Cape Agulhas

It is the geographic southern tip of Africa and the beginning of the traditional dividing line between the Atlantic and Indian oceans according to the International Hydrographic Organization.

It is approximately half a degree of latitude, or 55 kilometres (34 mi), farther south than the Cape of Good Hope.

The waters of the Agulhas Bank off the coast are quite shallow and are renowned as one of the best fishing grounds in South Africa.

According to South African National Parks, who administer the nature reserve, the average rainfall is 400–600 mm per annum, mostly received in winter.

These conflicting currents of water of different densities, and the west winds blowing against the Agulhas Current, can create extremely hazardous wave conditions; these are further exacerbated by the shallow waters of the Agulhas Bank, a broad, shallow part of the continental shelf which juts 250 kilometres (155 mi) south from the cape, after which it falls steeply away to the abyssal plain.

The coast here is littered with wrecks: Arniston (1815), Geortyrder (1849), Elise (1879), Cooranga (1964), Gwendola (1968), Federal Lakes (1975), and Gouritz (1981), but these are just a few of the vessels lost in the proximity of the "Cape of Needles".