June 20, 2004
A Drive a Cape and a Boatload of Penguins
The day began with a leisurely drive down Charles Bay, described by one travel mag we read as among the top 5 coastal drives in the world -- Amalfi (Italia), Route 1 in CA, Ring of Kerry (Ireland) and some place in Australia (the only one we've missed :-)) -- being the other four.
The views were definitely sweet:
Mom pushed us to rent bikes for the 40 KM drive but eventually relented
Next we hit the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve which contains Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope amongst other of SA Nature's wonders. The literature boasts that the cape is the "furthest Southwestern point of Africa" (not the Southernmost or Westernmost mind you) and the point at which the Atlantic meets the Indian Ocean (though that's actually at a cape a few KMs away) but thankfully the scenery bested the descriptions by a long shot:
The Cape itself is also pretty darn breathtaking, though this was nearly spoiled by the fearsome Cape baboons. We were warned at frequent intervals not to feed the baboons (who get pretty big and very aggressive). What we had not been warned -- nor had the plethora of fellow tourists -- was to avoid, at all costs, taking food anywhere near these creatures. We say 2 of these suckers steal candy from a baby (well, she was ~ five but....), harass a woman into surrenduring her ice cream and another snag and proceed to open a can of coke, sitting placidly atop an SUV.
Cape of the Apes?
Last stop on the nature train was thankfully a lot more peaceful: Boulder Beach near Simon's Town, featuring over 3,000 Jackass Penguins. Luckily for us they did not act like Tom what's-his-face from the same named T.V. series.
Penguin, suit and all
The day began with a leisurely drive down Charles Bay, described by one travel mag we read as among the top 5 coastal drives in the world -- Amalfi (Italia), Route 1 in CA, Ring of Kerry (Ireland) and some place in Australia (the only one we've missed :-)) -- being the other four.
The views were definitely sweet:
Mom pushed us to rent bikes for the 40 KM drive but eventually relented
Next we hit the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve which contains Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope amongst other of SA Nature's wonders. The literature boasts that the cape is the "furthest Southwestern point of Africa" (not the Southernmost or Westernmost mind you) and the point at which the Atlantic meets the Indian Ocean (though that's actually at a cape a few KMs away) but thankfully the scenery bested the descriptions by a long shot:
The Cape itself is also pretty darn breathtaking, though this was nearly spoiled by the fearsome Cape baboons. We were warned at frequent intervals not to feed the baboons (who get pretty big and very aggressive). What we had not been warned -- nor had the plethora of fellow tourists -- was to avoid, at all costs, taking food anywhere near these creatures. We say 2 of these suckers steal candy from a baby (well, she was ~ five but....), harass a woman into surrenduring her ice cream and another snag and proceed to open a can of coke, sitting placidly atop an SUV.
Cape of the Apes?
Last stop on the nature train was thankfully a lot more peaceful: Boulder Beach near Simon's Town, featuring over 3,000 Jackass Penguins. Luckily for us they did not act like Tom what's-his-face from the same named T.V. series.
Penguin, suit and all
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