34 21.24S  18 29.50E

Cape Peninsula

2nd  May 2012

View over the Constantia valley from the back of Table Mountain

There is a Tin Mine shaft up here, now disused

Wild and windy kite surfing along the West Coast of the Peninsula

The wild seas of the West Coast of the Cape Peninsula

The beach at Cape  of Good Hope from the beach doesn’t look particularly dramatic, but its significant to us as sailors is enormous, once around this headland it’s the Southern Atlantic all the way to South America.

The cape was originally called Cabo Tormentosa by Bartolomieu Dias in 1498, then renamed Cabo Esperanza by King John of Portugal who saw it as a positive omen for a new route to India.

The Cape Peninsula reserve, designated by Nelson Mandela in 1992, is exposed to gale-force winds, As a result the vegetatio is limited to hardy milkwood trees and fynbos, small leaved plants.  Small anelope occure here, as do the Cape mountain zebra and the ostrich.

It’s a almost as far to Sydney (11642 kms) as it is to Beijing (12933 kms)

Delightful view and good food at the Two Oceans Restaurant on the Eastern side of the Cape of Goodd Hope

Calm Bay just behind Cape Point on the East Coast

Tanker and tug at anchor just off Muizenberg, East Coast of Cape Peninsula,

Where the British fought a hard battle against the Dutch to capture this area in 1795

These penguins have a colony close to Simonstown, in amongst the huge granite boulders.

The patio dining area outside the Royal Cape Town Yacht Club

Where they held the first race from Cape Town to Rio in 1973,

Our friend Nick Bryant, whom we stayed with in Greytown (has the dairy farm) was in that race!