The Bottom of Africa
Cape Agulhas – where the journey began
The Bottom of Africa - just follow the sign
Every long journey needs a beginning, and ours officially started at the southernmost tip of Africa – Cape Agulhas, South Africa. Often mistaken for the more famous Cape of Good Hope, Cape Agulhas is the true point where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet. Windswept, remote and edged by rugged coastline, it felt like the right place to begin a ten‑month motorcycle adventure that would eventually take us through 34 countries – all the way to the Arctic Circle and beyond.
Sitting on my bike beside the weathered marker at the edge of the continent, the scale of what lay ahead felt both exciting and just a little scary. We had spent months planning routes, preparing bikes, obtaining carnets, shipping gear and imagining what life on the road might become. Yet at that moment, none of it felt entirely real.
“ Looking across the wind-scoured headland, we giggled with nervous excitement.
This is it!
Cape Agulhas.
The southernmost point of Africa.
The place where two oceans meet – where the warm Indian Ocean folds into the wild Atlantic – and where, for us, everything turned. South ended here. North began. Not just on the map, but somewhere deeper, harder to name.
The warm January wind tugged at our jackets, carrying the sharp, salty edge of open ocean. It felt raw and exposed, as though there was nothing between us and the rest of the world. Which, in a way, there wasn’t.
We stood there, rooted to the spot, contemplating the moment, neither of us quite ready to say it out loud.
We are really doing this! “
Source: The Accidental Motorcyclist, 2026
There’s something confronting about official starting points. They draw a line between the life you know and the one you’re stepping into. Cape Agulhas gave us that line.
It was time to embrace the unknown.
