African Penguins!!

Sunday, September 25, 2022

It's really working out well that breakfast doesn't start until nine o'clock!  We don't have to set an alarm and can easily do all the obligatory morning stuff and arrive right on time.  Today I'm having the "pancakes" which turn out to be crepes - a lovely surprise - with bananas and blueberries layered between the three crepes. And they come with fresh fruit, apples, strawberries, and pineapple. Marilyn has the mushroom omelet and there are so many mushrooms that she can't eat them all!

As we eating we can see, in the far distance, people bobbing in the water with surfboards and on the beach there is a group that begins to pair off and start boxing!  There are lots of enthusiasts running on the sidewalk and we watch a parade of antique cars, including a Cadillac from the '60s, a VWW bug, a Corvette and a Jaguar XKE.  

early morning on Lion's Head

Those are the rocks I climbed for sunset photos.

Such interesting street art!

Back to the hotel for a quick stop at the facilities and we're off to Simon's Town's Boulder Beach where we're told there is a perennial colony of African penguins! We put Simon's Town in the Garmin and head off.  Turns out the Bit** in the Box, now known as BB, doesn't really know how to get there and she leads us into a private subdivision and tries to send us up a dirt road that goes up a mountain. We have a small scale map and decide to wing it for a while, until we get to a place where she might be feeling better. Marilyn offers the opinion that maybe she hasn't had her coffee.

Chapman's Peak

Amazing strength!

We are the intrepid travelers and we do make it to Simon's Town, which looks like it was built in old colonial Dutch times, and probably was! Just south of town is a little brown sign, just like the rest of the world uses, to indicate the penguin-viewing area. As always there are men pointing out parking places and "helping" people park properly. It's a hard way to try to survive, since they aren't employed to do this and count on tips.

Before you can get to the boardwalk to the viewing area, you pass through the little market where people have their goods on display on little tables or even on the ground. And there is a troupe of young girls about six or seven years old performing a traditional song and dance.  They have plastic bottles filled with something metallic that they use as a rhythm instrument and metal disks that might be the bottoms of soda cans tied around their ankles. They are adorable and know their routine perfectly.

We start down the boardwalk and only see one lone penguin.  Hmmm.  Then we turn a corner and there are dozens and dozens of them!  There are fuzzy brown babies and adolescents who are molting into their adult plumage and full-grown adults! And they are like that Dr. Seuss book because, like the Star Belly Sneetches,  "they have stars on thars"!! It would be easy to spend an entire day watching them, although there really issn't a lot of action.  Many don't seem to move at all and the rest sort of wander aimlessly, although I'm sure they know what they are doing. Only a couple venture into the water but they are fascinating to watch since they are so graceful when they are swimming. There is only a tiny bit of bickering, usually involving just one peck before someone just ambles off. 

The babies are the cutest, just sitting there or walking a tiny bit, always with their mouths open!  But I never saw a mom feeding one.

There is quite a bit of foliage and we see that they make their nests in there. As we're leaving we hear a strange sound and remember that Guy had called them the ass penguins.  They really do sound like donkeys!  We don't see the one that's "singing" because he's buried deep in the greenery; but you can't miss the vocalization!

The Three Tenors

many, many penguin tracks!

The rest of the trip is down to the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point which turn out to be in the same park, Table Mountain National Park. We've been told that Good Hope is not the place to go for the best views, so, after paying our admission fee, we by-pass that turn off and go straight to Cape Point. There is a large shop and a funicular ride up to the lighthouse and a restaurant.

interesting tree

Breakfast was a long time ago and we go looking for something to eat. The restaurant, Two Oceans, (people think this is where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet.  It's really not;  that's where we're going tomorrow (foreshadowing!). There is a "food shop", though, and we each get a salad and drink.  I'm having a tuna salad that is dressed with some sort of vinegar, maybe balsamic, and is delicious!  And I'm having a vanilla decaf latte!  Talk about decadent!

Wish gotten to finish it!

There are signs everywhere reminding people that baboons are dangerous, they are attracted to food, and that it is illegal to feed them.  We think we know all about that!  They are dangerous to safari vehicles, too!  There was a small troupe that had a ball with one of our vehicles while some of our tour group was out fishing!

While we're eating we hear a crackling sound and find that one of the employees from the food shop has a thing that looks like a cattle prod that she is using to shoo away a baboon! He leaves but only goes a short distance and waits for her to go back inside before he comes back and heads straight for the trash receptacle. He has a field day rooting around inside and coming up with bread and other things.  Another employee comes out and shoos him off, but he just goes to a different trash can where he finds a salad bowl to demolish.

Oh shit!!!  Here he comes!!!!

I can't finish my salad and decide to take it home for dinner.  It should go nicely with our cheese and crackers and wine! As we're walking out we see the baboon on top of the building and I put my salad on a short pillar so I can use both hands to take a couple of shots.  Oh look!  He's climbing down the side of the building, like a miniature King Kong.  And he's COMING THIS WAY!!  Oh my goodness!  He's spotted my salad and is running right at me! I only have time to process what's happening and back away before he has snatched my bowl and taken off with it! I am so grateful that I wasn't holding it!! A park employee chases him, but not before he's gotten most of my leftovers. I had wanted better baboon photos, but this isn't what I requested from the Universe! Talk about heart-stopping! I've been up close and personal with elephants and rhinos and lions and even a leopard and never felt threatened!  This was something else!!

This is a proteas,  a characteristic fynbos (fine bush) plant at the Cape.

Back through Simon's Town

Whew!  Back to the car and we are heading home. Our trust in BB is shaken and we decide to make our own way for a while.  We don't want to go back the way we came.  It was a beautiful drive along the coast; but there are lots of twists and turns and we aren't quite sure how the toll works. There was a check point where we had to show our receipt and there is some sort of day pass thing that makes you turn around and it's all too confusing and, also, time consuming. We want a different route and so go we far enough north to by-pass that route before turning BB back on.  She actually does a good job getting us home and we settle in for the night. By eight thirty we're played out; between the hours of driving, the stress of navigating without a decent map, and the BABOON we've had a full day!