See Africa’s Cape of Ghosts; Incomparable Beauty, Mystery and Tragedy

Its beauty is mesmerizing. Drive with me along South Africa’s rugged coastline to the Cape of Good Hope.

Before “Good Hope”, the Cape was actually known as the “Cape of Storms”. Aptly named by Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias, the first European to discover the Cape in 1488 for the rough tides and heavy storms that could, and often did, tear ships into pieces.

And as if the waters didn’t provide enough of a challenge, the Cape offers other terrifying tidbits with its dangerous underwater reefs and a long, rocky coastline.

Fearing that the name “Cape of Storms” would discourage commerce, John II King of Portugal (in a brilliant marketing move) renamed the area “Cape of Good Hope” to encourage trade with Asia.  

The Cape did indeed become one of the main trading routes both to East India and many parts of Asia. But the merging of two major oceans, the Indian and the Atlantic wreaked regular stormy havoc making for thousands of shipwrecks over the years. While the shipwrecks have stopped, their stories have not.

In the past 500 years, more than 2,500 vessels have sunk near these rocky shores lining South Africa, earning the Cape the nickname “graveyard of ships.”

German composer Richard Wagner’s opera, The Flying Dutchman tells of a legendary ghost ship that sailed around this very Cape, never able to make port, and doomed to sail the seven seas forever. There’s a lot more to this musical tale. To learn more and hear selections from the piece from the Lyric Opera of Chicago, click here.

The Flying Dutchman also appears in Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean series. Based on the legend of the same name, the Dutchman is first introduced in Dead Man’s Chest, and has appeared in the sequel At World’s End. Among other appearances, the Dutchman appears in The Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow attraction at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, as well as several books and video games.

Disneyfandom.com

The Cape is situated in Table Mountain National Park and is just an hour and a half drive from Cape Town.  And while we’re on the subject of Cape Town’s #1 tourist attraction, the imposing, impressive and world famous Table Mountain…

I’ll leave you with one of my favorite artistic interpretations of the city of Cape Town as Table Mountain looms in the horizon. This brilliant artist works using only recycled “trash”…pieces of metal, bottle tops, old Keurig cups…

You can find his works and other’s at 130-122 Chiappini St, Schotsche Kloof, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa