Cape Peninsula Tour

The winds almost blew me down on the Cape of Good Hope.  I had to really brace myself to stand erect.  I couldn't help thinking what it must have been like for those early sailors on wooden sailing ships trying to round this rough cape.  They didn't have a nice warm van they could retreat to in order to escape the wind.  And they weren't sure what was around the corner either!

There were incredible vistas around every corner on this tour, with water of every hue.

As well as visiting the Cape of Good Hope, we drove down to the most southwesterly tip of Africa, and Jamie stood triumphant at the top of the point:






















Some interesting animals also featured on this tour.  We saw a new species of antelope - the bontebok.











And we had a very close-up view of wild ostriches:











The highlight was a view of penguins.  There was a well-marked path to a cove where there were about 2,000 penguins scattered across the beach and mostly among the low-lying shrubs along the shore.  A great little sign pointed the way and soon we were walking through a veritable sand storm down to the shore.

Penguins are fascinating to watch.  Mother penguins were sitting on their chicks keeping them warm, but the chicks were almost as big as the mothers!  They waddle clumsily (is that why a group of penguins is called a waddle?), tip over as they walk, get knocked over by waves rolling into shore, and all in all provide a delightfully comic spectacle.