Avoiding raindrops with penguins

We woke up this morning with the rains pouring down and the winds blowing something fierce. Uh oh - time to change our plans for the day and get some indoor activities planned. Our B&B owner agreed that this type of rain looked like it would stick around all day.

Mike & Jen really wanted to see penguins, so we decided we'd go visit them in the rain and just stay a few minutes. Penguins like rain, right? By the time we got out to the coast, however, it had happily stopped raining. Still overcast but no raindrops. We got to spend a long time visiting with the penguins, getting within feet of them at times (but no closer, as rumor has it they have a vicious bite). Jen and I happened across a few amorous penguins ("what's that slapping sound, Sarah?" "Ooohhh...."), and we also saw some cute little penguin chicks. It is amazing how damn cute these birds are when they waddle and jump up. Also amazing is how loud they are when they bray (this breed is known as Jackass Penguins, because they sound like donkeys braying). And amazing how stinky they are. Pee ew.

(Erin, you'll be happy to know we tracked down the free penguin access - no paying for penguins for us!)

With our good luck in our pocket, we continued our drive along beautiful False Bay to get over to Cape Point/Cape of Good Hope while the rains were holding off (skies still looked very ominous). We hiked up to the top of the lighthouse, where sadly the sign pointing to the South Pole was missing, but that didn't stop Mike, Jen, and the dozens of other tourists there from finding the nearest city to the their hometown on the signpost and taking the tourist picture (will post when we get better internet access). Since Chicago wasn't represented and Beth doesn't like pics of herself, we declined. We decided to head further out onto Cape Point along a very narrow path with a very steep edge down to the Atlantic Ocean. I chickened out partway through the hike out (learning later that I'd done all of the hard stuff, with a railing and wider paths just around the corner), and went back to take pictures for other tourists and stalk Mik e, Jen and Beth along the path with my telescopic camera lens. In the meantime, as I was waiting for them to come back, the clouds started breaking up a bit. Blue sky started peaking out. By the time they returned and we headed back down to the car, a bit of sunshine broke through the clouds. Good Hope = good luck!

Sadly (?), no baboon sightings for the 2nd time at Cape Point, despite all of the large warning signs to beware of aggressive baboons. On the way down to Cape of Good Hope, however, what happened into our path but 2 large ostriches. We weren't like the crazy tourists in front of us who jumped out of their car to get their pics with the ostriches, but we did stop and take several very close pictures of them. (Mike & Jen had been told by their innkeeper in Swellendam that he'd gotten rid of his ostrich because he was brutally attacked, scarring the Monkeys from wanting to get too close to these gigantic birds). As they tromped off into the fynbos, they easily and happily crunched the large bushes and brush beneath their giant feet, making us happy with our decision to leave them alone.

Cape of Good Hope was teeming with international tourists, but we did get the all-important tourist shot, just before the skies opened up again on us (this Cape Town weather is nutso). Good Hope is the south-western most point in Africa, not the most southern or even the further south in the Cape Town area (that goes to Cape Point). School teachers really need to correct this misinformation, as everyone ends up very confused by the lighthouse.

Back into the car, where we headed up the western coast towards Chapman Peaks Drive and sundowners in Hout Bay. Chapman's Peak Drive is similar to Route 1 in California - hugging cliffs, very winding/curvy, and has an access toll. Different from the California version, however, are massive metal nets that catch the many many falling rocks along this sheer cliff (that would otherwise crash into cars). Despite this netting, there are still many signs telling us to go at our risk. Um, ok.... (our engineer viewers would love the engineering of this road - it's amazing! Beth & I don't remember the cantilevered canopies from last time we were here, so we think there are some areas that got so bad with their rockslides that they added a roof over the road when the netting wasn't enough).

Driving along the coast, we noticed the the skies continued to clear, so we wondered if Table Mountain was clear yet (our innkeeper's advice was to head up as soon as we saw that it was clear, as we never knew how long it would last). We turned the corner around the Twelve Apostles and saw the top of the cable car station. Done. Off we flew for sundowners on top of Table Mountain instead of Hout Bay. The signs at the bottom of the cable car warned of low visibility, high winds, and cold temps. We're Chicagoans, how cold can it be up there?

The answer is cold. Very cold. In fact, it started to snow while we were up there. The wind was fierce. But the views were clear(ish) and magnificent, and we were so pleased to have squeezed in this trip up the Mountain when it was completely socked in by clouds earlier that morning (our B&B is on the base of Table Mountain, affording us very nice views upon waking up). We grabbed hot chocolate and coffee & amarulo (Jen's new favorite liquer) at the top restaurant and enjoyed our views and good fortune for the day. On the way down, we shared our cable car with Mexicans wearing sombreros, Brazilians wearing their bright yellow jackets, Germans in their team shirts, and several other nationalities all excited about their World Cup team. Most posts later on the cool international following we've seen here.

Off to dinner at The Africa Cafe for a family meal of pan-african cuisine (Nigerian, Malawian, Cape Malay, Tanzanian, etc), and avoiding World Cup traffic as best we could (Italy took on Paraguay in Cape Town, in the pouring rain).

A successful Cape Town day, despite the gloomy start. For a morning that had started out looking miserable and rainy, we'd managed to spend most of our day outside staying dry, enjoying the sights and seeing our Cape Town "must sees".