Peninsula Day Trip

Before I get into today’s adventure, here’s my biggest purchase from Wednesday.

Today was another early day with an 8am pickup for my day trip to the Cape of Good Hope. This group was even smaller than yesterday with only 6 of us: Chong from Malaysia; Janet and Joseph from San Francisco; Jordan and Sara from New York City. Everyone was very friendly, but we didn’t bond like the group yesterday, so I don’t have a photo.

Weather was once again cloudy and foggy. There was actually a bit of a misty rain when they picked me up from the hotel. Our first stop was the neighborhood of Bo-Kaap with its colorful houses. In 1760, a wealthy Dutchman bought this block of homes that he rented to his slaves. At the time the houses were painted white but when the slaves received their freedom, they painted their houses colors representative of their home countries from which they had been captured. The current homeowners can paint their houses whatever color they want as long as there are no adjacent homes with the same color.

Bantry Bay and Camps Bay beaches were our next stops but because of the fog we skipped them. During Apartheid, Bantry Bay was for blacks and Camps Bay was for whites. Of course, now everyone can go to whatever beach they want. I visited Camps Bay on Tuesday so look at that post if you want to see some pics. It was a beautiful day.

Next was a very choppy, cold boat ride from Hout Bay to Duiker Island to see the Seal Colony. I’ve actually seen more seals in San Francisco or the Monterey Peninsula, so this was a bit underwhelming but at least the ride was only 25 minutes round trip.

Within a few minutes of leaving Hout Bay, we arrived at Chapman’s Peak. While we didn’t have the view we would have had if it was clear, the low-lying fog was quite beautiful.

Here’s a short video at Chapman’s Peak.

On our way to the next stop, we stopped for some animal sightings. First, we saw an eland, a type of African antelope. While I could see it, I wasn’t close enough to get a good picture. I didn’t even think to bring my telephoto lens or binoculars…rats. But here’s a picture I found on google.

Next to the eland we saw another type of antelope…a bontebok.

The next sighting was very exciting, even for our guide and driver.

The guide said that there are only 4 zebras in this area (how does she know this?? Got nothing!) and they haven’t seen one if 4 months, so they were very excited. We also saw a couple of ostriches just off the road, but we moved past them too quickly to get a picture. So, the animal count was 4 in just about 15 minutes.

Our next stop was the Cape of Good Hope which is the southwestern most point of Africa. It is not, though, where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet. That happens at a different point about 200 km east of there.

After the Cape we headed into town for lunch. I took a walk on the wild side and had an ostrich burger.

Janet and Joseph tried a trio platter of zebra, ostrich and impala (another type of antelope). They said the zebra was very sweet and the impala tasted like steak. I may have a chance to try those at the bush camp.

After lunch our guide came running in to tell us that there were a few baboons across the street. Apparently, they have no fear and hang out in the trees and on the streets. We could see them in the trees, but I couldn’t see them clearly enough through the camera. But once back in the van I saw this one on the wall.

Baboons are very aggressive, and we were warned not to have any open cans of soda or bags of chips where they can see them. They will attack to get the food. But they don’t like water so you’re good with a water bottle.

After lunch we headed to the Old Cape Point Lighthouse. According to the guide it was only a 15-minute walk up the hill, or we could take the funicular. As far as I’m concerned, any hill that has a funicular is too high and/or steep for me to walk. But the line to buy tickets was very long and I figured by the time I got up there it would be time to turn around and come back. So, I walked just a short distance up the hill until I could get a relatively clear shot and then just browsed the gift shop until the rest of the group came back down. I don’t feel like I missed anything, so I was okay with it.

Our next to the last stop was the Boulders Beach Penguin Colony. The colony started in 1982 with just 2 breeding pairs. There are now around 3,000 of them in the colony. The African Penguin is endangered so tourists are no longer able to mingle among them as they did in the past. Now we are restricted to a boardwalk, but we still had good views of the guys. They are adorable!

Our final stop was St. James beach with its colorful beach huts. In the olden days, before bathing suits, the rich guys wanted to go swimming, but they swam in the nude. They used the huts to get undressed, then their servants carried them into the water. While the huts are still used as dressing rooms, there is no nude swimming allowed.

About 45 minutes later, I was dropped off at the hotel. While a long day, it was only 5pm so I had a little more time tonight than yesterday. I ran out for a quick bite before coming back to repack for my 1025 flight tomorrow for Kruger National Park. That’s where I’m hoping to see the Big 5. I can’t even imagine what this adventure will be like. It seems unreal. I’m not sure how good of an internet connection I’ll have so please don’t be concerned if you don’t hear from me for a few days. But rest assured, I’ll post pictures as soon as I can. I’m exhausted and it’s 10pm so good night for now.