"The Flying Dutchman"
CAPE OF GOOD HOPE: If you set foot in Cape Town and do not make a trip to cape point, you will have missed the most exciting and memorable part of your trip. The legendary Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope form part of Cape Town’s Nature Reserve. These two points served as attractions for the early explorers and are the source of many myths and legends in southern Africa. In 1488, Bartholomew Dias one of Africa’s major explorers named the Peninsula Cabo Tormentoso, or the Cape of Storms because of it‘s fierce storms. In the later years however, King John II of Portugal decided to rename it Cabo da Boa Esperanca which means “Cape of Good Hope“, a name that has since popularized this region at the tip of Africa. The beauty and magnificence of this place later led Sir Frances Drake to proclaim it to be the most stately thing and the fairest Cape they had seen in the whole exploration of the earth‘s realm.
The mystery of the Flying Dutchman stems from the 17th century mysterious disappearance of Hendrick van der Decken, a Dutch explorer who attempted to round the Cape in strong headwinds. Mysteriously his ship and crew disappeared, and legend now tells of the ghost ship "The Flying Dutchman".
The light house that now stands at the top of Cape Point is not the original light house that was erected in 1860. The earlier light house did not withstand due to its high location of two hundred thirty eight metres (238m) above sea level. It was not very functional due to the nature of weather at this geographical location, there was incredibly obscure clouds and mist that made it dysfunctional to the point that in 1911 the Portuguese liner Lusitania was wrecked leading to the relocation of the lighthouse to it‘s current location.
The Cape of Good Hope has great beaches, in the earlier days it was revered and named the cape of storms/ death. I saw otherwise when I was there, infact Don and I walked the beach and it felt tranquil and beautiful. It is very scenic with great white sands with portions of rugged cliffs offering breathtaking views. The Cape Point cliffs are very high coastal cliffs photographed by tourists and photographers from all over the world. This happened to be the meeting point of the worlds two largest oceans (Atlantic and Indian). I would caution all surfers, this is not the place to surf unless you are a dare devil.
