Revisting History : Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope

When I was a class 5 student, I had my teacher make all of us in the class memorize few sentences of a history lesson for the sake of impending mid-term tests. History was taught to us in our local language. I remember myself and my "bench" mates (we sat on wooden benches. No writing desks till we reached class 8th) shouting loudly so as to convince the teacher that we were indeed memorizng the lines and she could keep the wicked cane to herself.

Infact we were bored and couldn't be more indifferent to the sentences we were endlessly repeating. Those sentences were something which stayed on within me long after class 5th. Those were about a person called "Vasco da gama" ("Vasco da gama discovered a route to India", "Portuguese came to India for spices trade" etc). Being a book worm that I was at that time, I had read history books of my seniors in the school. I was always fascinated by the English names that used to lurk in our vernacular text books. "Columbus", "Barthalomeu Diaz", "Cape of Good Hope", "Vasco da game", "Robert Clive", "Fort St.George", "King George VI" etc

It was again in Class 10th that an elaborate lesson made us aware about the adventures of Europeans in their attempt to find a sea route to India and the west. Mention of Cape of Good Hope came again. Nobody in my class or indeed in my school had seen a cape (any cape) in their life, including our teacher. We were told that a Cape is the tip of a peninsula. In India we have one cape; a famous one. Cape Coumarin (Kanya Kumari).

Cape of Good Hope's was rather an exciting story. It seems there was a race to find routes to India and the East. There were many competing nations (Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch and English). Nobody seem to win that race due to vastness of African continent which needed to be circum navigated. Many brave sailors sailed south as far as they could, but they gave up. Some reached upto what is today's Nigeria and returned. A brave Portuguese sailed on further. He was Barthalomeu Diaz. Sea was rough, stormy and cold. He finally was able to disover a point from where sailors could sail towards the East. He had reached Cape! He called it "Cape of storms". Later, a missionary called it Cape of Good Hope hoping that it will make the job of finding routes to India a bit easier one.

Many a times I imagined being present at a Cape and telling myself that it is the farthest one can go in this land without being drowned! Finally I had an opportunity to do it for real, and what's more, it was infact at Cape of Good Hope in South Africa!

Organized day trip!

April seemed not such a great month of the year to visit Cape Town. It was cloudy and tad bit cooler. I arrived there hoping to see the familiar silhouette of the Table mountain in the back drop. Cape Town is such a beautiful city that it should easily top the "Top 10 places to see before you die" list. I took a day-tour from one of many tour operators there, called "Hylton Ross tours". The itinerary of this day long tour would cover Clifton's beach view, Cape of good hope, Cape Point, Chapman's peak drive and Penguin colony. The cost was about Rand 400 (~INR . 2000)

The tour itself was pretty well organized. The driver-cum-guide was a cheerful lad who was well informed and willing to tell. The weather was bit chilly. Cape Town can get really windy. The tour began at around 7 am. There were stops for breakfast and lunch and ofcourse the mandatory souvenir shopping. Cape of Good Hope was the first stop, followed by Cape point. There is just this hoarding at Cape of Good Hope proclaiming the name and Co-ordinates. Its actually a small beach! In real terms, Cape point (and perhaps not the Good Hope) is kind of the real cape where one could see the land extend out into the ocean with water on either sides. Cape of Good Hope was kind of disappointment to me where I had hoped to see something more spectacular. But I had to wait till I got to Cape Point.

Here, one needs to climb several hundred steps to reach the point where you could view the "meeting place" of two great oceans (Atlantic and Indian). You could easily spend couple of hours exploring cape point. It (Cape point) also has a old light house (which has been rebuilt). Chapman's peak drive was fantastic and was worth every penny. Its a road of about 7-8 Kms , carved out of a cliff made of unstable rock basin with a deep gorge on one side and rocky cliff on the other side. This road is prone to frequent rock slides. But the view was incredible. The tour ends with a stops at Penguin colony and a botanical garden (nature reserve).

Cape Town! How incredible... "You gotta do it dude"!