Cape Point on His Circumnavigation of the World on the Golden Hind (1580) Cape Point NATIONAL PARKS 1
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Please support our advertisers who make this free guide possible. GATEWAYGUIDES ‘This cape is a most stately thing and the fairest cape we saw in the whole circumference of the earth.’ Chapman’s Peak Scenic Drive Sir Francis Drake (or the ship’s chaplain) upon seeing the Cape Point on his circumnavigation of the world on the Golden Hind (1580) Cape Point NATIONAL PARKS 1 Red Hill Swartkop Mountains Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve Partridge Point soil nutrition and lots of wind. Fynbos has been around in the form of the Protea family since 60-70 million years ago, but most of the diversified fynbos Cape Point M False Bay 4 (Dias called this bay ‘The bay we see today goes back to 6-8 million years. Cape Point Ostrich Farm within the Mountain Range’) 1 SANParks Forest Station In the same way that the soil at Cape Point is nutrient-poor for plant life, the 6 M Wildschutsbrand (Former Convict Station 1915) 65 Somerset plant life has passed on the favour to animals that need to feed on them. Scenic Drive Schoesters- Tuinkop Otter Tracking and brandvlei Perdekloof Dolerite dyke Fynbos is nutrient-poor also, and generally useless to most animals except for (116 m) Teeberg The Smitswinkel Bay Experience 8 +27 (0) 84 525 5555 niche species and, to top it all, most fynbos is stockpiled with polyphenols that THE GATEWAY TO CAPE POINT (158 m) Entrance Gate Garstland se Kloof make them unpalatable and indigestible. Pollination is undertaken by ants, a Rooihoogte (275 m) Judas Peak (319 m) Schusters Smitswinkel Bay number of types of insects, butterflies, mice and some birds such as the Cape Restricted Opip II The most Area (FKA Patiencie Bay) Sugarbird, but one thing is common: they are all delicate partnerships. Not all Die Boer (302 m) plants rely on multiple pollinators and some serve only a few plants and, if this Experience one of the most celebrated scenic drives south-western Bonteberg (233 m) Eland & Duiker relationship was broken, the plants would cease to exist, such as the red disa in the world. Drive it, see it and enjoy it. Scarborough Cottages Patrys Ann uniflora and the mountain pride butterfly Aeropetes tulbaghia. point in Africa Wolfkop (139 m) Bridson Paulsberg (368 m) 021 791 8220 / 021 791 8222 Val Lei 1859 [email protected] Dassiefontein Link Road Krom River Today, we visit a national park expecting to see lots of animals but, in www.chapmanspeakdrive.co.za Old Main Gate the case of Cape Point, it was never well-populated with animals and Duiwelsvlei Kromme Venus Pool especially the big game that we come to expect from an African Houte The Cauldron safari park. There was a time when big game visited this part Restricted Kanonkop Area Booi se Skerm of the world but, because of the lack of nutritional value Oliphantsbosch Red Track (236 m) Die Mond Old Lime Kiln (1890) of the vegetation, it would be safe to say these animals visited when they wanted to and then returned to Honey 2000 Smitswinkel Flats Cape Point Drive 12 greener pastures. The permanent animals, then Sirkelsvlei Viewpoint Da Gama Monument Viewing sites on Cape Point Peak. (1497) Marine Beacon and now, were generally smaller such as Groot-Rondevlei porcupine, klipspring, tortoise, dassie and When Dias walked up to Cape Maclear to place his Stone Cross (some people Buffelsfontein Visitors Centre 9 1 the big attraction, the Chacma Baboon, think it might have been wood because no one has found it) he did not claim Klein-Rondevlei Table Mountain National Park (Homestead) Bordjiesdrif of which, the first commander at the to have seen any local inhabitants. He knew they existed in this part of the Olifantsbos world as, a few months earlier, he had encountered them at Mossel Bay. There Menskop Point Die Kloof 16 Nukteris 1897 is a possibility that Dias and party had been watched on this historic day but, Gilli Dam Olifantsbos Bay 15 Flamingo 1833 with such small numbers, it might have been deemed too risky on the Buffels Bay locals part for an encounter. Olifantsbos Cottage i 11 Protea & Restio Huts (was Radar Station accommodation) Another way around Dias Monument (FKA McKellar’s Bay) (1488) Marine Beacon Rooikrans Shipwrecks in this area: Blaauwberg Vlei Matrooskop (108 m) Vasco de Gama Peak (266 m) These local people over time would be named the Khoi By 1450, the days of the old Spice Caterina Doge 1886 Duitserstent Tania (and also by many other names such as Khoi-na, Holland 1786 Restricted Buffelsfontein (130 m) Old Museum 1972 Route of Marco Polo’s fame, from Asia Anne 1859 Area Papkuilskoof Restaurant Booiskaai Circular Drive Khoikhoi, Hottentot and