Cape Point

The day after Table Mountain I was having trouble descending stairs, my legs having had enough of that running down, but Sandra was having trouble getting out of bed having picked up a bug somewhere. That evening we decided physicians could heal themselves and on Tuesday we would join a tour down to the other end of the Cape peninsula. On enquiry however we balked at the fifty pounds a head cost (there is no pound sign on this keyboard!) and were changing our minds, when a voice behind us lamented the same problem... and suggested hiring a car to do the trip ourselves. So, with newly met Irenka (of the unsuspected Huddersfield Polish clan?!) and Jerome from Paris working as a trapeze artist in Mauritius, we did.

After a full hour spent trying to extract a car from the reluctant car rental company, who preferred to timestamp our hire and then have us wait in their foyer indefinitely, we set off southwards, me navigating, along the sea roads. Which were beautiful. One section was actually reserved as a scenic drive, called Chapman's Peak, although this could have been an excuse to make money from tolls as the whole lot was amazing. At the other end we found Simonstown, containing a naval base (who practiced helicopter manoeuvres over the bay while we were there) and an African penguin colony.

We followed the boardwalks down through the trees and past containers half-immersed in the ground (for nesting) to a small beach covered with small birds. They were very quiet which was a surprise. There seemed to be two groups, one dug into the sand on the open beach and one under the boards standing about. Those in the middle seemed pretty calm and looked like families (penguins mate for life) but the other group appeared pretty aggressive, they kept going for each other and ganging up. I even caught the moment of treachery when one slyly pecked his neighbour in the back.

This one looked lost



We progressed from there down towards the southern point, the actual Cape of Good Hope. Encountering some baboons on the way. These pictures are actually from later but still baboons.

I will try to finish this post later when there is time... but there was the Point itself, and zebras.