The Cape of Good Hope

​It was a no go yet again for hiking today as I am still pretty badly burnt, but now I am at that itchy stage where I want to rip my own skin off. This is getting beyond a joke, BUT Cape town is a fantastic place filled with amazing things to do so today we decided to make our way to see the Penguins at Boulder beach and then drive the Chapman’s peak coastal route as far as the Cape of Good Hope in the Cape National park. 

As we left Camps bay it wasn’t long before we were on the Chapmans peak drive, considered one of the most stunning coastal drives in the world. It is, but it was foggy for us on the way there so I will add the photos I took on the way back. 50ZAR each way per car was quite a lot but we both discussed that it was 100% worth it. The road twists and turns around Chapman’s Peak Drive, which hugs its namesake with a towering cliff with a sheer drop above it. It is renowned for its spectacular 180° views of the Cape Peninsula as well as its 114 twists and turns, and we were just amazed driving it. We actually feel that it would have been better if neither of us were driver but we can’t have everything.

​Arriving in Boulder bay we paid the 160ZAR pp ($16NZD) to go visit the Penguin colony. I was worried that we wouldn’t see any or they would all be fishing for food or hiding, but I was wrong as there were hundreds. You can actually go swimming with them if they let you but as they are wild animals, we kept our distance and took some snaps before continuing our journey.

Next stop was the National park and we had been told there would eb a massive queue to get in, but we only had 4 cars in front of us, so despite it being Friday the 13th, it was our lucky day. We consider Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope as the two critical elements of the park. At Cape Point you can stand on the edge of the African continent with your face in the wind as you survey the vast ocean and craggy cliffs. On the way there we stopped to take some dramatic landscape pics and take in the truly wonderful views along the way. Simply breath-taking! 

On the drive we had various road blocks which included baboons and ostrich which added to the adventure and made us thank god we went for fully comp car insurance! When we arrived at the Cape of Good Hope, it was eerily foggy but we parked up and made the ascent up to the summit so we could try and get a good view. It was one of the most perfect views I have witnessed. If you like adrenaline and are pretty fit, then you can make your way right onto the edge of the cliffs and the photos were fairly spectacular! Or, you can do what every other wise tourist did and take photos from a far.
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From there you can either walk to the lighthouse or drive round the Peninsula which we had to do because we had the car and the walk is 1.5 hours each way. Saying that if you are needing a walk, once you get to the lower car park choose to hike up to the lighthouse instead of getting the funicular railway – albeit pretty cool, (but the entry fee was 320ZAR pp into the park so we just couldn’t afford it) The hike up was epic and gave unbelievable views of the bays and the oceans. We then ventured the extra 30mins to the furthest Southern peak possible and it’s safe to day you feel like you are at the end of the world. Truly fascinating.  

​​The day itself was spectacular and despite not seeing any tortoises or whales even though it’s considered one of the largest breeding grounds for tortoises in the world – we would urge you to add this day trip to your list when in Cape town!