Woke up this morning to a beautiful view of Table Mountain and Signal Hill from our hotel room window. We couldn’t wait to get started today. Today’s plan: an all-day tour of Cape Point and the peninsula. We had a really good breakfast of omelettes, “back bacon” and mushrooms with the best croissants I have ever tasted. A strong cup of coffee and we were ready to go!
Our tour van picked us up promptly at 8:20 and we were off. We drove through Capetown, passing Camp’s Bay to pick up one more tourist. We had about 8 people total on our tour, with folks from England, Tokyo and California. Our first stop was Hout’s Bay. In the harbor, I saw an adorable seal in the water, rolling and splashing and generally entertaining himself! We got on a boat that took us out to Seal Island, a little island in the middle of the bay that is home to a few hundred seals. Some of them actually waved as we pulled up! There were tons of them, sunning on the rocks, playing in the water and diving. I have never seen anything like it! They were big, small, fat, sleek – just in all shapes and sizes! I took a ton of pictures, of course. Once back in the harbor, I did the tourist thing and actually fed a seal! He was huge, but very friendly. And furry. They just don’t look furry when you see them on TV, but he was very furry!
From there, we drove up Chapman’s Peak Drive to get a bird’s eye view looking down over Hout’s Bay. The view was breathtaking. We continued our drive and saw something interesting. Along the sides of the mountains, there are huge nets. Apparently, too many falling rocks killed too many people, so they put giant nets up on the sides of the mountains to catch them if/when they fall. We drove past Nourdhoek Beach and went next to an ostrich farm. They raised them here and sold their eggs, some purses and other products and all kinds of stuff. The one ostrich hung out with us for a bit, but didn’t want to eat any food. He had probably been fed so much already! After leaving the ostrich farm, we headed out towards an area called False Bay on the way to the Cape of Good Hope. On the way, we ran into a baboon family! Mom, Dad and two babies. They were just hanging out by the side of the road, having some munchies. You’re not supposed to feed them, as they can get very aggressive. But we took pictures from the tour bus. I wasn’t trying to get mauled by a baboon!
Next stop was the Penguin Colony. It was nesting and mating season, so there were quite a few nests and we even saw a baby! Their fur is not waterproof for the first 30 days or so, so they are quite fluffy and brown and very cute. From there, we did lunch at a seafood restaurant. I have to tell on myself here. I ordered Mozambican King Prawns. When they were delivered, they still had all their legs, antennae, eyeballs and guts. Well, I tried to take one apart to get to the good stuff, but when green stuff dripped out onto my plate, I knew I wasn’t going to do this right. I had to ask the waitress to ask the kitchen if they could take them apart for me. She did, and they came back out looking much more edible! I was very embarrassed, but I didn’t know what else to do! I am so glad that they were so gracious.
Leaving there, we drove past Muizenburg Beach and on to Kirstenbosch Gardens. We were getting pretty tired by now, so when we arrived at the Gardens, I got a cappuccino and we hit the gift shop for a few things. Popped into the gardens for a quick look and by then it was time to head back for the day. We were dropped off at our hotel and rested up for a bit before dinner. Went back to the hotel restaurant for dinner and once again came upstairs and absolutely crashed. It was another long, but amazing day!
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