Cape Agulhas
THE ACTUAL SOUTHERNMOST POINT OF AFRICA, Which Cape Point Is Not, Marked By A Cairn And A Plaque On A Flat Rocky Shore Where The Atlantic And Indian Oceans Are Said To Meet With South Africa'S Second Oldest Working Lighthouse, Built In 1849 And Still Lit, A Shipwreck On The Beach And A Coast That Has Taken A Very Large Number Of Vessels · L'Agulhas, Western Cape
This is the actual southern tip of Africa, which Cape Point is not, and the row will be honest about what that means: it is a flat rocky shore with a cairn, a plaque and a line marking where the Atlantic is said to meet the Indian Ocean, and it is considerably less dramatic than the cliffs two hours west that everybody photographs instead. What it has is the fact itself, and the fact is worth something - you can stand on the southernmost rock of a continent, which there are only a handful of places on earth to do. Above it stands South Africa's second-oldest working lighthouse, built in 1849 and still lit, in a shape borrowed from the Pharos of Alexandria. The coast around it has wrecked a very large number of ships, one of which is still on the beach nearby. The Agulhas plain behind is low fynbos and wetland, part of the Cape Floral region, and the villages are quiet. Go for the fact, not the scenery.
At the southern tip of Africa 220 km east of Cape Town, with the lighthouse at L'Agulhas and the cairn on the rocks below, L'Agulhas, Western Cape, South Africa
The cairn, the plaque and the two-oceans marker are open ground at any hour, free, reached by a boardwalk from a car park - which makes the actual southern tip of Africa one of the easier landmarks anywhere to get to. The lighthouse keeps daylight hours with a small ticket, a museum in the keeper's building and a tower you can usually climb, though WHETHER THE TOWER IS OPEN VARIES with maintenance. The Agulhas National Park around it keeps daylight hours with a conservation fee for its sections and trails. The Meisho Maru wreck on the beach west of the point is open ground and reached on foot. L'Agulhas and Struisbaai villages have restaurants and guesthouses, and Struisbaai's harbour has resident stingrays that come into the shallows. It is about two and a half hours from Cape Town, and MALARIA-FREE.