Cape Point Tour

Named the ‘Cape of Storms’ by Bartolomeu Dias in 1488; the ‘Point’ was treated with respect by sailors for centuries. By day, it was a navigational landmark and by night, and in fog, it was a menace beset by violent storms and dangerous rocks that over the centuries littered shipwrecks around the coastline.

In 1859 the first lighthouse was completed; it still stands at 238 metres above sea-level on the highest section of the peak and is now used as the centralised monitoring point for all the lighthouses on the coast of South Africa. Access to this historical building is by an exhilarating three-minute ride in the wheelchair-accessible Flying Dutchman funicular that transfers visitors from the lower station at 127 metres above sea-level, to the upper station.

Cape Point is in the Cape of Good Hope nature reserve within Table Mountain National Park, which forms part of the Cape Floral Region, a World Heritage Site. It includes the majestic Table Mountain chain, which stretches from Signal Hill to Cape Point, and the coastlines of the Cape Peninsula. This narrow stretch of land, dotted with beautiful valleys, bays and beaches, contains a mix of extraordinarily diverse and unique fauna and flora.

Tiny Duiker Island is a leading tourist attraction in Hout Bay, south of Cape Town. This jagged expanse of rock, home to seals, seafaring birds and mammals, is a favourite destination of local photographers, and a great alternative for wildlife enthusiasts who are short on time to go on safari.

The official opening of Chapman's Peak Drive, Cape Town, on the 6 May 1922 by Prince Arthur of Conaught. Chapman's Peak is named after John Chapman, the pilot of an English ship becalmed in today's Hout Bay in 1607. The skipper sent his pilot ashore to find provisions, and the name was recorded as Chapman's Chaunce.

In 1488, the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeus Dias is the first one to bypass the Cape Point Peninsula. At the time, he nicknamed it the “Cape of Storms”, referring to the bad weather he had during his expedition. 10 years later, it is the famous explorer, also Portuguese, Vasco de Gama who takes the same sea route with the aim of creating a new trade route. This one leads from Europe to Indies, where were then rare commodities like spices, precious stones, textiles, and rice.

Boulders Beach is a sheltered beach made up of inlets between granite boulders, from which the name originated. It is located on the Cape Peninsula, in Simon's Town, a suburb of Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is also commonly known as Boulders Bay.[1] It is a popular tourist spot because of a colony of African penguins which settled there in 1982. Boulders Beach forms part of the Table Mountain National Park.

In 1685, during an annual visit to the Cape, Hendrik Adriaan van Rheede tot Drakenstein granted the grounds of Groot Constantia to Simon van der Stel the VOC Governor of the Cape of Good Hope. Van der Stel built the house and used the land to produce wine as well as other fruit and vegetables, and for cattle farming.