The Southern-most Point

This morning I left Hermanus and headed East across vineyards and into hilly farmland that was very reminiscent of the Palouse in Eastern Washington and Idaho. Rolling golden fields of Hay or grain framed by low mountain peaks. This farmland eventually collapsed into even more rocky and rugged coast than what I had seen in Hermanus. Today's destination was the southern-most tip of Africa. The officially deliniated point where the South Atlantic meets the Indian Ocean - though the two mix and create interesting currents and sub-currents for probably 100s of miles in all directions from this point.

Where the Indian Ocean meets the Atlantic

Cape Agulhas and the simallarly named coastal village of L'Agulhas both derive their name from a Portugese word which translates to needles. Said to be named as such because it is at this point where a compass points' magnetic north align with true north - i.e. with no magnetic deviation unlike most of the rest of the world.

Not to scale😂

I have to wonder given the ststistics if these Portugese sailors didn't have another reason for the name 'needles' given the unpredictability of the waters around this cape and the number of ships and lives they have claimed.

The Agulhas current that drives south along the Eastern coast of Africa is believed to be one of the largest Western boundary currents moving 70 million cubic meters per second. When this warm and salty current colides with the much cooler Atlantic current strange and unpredictable things happen including rogue waves as big as 100' and Aghulus rings which create strong and unpredictable counter currents.

Due to these unique oceanic phenomena off the coast of one of the major East-West shipping lanes of the last several centuries, there are over 150 documented lost ships off this cape. I suspect as many if not more, undocumented. Just in the decade between 1981 and 1991 with far more modern maritime technology, radio, meteorology, sensor systems, and even a lighthouse now, there were still more than 30 larger vessels that were either severely damaged or sunk due to these rogue waves.

Shipwreck - just one of over 150 off this cape

Someone finally built a lighthousein1848 - 2nd in Africa

The coastline here has an empty desolate feel to it. With nothing but rock, grass and fynbos standing watch over two oceans colliding. As I look out into the oceans in the direction of Antartica just 2500 miles away it feels like it could be the edge of the very world. It is hard to doubt even in the middle of a bright South African summer's day that these shores are not haunted by the ghosts of all those sailors lost to this cape whose bodies never found land again. So, in that sense perhaps this cape is the edge of the world, or worlds. Where not only a continent ends and ocean's collide but the veil that separates the living from the realm of those who have been lost feels especially thin. Yet, all needles point true North.

More Fynbos!

After my brief visit to the haunted coast of Agulhas it was time to return to the other more populated cape. Here I sit this evening in a beautifully quaint private suite in a residential area called Fish Hoek in the middle of Table Mountain National Park. To the North beyond the peaks I can see from this deck is Lion's Head - the peak I climbed my first morning in South Africa - and beyond that Cape Town. Tomorrow I head south to the other major cape. And later in the day, perhaps penguins!

4hrs later… back on the cape peninsula