beach in the 80s, and have since reproduced into a sizeable colony.

More penguin photos can be found here!

We were then off to Cape of Good Hope National Park. Once we were in the park, we stopped for a quick lunch of sandwiches and salad at an information center. This information center had old whale bones in the courtyard.

##Cape Point

After lunch, it was time for some hiking! Before getting to Cape Point, the site of a functioning lighthouse, Mark stopped to tell us how big of a risk Baboons are. In short, Baboons are jerks who will steal your food. If your backpack as food in it, they'll steal your backpack. They're also smart enough to be crafty, so beware. To make matters worse, they have sharp claws and teeth, and may carry rabies. Don't mess with the baboons.

Mark even had us sign a waver that basically said "Mark has adequately informed us that baboons are jerks."

We signed the waver, got off the bus at the bottom fo Cape Point. From one direction we could walk up to the lighthouse, and from another we could walk down to the Cape of Good Hope. We would walk up to the lighthouse first, and then down to the Cape of Good Hope second.

We made our way to the top, enjoyed the breathtaking views and posed for some photos. We could see Table Mountain over Cape Town in the far distance.

It was then time to walk back down.

We stopped to laugh at this couple orchestrating the shot below.

And then decided to take the same shot. I think it came out pretty well, don't you?

It was time to begin our trek to the Cape of Good Hope, but were momentarily sidetracked by a baboon. We didn't have any food on us, so the baboon wasn't interested in doing us any harm. I snapped a few shots.

The Cape hike was optional, and only the Americans opted to do the hike. The Brazilians rode in the bus with Freddy, as there is a road that goes around the back of the Cape to the tip.

##Cape of Good Hope

We walked along the Cape, enjoying beautiful sights of a beach below.

We saw an ostritch in the distance, and hiked along to the end of the cape.

Once we made it to the end, it was time to traverse downhill to the Cape of Good Hope sign, which was the ultimate finish line.

We wanted our photo with the sign, and waited on line behind a large Chinese tour group for our turn. They all took individual photos before taking one giant group photo with the sign. Theirs and our photos are both below, and honestly, theirs is the better.

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