Cape Agulhas

Realizing the 4 us were actually becoming quite booked over the next few months with various work trips, friends and family visits, knee surgeries, etc., we decided to take advantage of this one last weekend where everyone was free and hit the road. Thus, Saturday morning we took off for the town of Struisbaai, located near the Southern most tip of the continent (called Cape Agulhas) and about a 2.5-3 hour drive from Cape Town. It was a beautiful drive, and interesting to see the stark difference in the landscape this time compared to our last experience on the same highway when we traveled to Knysna on the Garden Route back in the middle of the South African winter (the rolling hills were previously bright green and yellow filled with crops, but now the land is all brown and dry, as summer is the dry time here).

We arrived in Struisbaai with enough time to check in at the backpackers’ hostel and grab a little lunch. The town is relatively empty to begin with – mostly just small houses dotting the beach, a few smalls stores (which do not really have weekend hours, as we can attest to), and about 3 restaurants – but we were surprised at just how deserted the town felt despite it being high season (summer). Struisbaai was quite beautiful, situated right on a beach filled with fine, bright white sand and the turquoise blue of the beautiful Indian Ocean. The postcard I bought even said it was the longest stretch of white beach in the Southern Hemisphere!

After lunch, we headed over to a farm where we had signed up to go horse-back riding. It had probably been about 10 years since the last time I’d been on a horse, but we all managed ok (and I should add that Julia is in fact quite the horse expert). I must say though, I like Western saddles much better than English ones (which we had to use)! We were led by two teenagers who didn’t actually seem that excited about working on a Saturday afternoon (go figure!) but were still treated to a very pleasant 2 hr round trip trail ride that took us from the farm through the fynbos (= unique Western Cape bush/shrub vegetation), and then out onto an absolutely gorgeous, remote, pristinely white beach where the bright blue ocean was particularly dramatic coupled with small sand dunes. It was really fun to ride along having the beach all to ourselves, and all in all it was a highly enjoyable experience.













After the horse ride, we cleaned up a bit and headed out for dinner at one of 2 restaurants which we found open in Struisbaai, as determined by taking all of 5 minutes to drive around all each side of town. We picked a beautiful spot on the beach and were able to watch the last light fade away while enjoying our dinners, which were excellent. Following dinner, we went back to the backpackers’ and hung out at the on-site bar for a while, where we had a good time meeting both fellow travelers and local South Africans. For a town with not a single thing open beyond 8pm (believe me, I looked, upon discovering I had forgotten my toothbrush), the backpackers’ bar was amazingly hopping. Who knew?

Beautiful sunset colors seen while having dinner on the beach


The next morning we checked out and drove to the next town, L’Agulhas (located about 5km further down the road right on the Southern-most tip of the continent), and were once again foiled by the lack of activity in the area as we searched for a restaurant where we could have brunch. We eventually just had to settle for a grocery store. We then visited the park to see the Cape Agulhas lighthouse and stand at the Southern-most tip of Africa, where two oceans officially meet (in contrast to how people commonly refer to them meeting at the Cape of Good Hope, near Cape Town). We took the obligatory pictures next to the rock that confirmed our destination, enjoyed the scenery for a while, and then drove back to the better (less rocky) beaches of Struisbaai to enjoy relaxing on the beach bit more before packing up and setting out on the road home. Sadly, I got very sunburned (and I was even wearing sunscreen!), but I think I’ll survive. We had a lovely brunch (well ok, it was 3pm, but we all ordered breakfast food) at a cute little road-side farm stall on the way back to Cape Town, making for a nice ending to our very pleasant little weekend outing. Hopefully we can do more of that sort of thing in the future, though for the next few months we all seem to have jam-packed schedules…

The town of L'Agulhas

The L'Agulhas lighthouse, dating back to 1848


I’ll admit Cape Agulhas is aptly named after seeing all the rocks dotting the beach in the area. (Agulhas means “needles” in Portuguese. They were the primary explorers of the tip of Africa back in the day. Bartalamou Dias first rounded the Cape of Good Hope (the peninsula which Cape Town sits on, which is the South-Eastern most point of Africa) in 1488 in case you need a good trivia question.)


And finally, my obligatory picture at the tip of the continent