Cape of Good Hope

Was the first stop in our Africa riding tour. Originally called “Cape of Storms” by the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias in 1488 on his way looking for spice routes. This is not the most southern point in Africa but the symbolic point where navigators turn to head east for their real objective. At the time, nobody was interested in actually stopping and settling the Cape as everyone was too busy trying to get to India and valuable spices. It was not until 1652, when Jan van Riebeeck established the the Dutch East India Company’s resupply station on Table Bay; now Cape Town.

Along the way we started our encounters with animals you don’t see too often – road signs that said “Caution Penguins on Road”, Baboons in family groups, and Ostrich grazing at the Cape.

The panorama is of Hout Bay, a suburb of Cape Town really – just one of the stunning vistas as you ride around Cape Peninsula.

Finally ended up in Lamberts Bay, couple of hundred kms north of Cape Town, and one of the most amazing dining experiences you could ever imagine at Muisbosskerm – an open air restaurant, walled with a thatch of thorn bushes, cooking an astonishing, non-stop buffet of seafood where the only “silverware” is a mussel shell. Worth the flight for this restaurant alone – www.muisbosskerm.co.za

Finally here are Ron Ayres (L) and Jim Hyde ®, the organisers and co-conspirators for this trip.