Africa's Bottom

My diary entry from last night. . .


Up not too late for another superb breakfast at The Glen, then on the road. Quick zip down Long St. and through colorful Bo-Kaap, with some nice views of Table Mountain in the clouds to cap off our time in Cape Town. Cutting from the N1 down to the N2 through Stellenbosch was quite pretty. Vinyards along rolling hills, with craggy mountain peaks sitting in the clouds just above. The university campus felt oddly like Stanford, and was a noticeably white island in the town.

Then the coast! What a coast! Part Napali Coast valleys, part 17 Mile Drive oceanfront, part Yosemite peaks, part Utah read earth. Overall, an amazing stretch of coast that didn't really feel like anywhere I've been, even though pieces looked familiar. The mountains on the other side of the whatever bay we were driving along were visible across a glittering ocean. Just stunning. I hope to return for the whales sometime.

Though daylight was running out, we headed south to Cape Alguhas, the southernmost tip of Africa. Winding through arid fields on rolling hills, with Lorax-style eucalyptus wind breaks throughout, we turned onto a dirt road next to the picturesque old lighthouse. 850 meters later, we were the two southernmost people on the continent. At almost twilight, we were the only people on the rocky shore looking towards Antarctica. The marker plaque points one way to the Atlantic, the other to the Indian. I'm not quite sure what the emotional tug of the point was, but when I climbed on top of the marker pedestal and threw my arms wide, it was an emotional expression, not a camera pose.

Then onward through the dark over a pass, with some worrying whiffs of skunk coming from our engine. A brief stop for prepared food at a supermarket so strongly Afrikaans that they answered me in that language even after I said hello in English. Surprisingly integrated staff, though.