{"id":573899077,"date":"2026-06-04T20:06:58","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T00:06:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/?p=573899077"},"modified":"2026-07-09T20:22:01","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T00:22:01","slug":"the-cape-of-good-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/blog\/2026\/06\/04\/the-cape-of-good-hope\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cape of Good Hope"},"content":{"rendered":"

We made it down to the southwestern most point of the continent of Africa. Made it, like it was some risky venture. We were in a minivan, with air conditioning and seat belts. The driver wore a microphone to talk to everyone. We dared the dangers of the road, and thanks to our man, his hands safely on the wheel at 10 and 2, we have arrived. <\/p>\n

We have arrived, here. <\/p>\n

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There are seals and other critters in that photo. I also took a video, but I’ll need to re-voice it, because you can’t hear the narration over the wind. Have I mentioned that it is breezy? Stiff, constant winds. Also, it is cool. Sometimes warm. It’s a wacky weather day. Glad I went shopping for an extra jacket. I wound up taking it off partway through the day. But I needed it during the other parts of the day. Anyway, that video, I’ll get to it next week probably. This is what we saw before lunch. <\/p>\n

Just off to the right of this photo there’s another sign that helpfully suggests you’re at the southwestern point of the continent. People crowd around the sign. They all wait patiently for their photographs. Some of them are surely composed well. Statistically, some will be poor, and laughed at later. Everyone’s hair is a mess. Everyone is smiling. No one is pedantic enough to point out that there is juuuuuuust<\/em> a bit more land to the south and west of the sign, so teeeeechnically<\/em> … no one pointed that out. I was thinking it. (About 100 feet to the south, 250 to the west, 680 feet to the point, which makes the photographic backdrop, about 2 kilometers to the point that puts you in False Bay and about 150 linear kilometers from the actual southern tip of Africa, just outside of L’agulhas which is, itself, about 34 miles, or 54 kilometers south of the latitude of where these photos were taken. Sometimes it is good to stay quiet.) Anyway, that other braggadocios sign is just out of the range of this shot. <\/p>\n

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We took the hike. <\/p>\n

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My lovely bride went ahead of me so I could take these photos of her disappearing.<\/p>\n

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Going … <\/p>\n

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Gone … <\/p>\n

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She walks faster than me, and she hikes maybe a smidge faster, too. And by the time I got up there she’d disappea — oh, found her!<\/p>\n

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Yes, we are cute. These views are wonderful. <\/p>\n

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It’s an easy hike if you don’t mind uneven terrain. There are stairs in some places and handrails and decking where you need them. You are justly rewarded for the effort.<\/p>\n

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This is looking back to the east, away from whence we came. And you have to look back from time to time because, I mean, come on.<\/p>\n

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We’re walking toward that taller point up there. It’s one trail, our guide said. Can’t get lost, he said. <\/p>\n

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We did not get lost. <\/p>\n

We did, however, get distracted.<\/p>\n

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And there’s some beach down there which, since this is part of a nature preserve, has been mercifully undeveloped. But you know someone is tempted. It’s a 20-minute walk down, and when you get down there you’re surrounded by 650-feet cliff faces. It’s you, the waves, the baboons, the seagulls, and the occasional surfer in the right season. <\/p>\n

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I invite you to enjoy this closer look, with this panorama I shot. Click to embiggen. <\/p>\n

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We had lunch at Two Oceans Restaurant<\/a>, and you will, too, if you find yourself there. There are two gift shops and one restaurant. And while cleverly named, it is just that. The second ocean is some 90 miles away from here. The view of one ocean will have to tide you over. <\/p>\n

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We sat out on the patio because other people felt the need to sit inside for some reason. The food was good, the weather turned perfect and we were now on the leeward side of the hill. <\/p>\n

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I asked our waiter how long he’d worked there. He said four years. I asked him if he ever had a bad day or got tired of this view. He said never. Said he brings his children there sometimes. I asked him if the view was enough to make up for bad customers. He said, “Absolutely.”<\/p>\n

Some people just have it figured out. <\/p>\n

This is a panoramic view of our lunch spot. Click to embiggen.<\/p>\n

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And while it wasn’t the point of this part of the day, I managed to get enough other photos to fill four months of the front page of the website. You’ll see one of these views again next month. It’ll be great. This, all of this, was great. <\/p>\n

But, first we had to hope back in our van and go to the planned highlight of the day. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We made it down to the southwestern most point of the continent of Africa. Made it, like it was some risky venture. We were in a minivan, with air conditioning and seat belts. The driver wore a microphone to talk to everyone. We dared the dangers of the road, and thanks to our man, his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,10,116,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-573899077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventures","category-photo","category-south-africa","category-thursday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573899077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573899077"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573899077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":573899080,"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573899077\/revisions\/573899080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573899077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573899077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573899077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}