Saturday was a relaxing and uneventful day. Some of us had planned to go hiking at a
nearby hill in the morning, but each independently decided that catching up on
sleep was more important. Nearly everyone went to the beach in the afternoon,
and six of us left early to go to Mass, since we had big plans for Sunday.
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| Cape Peninsula |
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| South Africa |
Our advisor treated us on Sunday to a trip to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. It is not the southern-most tip of Africa, nor is it where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet. However, the Cape of Good Hope is significant because it was discovered by the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias, who sailed around it on his way to the Far East.
We took buses down along the eastern side of the
peninsula. We stopped at Boulders Beach
near Simon’s Town because it is a great place to see penguins. It did not disappoint.
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| Penguins!! |
The day actually turned out to be more of a safari than we had anticipated. We had been warned that baboons might cross the road more commonly than deer do in America. Sure enough, we had a baboon sighting before long. Driving along the coast, we also caught sight of some dolphins (not sharks as some people thought), in addition to some wild ostrich that also crossed our path.
We arrived at the travel centre for Cape
Point around noon, and were given four hours to explore. While there, a member of our group learned
firsthand how stealthy baboons can be when it comes to food, particularly a bag
of chips (someone somewhere has pictures, sorry I couldn’t get any of this
humorous encounter). From there, it was a half hour’s hike to the lighthouse at
the top of Cape Point.
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| Cape Point, South Africa |
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| Lighthouse at Cape Point |
The view at the top was truly breathtaking. I remember as child, standing at a beach in
Maine and imagining I could see Africa from across the Atlantic Ocean. It was a strange feeling to be standing on
the other side looking out (albeit probably in the wrong direction) thousands
of miles from my childhood, watching waves crash on the African beach. Waves which have not graced the shore of my
home in probably millions if not billions of years.
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| View from Cape Point |
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| Top of Cape Point |
From Cape Point, it was a longer walk along the cliff to the
Cape of Good Hope. The view from Good
Hope was equally impressive. The waves
crashed violently against the rocks, as the wind ripped at us standing at the
top of the ledge. I think my friend Zach
said it best when he said, “It’s times like this I’m sure this was no accident
– when I’m sure of the Creator’s existence.” Mountains bow down and the seas
will roar at the sound of Your Name.
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| "Mountains bow down..." View from Cape of Good Hope |
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| View of Cape Point from Good Hope |
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| Cape of Good Hope |
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| Dias Beach |
We made the hike to Good Hope and back to the parking lot in under two hours, including a stop at Dias Beach about halfway in between.
The gift shop had a lot of cool stuff, and I made great
progress on my Christmas shopping there.
After a long day, we rode the buses this time up the western side of the
peninsula. We stopped only once to
capture pictures of a particularly striking view. I swear I did not take this from a desktop
background.
That pretty much wraps up the weekend. From our hiking I took over 300 pictures,
which I have neatly saved on my laptop for anyone who wants to read the
equivalent of a 300,000 word essay. I’m
sorry it’s been a few days since I’ve updated this – my team and I have to
write a 20 page business plan for the WaSH facility by Friday, which kind of
takes precedence over these reflections.
More details on that to come at some point. Until then, Impilo! (Cheers/Good Health)
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