CAPE POINT (SUDÁFRICA)
Trail photos
Author
Trail stats
- Distance
- 2.02 mi
- Elevation gain
- 738 ft
- Technical difficulty
- Moderate
- Elevation loss
- 738 ft
- Max elevation
- 937 ft
- TrailRank
- 40
- Min elevation
- 415 ft
- Trail type
- Loop
- Time
- one hour 2 minutes
- Coordinates
- 532
- Uploaded
- May 7, 2017
- Recorded
- May 2017
near Brightwater, Western Cape (Republic of South Africa)
Viewed 598 times, downloaded 14 times
Trail photos
Itinerary description
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Less than two hours driving from Cape Town is one of the most legendary points for sailors of past centuries, the Cape of Good Hope. To finish a magnificent Atlantic coast with beautiful cliffs and a wild and indomitable sea is the Cape Point and the Cape GoodHope as a geographical point where the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean meet.
The origin of the name of the Cape of Good Hope comes from the first European who managed to reach the cape, Barlomeu Dias in the fifteenth century. The sailor named this cape the Cape of Storms. However, the King of Portugal John II renamed it to encourage the Portuguese sailors to open the route between Portugal and India, so he changed the name out of Good Hope. The Cape of Good Hope was completed by the navigator Vasco de Gama and he placed a cross that is still there a replica.
The southernmost point of Africa is not the Cape of Good Hope or the Cape Point but the Cape Agulhas which is located about 300 km east, very close to Hermanus and Gansbaai.
To get to the old lighthouse, go up a road to the restaurant area. There you can catch a train that goes up a few meters of altitude. You can also walk up a path. My advice is that you get on the train and walk down. Where the train ends we still have a stretch of climb, stairs and ramps, no problem.
This lighthouse was illuminated for the first time on May 1, 1860. It is located on the highest point of Cape Point, formerly known as Cape of Storms, and about 250 meters above sea level.
This high situation caused that the light was often hidden by fog or clouds, with the danger that this fact represented for navigation. This danger was confirmed on the night of April 18, 1911, when the Portuguese passenger ship "Lusitania" crashed into Bellows Rock, 4 miles south of the Cape of Good Hope. This tragedy accelerated the construction of a second lighthouse in the vicinity at lower altitude, and the shutdown of the old one on March 11, 1919.
After visiting the upper lighthouse, you have to descend a little and a path to the right. It has no difficulty or danger at all and brings us to the lighthouse built in 1919, with a wonderful view of the false bay.
The origin of the name of the Cape of Good Hope comes from the first European who managed to reach the cape, Barlomeu Dias in the fifteenth century. The sailor named this cape the Cape of Storms. However, the King of Portugal John II renamed it to encourage the Portuguese sailors to open the route between Portugal and India, so he changed the name out of Good Hope. The Cape of Good Hope was completed by the navigator Vasco de Gama and he placed a cross that is still there a replica.
The southernmost point of Africa is not the Cape of Good Hope or the Cape Point but the Cape Agulhas which is located about 300 km east, very close to Hermanus and Gansbaai.
To get to the old lighthouse, go up a road to the restaurant area. There you can catch a train that goes up a few meters of altitude. You can also walk up a path. My advice is that you get on the train and walk down. Where the train ends we still have a stretch of climb, stairs and ramps, no problem.
This lighthouse was illuminated for the first time on May 1, 1860. It is located on the highest point of Cape Point, formerly known as Cape of Storms, and about 250 meters above sea level.
This high situation caused that the light was often hidden by fog or clouds, with the danger that this fact represented for navigation. This danger was confirmed on the night of April 18, 1911, when the Portuguese passenger ship "Lusitania" crashed into Bellows Rock, 4 miles south of the Cape of Good Hope. This tragedy accelerated the construction of a second lighthouse in the vicinity at lower altitude, and the shutdown of the old one on March 11, 1919.
After visiting the upper lighthouse, you have to descend a little and a path to the right. It has no difficulty or danger at all and brings us to the lighthouse built in 1919, with a wonderful view of the false bay.
Waypoints
Summit
808 ft
Panorama
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