Traveling to the Edge of Africa – Cape Point

Imagine how adventurous and ambitious (or desperate) Bartolomeu Dias and the other first european explorers must have been! To sail off into the big unknown without really knowing where they might end up…and then either being devoured by the Cape of Storms or finding land which they knew nothing about. (It’s not like they had Google or TripAdviser telling them what to do and what to avoid.) Can we then really call ourselves adventurous when traveling these days??

So, 2 weeks ago I told you about our trip to the Mother City, Cape Town. (Compared to Bartolomeu’s trip it was not very adventurous but for us it was exciting!). We flew with Mango Airlines. For the people living in Port Elizabeth, check out Safair for really cheap flights to Cape Town. Here’s a link to my previous Cape Town post where I mostly rave about the citysightseeing busses, wine tasting and Bloubergstrand. This post is to tell you about the rest of our Cape Town getaway.

A great day trip is driving along Cape Town’s coastline to Cape Point. We hired a car from Dollar. You can book and arrange your car for hiring on the internet- there are a few different companies and most of their offices are at the airport. You have to pay them (or reserve money on your credit card for them) an amount of R6000 as a deposit along with the amount it costs to hire the car. You get the R6000 back if you bring the car back to them in good condition and with a full tank of petrol. It’s not obvious when booking so make sure about this “hidden payment” before you book. Each company probably also has different policies regarding this. It is nice to have your own set of wheels though. At the car rental office you can also hire a GPS if you want to… It comes in handy.

We went to the Biscuit Mill Market which takes place every Saturday. It’s really quite a hit especially amongst foreigners! It was packed! They have such a wide variety of food- sushi, smoothies, mushroom skewers, curry, fruit, tuna biltong and they even had coconuts to drink. (The coconuts weren’t that fresh and they should have been cold but it was still nice to drink pure coconut water.)

From the Biscuit Mill we drove along the east coast to Cape Point and then drove back up along the west coast. We stopped in Kalk Bay and had a mojito at Cape to Cuba. They claim that it was there where the first ever mojito was made in South Africa. Their mojitos aren’t cheap but the place is on the beach, next to a working railway track and has a very buzzing vibe to it.

You pay R110 per person to enter the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve. (I really think they should have a discounted price for South Africans). In the reserve there are many hiking trails and a fancy restaurant which looks out onto the massive ocean. The highlight is walking up to the old lighthouse tower where you have a magnificent view at the tip and top of Africa. According to Wikepedia Cape Point is not thee most Southern Point of Africa like many people think, Cape Agulhas is. Cape Point is the most south-western point of Africa. We didn’t specifically plan our trip to Cape Point and I didn’t pack in any hiking shoes so I walked up wearing high-heel wedges. (People probably thought I tried to dress up for the occasion). My feet were aching after the ten thousand steps we walked (my phone counts my steps) but it was do-able and luckily my shoes were very comfortable wedges. There is a small train called the Flying Dutchman which you can take to the top if you are unable to walk up. (Don’t be lazy though!)

It’s my mom’s birthday today! We are going to celebrate it at the Claren’s beer festival this weekend! 🙂 Veels Geluk met jou verjaarsdag, Moeder! Xxx