We knew it was going to be a great day as soon as we walked out of our cottage and saw the sun shining — a welcome sight after a powerful overnight storm and a few days of overcast skies and rain.
One of the many benefits to traveling to South Africa during our summer in the northern hemisphere is that it is winter there.
Temperatures hover in the mid-60s during the day and not as many tourists are around since it is the off season. The downside, however, is that it rains more frequently and makes it a bit more challenging to plan a day of hiking ahead of time.
We had been in Cape Town, South Africa, for four days after having arrived there following our seven-day sojourn in Kigali, Rwanda. We were staying in a suburb of Cape Town called Constantia, which is near where my wife lived when she was a teacher at the American International School of Cape Town a decade ago.
It was during the year Jen taught and lived in Cape Town that she fell in love with this idyllic city and gorgeous surrounding area that I, too, cannot stop talking about these days.
Cape Town is a port city located on a peninsula and is also surrounded by mountains — two of my absolute favorite features: the ocean and the mountains. And in the winter, it’s sweatshirt weather with a pair of shorts. That’s my kind of winter.
One of the big items on our bucket list was to spend a few days hiking, but it’s hard to plan ahead of time due to the frequent wet weather winter brings in this part of the southern hemisphere.
The sunny day finally came June 18 as we drove from our cottage in Constantia over the mountain on Ou Kaapse Weg, a route that provides stunning views as you traverse the Steenberg Mountains. It took us an hour to reach Cape Point National Park.
There is a hike inside the national park that takes you to the Cape of Good Hope — the point that marks the southwestern most tip of Africa.
The first European to visit the Cape was a Portuguese navigator in the late 1400s. The area has long been famous for its rough seas and stormy weather, as it is located where the warm current from the Indian Ocean meets the cool current from the Antarctic waters.
It was named Cape of Good Hope for the promise its discovery held for creating a maritime trade route between Europe and the East.
We chose a trail that took us from the parking lot near the visitor’s center up and over another mountain to the Cape of Good Hope. It took us about 45 minutes to hike what I would consider an easy trail that was well marked.
The challenge, however, was the frequent strong gusts of wind.
We had to stop several times to wait for the wind speed to decrease as we made our way toward the Cape of Good Hope.
The views along the way, however, took my breath away more so than the occasional 50 mph gusts of wind. Below us we saw tall cliffs that the waves were constantly crashing into — a perfect place for the surfers and boogie boarders we watched hiking down to the beach alcoves to enter the freezing water to practice their sports.
When you reach the Cape of Good Hope, three signs that make for a great picture background let you know you have arrived.
The hike back to the parking lot is equally as impressive. You follow the same trail back as you are treated to more breathtaking views — and occasional strong gusts of what seems like Category 1 hurricane winds.
I was wearing some red 20-year-old gloves during our hike that said The News-Banner on the outside. Jen took a picture of me wearing them that I sent to Mark Miller. Mark knew exactly where we were in the picture since he had been at the same place several years earlier.
Two News-Banner columnists who have visited the southwestern most tip of Africa a couple of decades apart.
It really is a small world.
jdpeeper2@hotmail.com
