Cape of Good Hope

Micato Safaris, a Virtoso partner and a family-owned business I personally admire, gave me a most wonderful day with Nazeem Sydow, a Cape Town guide and host of many years. He was very friendly and gracious, and I could hardly believe my good fortune of having his personal attention all day. He drove me through the city, and then we were off to our destination - the Cape of Good Hope. I took many many pictures but I left the device to transfer pictures to my computer with Melody, so I've resorted to pictures from the internet to show you here. I did choose pictures that are very close to what I saw today.

Cape Point is a very rocky place where the water comes ashore, I wouldn't call it a beach because that makes me think of stretches of sand. I asked Nazeem to pose for a picture with me at this sign.

At the Cape of Good Hope, the Atlantic Ocean on the west and the Indian Ocean on the east meet. I looked right to the Atlantic and left to the Indian. Our drive actually took us to both sides of the penninsula, and Nazeem pointed out the difference in the appearance of the two oceans. Indian was more calm and had a more sandy shoreline. The water is warm and people - and sharks - swim there. On the Atlantic, the water is very cold, too cold to swim in, and it is very windy. While we were there, the weather changed from sunny to cloudy to rainy in a very short time. It was the perfect illustration of the very changeable conditions we all learned about in school geography lessons. Out in the water were some large boulders and tiny islands, all hints at the dangers under the water's surface that exacerbate the mariners' navigation around the southern tip of Africa.

I'll write more tomorrow and will tell about the birds we saw.