Today my host took me on an excursion around the cape. We saw many small towns and beautiful sites. See the following map for an idea of where we went:
http://www.thesafaricompany.co.za/images/Map-Cape-Peninsula.gif
We went all around the cape area south of cape town, but not all the way to cape point, because although it was a warm day, it was very windy. The wind is supposedly much worse at the end of the cape.
I requested seeing the penguins; there is a colony just south of Simon's Town. It was amazing - the colony was huge, and totally unafraid of the people. My host said when he was little they would go swimming there and the penguins were just part of the beach (like seagulls in the US, except they didn't try to steal your food!). Now it is a reserved area just for them. There were a bunch under the bushes making all sorts of noises. The used to be called jackass penguins (now African penguins) because they make sounds like donkeys. They also make cawing sounds, and sounds like when kids are mimicking motor boat motors. There were also some playing in the surf - I got some video of them in motion. There were other beautiful beaches as well, and a good number of people surfing.
On our drive back north at the end of the day we saw people parked along the road pointing toward false bay, so we also looked. Sure enough there were whales. I saw three in all. I can't believe I've seen whales in the wild twice this summer, and at opposite ends of the earth! My host said once he went to some well known whale look out point, and while they saw none there, they saw many while in traffic on the road to get there!
For lunch we ate at a vegetarian Tibetan place, it was quite good. I think my host was a bit skeptical, but he seemed to really enjoy the meal as well. I had something like a crape filled with feta, potato and carrot and topped with some sort of seed. I would eat there again, given the chance.
I got a good view of various aspects of the cape: wealth, poverty, government areas where blacks were forced to live during the apartheid, tourist towns, and so forth. The area reminded me of a cross between India, the Caribbean, and some city in the south of France, depending on which way I looked. We also stopped briefly at a mall which could easily have been in the U.S. Fortunately we did not stop at the McDonald's out front of it!
The plant life is quite amazing. There is a lot of vegetation I've never seen. There are some native trees with leaves that are silver on one side and dark green on the other - they are quite beautiful, especially when the wind blows them and the silver flutters and shimmers. There are a lot of small shrubs that were in flower, too - they had small spiny leaves because that is efficient when there isn't much rain. I also saw some cacti.
Tomorrow it's back to work. This weekend is supposed to be cold - in fact the cold front has already moved in. Rain is supposed to follow as well...
http://www.thesafaricompany.co.za/images/Map-Cape-Peninsula.gif
We went all around the cape area south of cape town, but not all the way to cape point, because although it was a warm day, it was very windy. The wind is supposedly much worse at the end of the cape.
I requested seeing the penguins; there is a colony just south of Simon's Town. It was amazing - the colony was huge, and totally unafraid of the people. My host said when he was little they would go swimming there and the penguins were just part of the beach (like seagulls in the US, except they didn't try to steal your food!). Now it is a reserved area just for them. There were a bunch under the bushes making all sorts of noises. The used to be called jackass penguins (now African penguins) because they make sounds like donkeys. They also make cawing sounds, and sounds like when kids are mimicking motor boat motors. There were also some playing in the surf - I got some video of them in motion. There were other beautiful beaches as well, and a good number of people surfing.
On our drive back north at the end of the day we saw people parked along the road pointing toward false bay, so we also looked. Sure enough there were whales. I saw three in all. I can't believe I've seen whales in the wild twice this summer, and at opposite ends of the earth! My host said once he went to some well known whale look out point, and while they saw none there, they saw many while in traffic on the road to get there!
For lunch we ate at a vegetarian Tibetan place, it was quite good. I think my host was a bit skeptical, but he seemed to really enjoy the meal as well. I had something like a crape filled with feta, potato and carrot and topped with some sort of seed. I would eat there again, given the chance.
I got a good view of various aspects of the cape: wealth, poverty, government areas where blacks were forced to live during the apartheid, tourist towns, and so forth. The area reminded me of a cross between India, the Caribbean, and some city in the south of France, depending on which way I looked. We also stopped briefly at a mall which could easily have been in the U.S. Fortunately we did not stop at the McDonald's out front of it!
The plant life is quite amazing. There is a lot of vegetation I've never seen. There are some native trees with leaves that are silver on one side and dark green on the other - they are quite beautiful, especially when the wind blows them and the silver flutters and shimmers. There are a lot of small shrubs that were in flower, too - they had small spiny leaves because that is efficient when there isn't much rain. I also saw some cacti.Tomorrow it's back to work. This weekend is supposed to be cold - in fact the cold front has already moved in. Rain is supposed to follow as well...
1 comment:
Pretty place. Although I guess going for a swim is out in those temps. You can upload your pics to flickr and blog on this place right through there.
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