S Africa Day 6: Penguin Party on the Cape

Our plan was to start the day off with a visit to Table Mountain but unfortunately, the clouds and weather were not cooperating. This is a very common problem with visiting Table Mountain so the general travel advice is to check every day and fit it in when you can. Today was not that day.

So instead we drove to Simon's Town, a small coastal town about 20 miles south of Capetown. If the weather had been clear, the drive would have been a beautiful one along the coast. For us, the drive was drizzly and long due to construction on the two-lane road.

We arrived in Simon's Town, where the weather had cleared, a little hungry so we decided to stop off at the Seaforth Restaurant for some lunch.

We had a beautiful view of the water while eating lunch and passed the time watching people enjoy themselves on the beach. I have no idea how they were able to tolerate that cold water.

From the restaurant, we walked down the road about a mile or so to Boulder's Beach. This area is a safe home for African penguins, animals that are on the verge of extinction. The colony started with just two breeding pairs in 1982 and has since grown to over 3,000 penguins.

We left Boulder's Beach and continued south on the Cape to Cape Point, stopping off at an overlook along the way.

Cape Point is the highest peak on the Cape Peninsula. To reach it, you park in a lot below and ride the Flying Dutchman Funicular railway to the top.

Flying cormorants with their funny looking webbed feet.

Mike hiked to the top to see the view from the lighthouse, which was built in 1860. It's no longer operational as it was built at too high an elevation. It was frequently not seen by ships because it was covered in clouds.

Down from Cape Point is the more well-known, Cape of Good Hope. This is the point on the Cape where ships round the peak of Africa and change direction from south to east. It's commonly thought to be the southernmost tip of Africa; however, the southernmost tip is actually Cape Agulhas, where we visited from DeKelders.

It was getting late in the day so we started back to Capetown. The GPS, which had worked perfectly up until now, decided to take us on a short cut. This short cut was a one-way dirt road that got so narrow at times the bushes were scratching our rented BMW. I cringed when I heard the scratches and felt the potholes. We could see the highway up ahead. Yet when we finally got to the end of this road, there was a locked gate separating us from the highway. We had no option but to turn around and go back down the rut of a road.

Once we made it back to Capetown, we cleaned up and took a taxi to dinner at NV-80. I had a delicious steak and Mike had some beautiful prawns.

We ended the evening with a nightcap at the One and Only Hotel next door.