Cape Point Nature Reserve

Cape Point Nature Reserve is perhaps the most scenically spectacular park in South Africa. It stretches over the buckling, fynbos-covered hills of the Cape Peninsula to the dramatic Cape of Storms.

It's a perfect day trip from Cape Town and the reserve boasts the Two Oceans restaurant - have your lunch overlooking the Indian Ocean and then take a stroll across to the wild Atlantic or to the very tip of the peninsula itself.

The reserve protects many endangered animal and plant species, including four whale species, three dolphin species, four tortoise species, 250 bird species, and a reasonable selection of big game: stately-looking eland and the more startlingly patterned bontebok antelope, scampering baboons and dashing ostriches can be also seen on a drive through the pristine bush.

For the botanist, a staggering 1016 species of plants have been recorded here, but this is a mere 11% of the 9 000 plant species that make up the fynbos - 'fine bush' - found in the Cape, which forms the smallest but most diverse of the world's six floral kingdoms.

Cape Point itself is one of the greatest landmarks in the world, jutting like a rocky knife into the broiling Atlantic ocean. It was here that Bartholomeu Diaz, the Portuguese navigator, first rounded the Cape in 1488, searching for a trade route to India and the East. The large stone cross in the reserve commemorates his achievement.

Having narrowly avoided being shipwrecked by the Cape's famously unpredictable weather, Diaz named it Cabo Tormentosa, or Cape of Storms. More than 600 ships have sunk on its shores. The Portuguese King John was so elated to learn of the sea route to India that he renamed it Cabo de boa Esperanca, or Cape of Good Hope.

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