Otentottu). The Khoi Charters to Europe, were closing and throttled by Napoleon 1805 Flying Dutchman (funicular) Lucia Emerentia 1786 Olifantsbos 5 had migrated to the Cape some 2000 the mighty Ottoman Empire which, by this L’Alouette 1817 Point Carlotta B 1886 Global Weather Station years ago from an area near Geelbos Buffelsfontein Path Come and Experience stage, controlled the eastern Mediterranean. The Thomas T Tucker Skilpadvlei (1860 visitors accommodation) present-day Botswana. They 1942 Kolkol European traders were suffering, Europe’s wealth was Nolloth Mast Kommetjieberg (114 m) 6 Souvenir Shop were predominately a Marine WildLife Encounter with us. suffering and the only answer to this impasse was to find 1965 Bay Old Lighthouse (1860) La Rozette 1786 Rondeheuwel (96 m) Cape Point Peak another route to the East. There were two options, go West Kafir 1878 www.iziko.org.za into the unknown and hopefully reach the East or find a route Atlantic Ocean Brightwater Lighthouse Keeper’s Trail around Africa. 3 2 WWII Blockhouse The recipe for a memorablewww.gatewayguides.co.za experience? False Bay Firearm 10 14 Training Academy at the Glencairn Quarry, has it all. Rich in Aggie 1961 bird and plant life with a wide variety of firearms on hand, False Phyllisa 1968 Lighthouse (1919) The ramifications of this forced decision Hoek van Bobbejaan Platboom Boardwalk Bay Firearm Training Academy ensures you will be spoiled for (FKA Brandsbaai) changed the world forever. The European 1 Cape Point choice when booking your experience package. Platboom Dunes maritime powers, in their quest to find Platboom Point Pegram’s Point Dias Rock We operate from the range and are open 7 days a week. The first visitor missed it by miles Gifkommetjie Carey Lee another route to the Far East, discovered other 1980 Maclear Beach 13 By 1400, the Portuguese had crossed the equator. Groot-Blaauberg (112 m) Flamco Shir Yib lands, established trading stations, started 7 1970 A visit to us should definitely be on your bucket list! 1485 saw Diego Cao reach modern day Namibia and, Cape of Good Hope 1980 settlements and, finally, colonised these new (The most south-western Dias Beach 4 by January 1488, Bartolomeu Dias the Portuguese lands. The question needs to be asked, what point in Africa) (FKA Buffels Bay) navigator, was poised to be the first foreign visitor Lusitania 1911 if the Ottoman Empire had kept the Silk and (4 km South: Avil & Bellows Rocks) contact us to Cape Point. The renowned Cape weather rained Supercontinent Gondwana, when Spice Route open for Europe? The world today Cape Maclear on his parade by sending a violent storm which blew South America and the Falkland (named after an astronomer at the Cape in 1830) 021 782 0107 073 865 3307(WhatsApp Only) would be a different place, The Americas and 3 bookings@firearmtrainingacademyjle .co.za his ships out of sight of land and into the beyond. Plateau crashed into southern Africa (It is thought that Dias erected his Pachao De Sao Filipe Africa would have a different history, the ‘Stone Cross’ in 1488) Ocean Image: Bookings: 063 787 8145 • Granger Bay Glencairn Quarry, EndLEADERS of Tercentenary IN CERTIFIED way PRE-OWNED WATCHES. Days later, he decided to sail east and then north in slow motion about 300 million western slave trade might not have happened Departure: Oceana Powerboat Club www.firearmtrainingacademy.co.za where he stepped ashore at Mossel Bay, a few years ago, moving at a rate of two as we know it and some countries would not Email: [email protected] • Web: www.oceanimage.co.za hundred kilometres up the east coast. His journey to centimetres a year over millions of Cape, Jan van Riebeeck (1652-1662) said, “those a cattle tribe with sheep and cattle have been colonised. 4 the East was stopped near Port Elizabeth when his years. The force was so great that big and horrible to look at...”. Some animals today but also could live off nature’s BUY. SELL. TRADE. crew advised him to turn back in a mutinous tone. they managed to buckle, bend, have been reintroduced such as the ostriches which opportunities. The Khoi groups that Africa had seen sailors from Europe, the It was only then, on his return journey in May, that, contort, twist and fracture these came from one of the origanal farms at the Point in lived around Cape Town had chosen WITH CONFIDENCE. Middle East and India slowly creeping down for the first time, he saw Cape Point in all its glory. once horizontal formations which, 1865 and then there was the Bontebok which nearly areas where their cattle would its coastline on both sides of the continent, It must have been fine weather for him to put in in some places, left the bedding went extinct in 1837 and, to safeguard its numbers, flourish and the groups were large.