A Lighthouse Tour of the Cape

The Cape Columbine Lighthouse lies within the nature reserve of the same name, just 5km from Paternoster up the Cape West Coast. It was erected in 1936 as an answer to the many shipwrecks that had occurred along that stretch of coast between Saldanha Bay and Stompneus Bay in the preceding decades. The Green Point Lighthouse is located in Mouille Point and was the first solid lighthouse structure on the South African coast and the oldest operational lighthouse in South Africa. It was Jan van Riebeek who first had the idea of a lighthouse on Robben Island, although strictly speaking, his idea was more to have a massive bonfire built that burnt through the night, every night. And so that’s what they did. It wasn’t until a few centuries later that the Robben Island lighthouse was built, in 1864. The third lighthouse to be built in South Africa, the Cape Agulhas Lighthouse is the second-oldest still operating after Green Point. It is located on the southern edge of the village of L’Agulhas, in the Agulhas National Park.

SOURCE: GETAWAY