Viewing the world like a sailor

When you travel by sea, you never look at a destination the same way again

- ANNA HART

ON A TRIP TO CAPE TOWN TWO years ago, I met my sailor friend, Paul, for oysters and chardonnay. (Yes, I have a sailor in every port.) He told me about the three-week crossing they'd just made from the Falkland Islands.

I told him about my upcoming hiking trip near Durban, casually mentioning that I wasn't sure if Durban was north or south of Cape Town. Paul laughed at me, and the next day, staring at an 18th-century navigation map at the South African Naval Museum, I understood how daft I'd sounded. Cape Town is famously the southernmost city on the continent of Africa. It was developed from a small Khoikhoi settlement into a port and resupply station for the Dutch East India Company, a key stop between Europe and India, centuries before British colonial rule. Cape Town is Cape Town because of its southness, and its geographical location is something no sailor would ever forget.