Chapman's Peak Drive & Cape Point

The weather was extremely hot down in Cape Town. This is South Africa's summer right now and the Sun was beating down on us as we toured Chapman's Peak Drive, Cape Point and other areas of Cape. I decided to run up Chapman's Peak drive from our Bed & Breakfast to get a run in for the day. The rest of the group drove up and stopped and certain points to take pictures and to make sure that I did not fall off the cliff! :)

I forgot to put sun screen on and got fried out in the sun. Eric and I both were peeling like a banana after being outside all day.

The run was beautiful and had spectacular views of Hout Bay. I started out walking down a large sand dune in front our B&B in order to get to the main road down by the fishing docks. The run wrapped around the waterfront with a number of restaurants and shopping streets. Hout Bay is one of the nicest areas in the Cape and had a number of big money shops.

(This is a view from Chapman's Peak Drive. Our Bed & Breakfast is on the mountain that you see on the opposite side of the bay)

I ran for about a mile and half around the bay until I got to Chapman's Peak drive, which follows the coast line up the mountain and you can look back across the bay to see our B&B up on the hill on the opposite side. Pretty amazing views the entire time. I met a couple of bikers from JoBurg and had a good conversation with them while we biked and ran up the mountain. I was not really hurting until after the run where I got massively dehydrated from the sun. The heat is very dry and it zapped me pretty hard by the time I got to the top.

Overall, it was still a great run and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I just need to drink more water before hand and put on some sun screen. It was about 5 miles up to the top and it reminded me of the Sabino Canyon run that I did out in Tucson, Arizona with Molly last year.

We went to a a little cafe near the water on our way to Cape Point and I pounded 2 - 1.5 liter bottles of water and then had lunch and then drank some more liquids as I was feeling very loopy after that run and being in the sun. My hand was shaking uncontrollably at lunch and I finally started to come back down after getting some fluids back in me.

(This is another view on the way up Chapman's Peak Drive)

We then headed to Cape Point, which is the southern most point of Africa and also where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet. We had a great time hiking around the top of the point and took some great photos as well. Eric and I would hike off the path here and there and at one point crawled out and looked over the edge of the cliffs while laying down on our stomachs. Very scary as we were a few hundred feet up. Heather and Lori would not have been happy if they were with us! :)

(View of Cape Point)

There are two light houses built on this point (one is about 250 feet high and the other is about 650 ft. above sea level). There are many shipwrecks all around this point as the waters are very hostile. This point was used as a lookout point during a few wars in the past. There were even cement bunkers built on top of the hill.