Today started very early, so we were up and had hit the road by 7am. First stop was breakfast, which was much harder than it sounds. The first place didn’t have parking, the second was in the not-so-ideal township we found yesterday, the third didn’t feel right, and then we were on a toll road going round the side of a mountain. Finally we found an interesting coffee place which had ok coffee and decent food. It was co-joined with a nursery/ flower shop but at least it felt safe and wasn’t too bad. A nice little place to rest and rejuvenate.
After this, we headed further south to find the penguins. Down to a place called Boulders Beach, we parked at the beach carpark and walked the boardwalk back to the penguin place. First up was a local penguin just hanging out in the carpark. Then along the boardwalk there were penguins behind a mesh fence, and Dassie’s running all over the path. Someone mentioned that a Dassie was the closest relative to an elephant, which doesn’t seem right as it has no trunk or tail. We felt they were more like Australian Quokka’s, and so started calling them as such inadvertently. There were older penguins and baby penguins (these are more fluffy) and we even saw one penguin sitting on its egg, and babies hiding in their houses. And this was even before we reached the proper area.
We then followed the path down to over the beach, where you could watch the penguin’s in their natural habitat. There were families of penguins all huddled together and some sleeping. Penguins were going in and out of the water and some were hanging out on the beach. Two even got into a fight. The boys really enjoyed watching the penguins.
Back along the boardwalk and down to Boulders Beach, not for a swim but for a paddle in the water (it was still a bit chilly, although other children were paddling in their togs). The sand is quite stoney, but it was nice to be on the beach playing. Karl spent his time running away from the waves, Isaac spent his time splashing in the shallow water..
We then moved on to the most southwestern tip of the Africa continent, Cape of Good Hope. This is a national park, and while driving along the roads we saw ostriches and antelope. At the end of the track you have two options, Cape of Good Hope point to the west and New Cape Point lighthouse to the east. At Cape of Good Hope point, which is right near the edge of the water, you can climb the mountain to look out to sea from up high. we didn’t do this, but we did take the obligatory photo with the sign, and did see seals hanging out on the rocks just out to sea. Over at the lighthouse, we took the shuttle up and climbed the last 50 odd flight of stairs up to the lighthouse. This is near the edge of the land, so you can see the full 360 degrees, and most of it being open sea. Now we have been to the bottom of the world at NZ and SA.
A different scenic route back to Cape Town, and a nice dinner with Dan’s family finished off the day. As expected, the boys were very tired, and both fell asleep almost instantly. The grownups are not far behind them!
Chris, Dani, Karl and Issac