Today was our bus tour down to Cape Point. We walked to the City Sightseeing tour office at 81 Long Street to wait for our bus. Yesterday’s forecast said that today (March 13) would be a very windy day, and our apartment certainly sounded as if it was caught in a wind tunnel. With the Gardens Centre on one side and Table Mountain on the other, the wind barrelled through to create a wicked racket. I checked the official website for Table Mountain and discovered that the aerial cableway was closed today, so we were fortunate to have planned our trip there yesterday. Today we would battle the most wicked winds we have ever encountered on our way to Cape Point.
Our tour guide was the engaging and entertaining Brahm, who took delight in getting to know all the passengers and since he had likely met people from most countries of the world, he knew a few snippets about every place the tourists were from. He even spoke a bit of Swiss German to the suisse romande couple who sat in front of us. Brahm had warned us repeatedly about the wind conditions. He said that if you wore a hat, you would lose it. You might even lose your glasses. I could imagine super-strong winds but I was not prepared for the assault that would hit us.
We are headed for that lighthouse at the top of the photo:
I am holding on while Mark takes a photo near the lighthouse:
My eyes are closed as I feared the wind would blow out my contact lenses. It was so brutal up there that I saw two people in fact lose their glasses. Yes indeed: the wind blew them right off people’s faces. I walked while shielding my forehead with my hands like a downward brim. I held on to the ledges or the railings yet for some people, the ordeal through the wind was too much and they had to sit down and take a break. That created a hazard for the rest of us, because these people chose to sit on the steps right next to the railings, obligating the rest of us to let go as we skirted around them. I just hoped I wouldn’t go flying in the brief time I didn’t have anything to hold onto. The wind came from all directions and people’s shirts blew up and revealed a lot of skin. My backpack kept the back of my top in place but there were occasions when I had to hold on to the railings while the front of my top flashed the crowds.
I am trying to stay balanced while posing for a photo. I don’t want to blow over the ledge:
Mark with Cape Point in the background:
Cape Point:
A small group of us wanted to walk with our guide Brahm from Cape Point to the Cape of Good Hope, and since it was really a small group he was glad to have the opportunity to take us on a most scenic trail. He wouldn’t have been able to do this with a larger group since the hike incorporated a number of lengthy and steep staircases both up and down. We saw antelopes grazing:
And Dias Beach appeared. We had to take our shoes and socks off and then walk down a steep sand hill to get to the beach:
Mark with Brahm, our guide:
High whitecapped waves broke behind us:
We climbed down this decline to the beach, but the climb back up was harder:
Dias Beach from above:
The western coast of southern Cape Peninsula:
Walking down to the bus at the Cape of Good Hope:
We saw an ostrich at the Cape of Good Hope:
We saw baboons as we left:
Our next stop was Boulders Beach, home to a large penguin colony. I had visited this beach in 2013 with two friends after my visit to Tristan and didn’t feel I needed to see it again. Mark wasn’t that interested either, yet we saw plenty of penguins, for free, at nearby Seaforth Beach:
Later that evening Mark and I walked to Tristan House and visited with Doreen and David Swain. We buzzed at the gate and some people came outside to see who it was but I had to yell that we were here to visit the Swains. We went in and saw Joe and Anne Green and Conrad and Sharon Glass. Joe offered us a beer and then we went in to see Doreen and David. It was Sharon’s sixtieth birthday the day before and they offered us some birthday cake:
