Cape of Good Hope

It's like 8th-grade social studies came to life this week when we rounded the southern tip of the African continent.  Just like explorers centuries ago.  Admitedly, we didn't brave the legendary stormy seas off the coast of the Cape Peninsula, where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet, but it was pretty awesome all the same.

From big to small:

We took a tour all the way around the peninsula starting on the eastern (Indian Ocean) side, around Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope, and then up the Atlantic side.

Here we are getting started!  Lots of amazing views!

Much of the hoopla concerning the Cape started in the 15th and 16th-centuries with the expeditions of Portuguese explorers Vasco de Gama, Bartolomeu Dias and Magellan who were looking to establish direct trade with the Far East or (simply) circumnavigate the globe.

The Portuguese were followed by Dutch, via the Dutch East India Company (VOC), who established colonial control over the country, with a monopoly on the spice trade and the introduction of slave trade from the Far East to Africa.  The Dutch were followed by the British (after much fighting) who ruled until 1910.

It was an education for me to learn that South Africa gained independence from Britain in 1910, but remained a part of the United Kingdom as the South African Union until 1961, when it withdrew from the Commonwealth rather than be kicked out for the white minority government's apartheid policy of racial segregation.

It's such a ceremony for most people who make it this far, and such a gesture of respect to the historic importance of the Cape Peninsula, that our guide toasted us with champagne.

De Gama and Dias ain't got nothin' on these little explorers:

At the Cape Point lighthouse.

Unbelievably, we're closer to Antartica and Rio de Janero than Amsterdam.

Lunch at the Two Oceans Restaurant at Cape Point.  Yep, we're talking the Atlantic and Indian Ocean meeting up.

Hamilton Russell chardonnay--yummy wine, internationally well-known South African winery.  We had opportunity to visit the winery while we were staying in Hermanus, about 2 hours northeast of Cape Town.

Chapman's Peak drive, on the Atlantic side.  Sunset time.