Tony posted a comment, asking how far south I was at Cape Point. He question was prompted by my wise crack that there was "nothing to spoil the view but Antarctica."
My head getting sunburned at Cape Point
The southernmost tip of the Cape of Good Hope is called Cape Point, which is the southwestern corner of the continent of Africa. (The southernmost point in Africa is actually Cape Agulhas, 90 miles SE of Cape Point.). As you can see, the sign says it's at 34° 21' 24" South latitude. Amazingly, that's only a little further south of the equator than Atlanta is north of the equator. (Atlanta is at 33° 46' North latitude.) It's mind boggling to imagine Atlanta as the northernmost point of North America.
According to the sign at the Cape Point lighthouse, it is 6248 km (approx. 3900 miles) to the South Pole. A bit of web research tells me it's approx. 2600 miles from Cape Point to the nearest coast of Antarctica. So no, you can't really see it from there. It's just cool when you're standing there looking south and realizing the only land mass in that direction is Antarctica. Glad to clear that up. ;-)
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