Cape Coast Roading Tripping: The Edge of the World

For our final day before heading into Cape Town proper for our flight home, we continued along the coast around False Bay and then all the way down (up?) and around to the Cape of Good Hope. Each stop offered a little nugget of wonderful that still felt miles away from the big city off in the distance. 

Every good road trip starts with a sign like this: 

But as you may be aware, I've had my fair share of run ins with primates the world over (hello Thailand and China) and these are directions I know better than to not heed.

We didn't go looking for it but halfway to our final destination, we came across the surfing town of Muizenberg, the spiritual home to South African surfing. The villages of Fish Hoek and Simon's Town shortly followed and with the spate of good weather, locals took to the beaches making parking impossible to find. Luckily we scored a brief glimpse of these iconic huts before we continued on our journey:

But our true destination was to the geographical wonder that is the Cape of Good Hope. Common misconception puts this as the southernmost tip of the African continent, which it is not. For argument sake however, it is a good point for a sailor to hang her hat on. And so we, along with the other tour buses, coaches and cars, made our way to the sign indicating this Area of Significance. 

We were met with more helpful signage: 

And I must have snapped the picture at precisely the right moment because I swear we were definitely not the only people here. (And note that even the sign's got their facts wrong.)

After driving down the meandering roads to this point, we then trudged back up to the Cape Point National Park Visitors' Centre where we were met with more signage, impressive views and, importantly for you small bladdered folks like me, a toilet. 

I must say, SA's sign game is strong. Who needs a guardrail when a skull and crossbones will do? 

The park itself is rather impressive, although the views continue to steal the show. But a visit around could take you a couple of hours or all day depending on how much walking you want to do. 

I was grateful to be traveling with friends with a similar agenda--it doesn't always work out this way. And despite its initial city bumps, we had a wonderful time exploring the outdoor paradise the Cape had to offer. Having a car made it all the more accessible. I imagine that day trips from Cape Town on a coach would bring you to any of these places. But to take time, pause and and enjoy the world around us made this trip incredibly special.