Capetown Day 2: Cape of Good Hope

What a marvelous day!  Our driver, Cecil, put in a special request to the powers that be, and the day dawned crystal clear!  We jumped in the van and headed South.

The scenery along the coast was spectacular.  Our leader talked a lot about real estate prices as we went through different areas, which were high where there was a good view and less wind.  The wind off the mountain in this area is known as “The Cape Doctor” because it blew away the “bad air” that was thought to cause malaria. The locals like the wind, but often it is very strong and curtails activities. 

The coastline was stunning - there were places with large rounded rocks in many places, steep cliffs and wide sandy beaches. We stopped for photos in several spots that were particularly lovely.

Rhinoceros Rock

As we got farther south, we crossed over to the other side of the peninsula and saw parts of False Bay, named that because it is so big that ships rounded the western entrance thinking it was the Cape of Good Hope and got stuck in the huge bay.  We also looked out over a WWII military camp, with huge battery-operated cannons.

We made a few stops on the way for animal sightings (Bontebok, Elands, and Ostriches) and other points of interest.

Elands

We arrived at the Cape of Good Hope Lighthouse.  We hiked up the 100 stairs, enjoyed lovely views and cool lizards. Later we stopped at the navigational marker at the actual cape point.

Then we went to the charming little town of Simon’s Town and had a delicious lunch (Cheryl had the local Cape Malay specialty of bobotie with chutney),followed by successful shopping.  

Simon’s Bay is near a favored nesting space for penguins called Boulders Bay. We spent an hour watching penguins in every possible stage of breeding and molting. many were very close to the boardwalks.  So cute!

Every penguin has a unique pattern of the stripe across their chest and the dots down their belly - that is evidently how they recognize each other.  Penguins also mate for life, so when one dies, the other dies soon after “ of a broken heart.”  So sweet.

On the way back to Capetown we circled the rest of the way around Table Mountain and the 12 Apostles (twelve peaks in the long coastal mountain range, so we got to see the mountains from a variety of angles (but photos were hard from the van although we did get a few of the range from a distance). 

It was a lovely and satisfying day.