African Penguins

Are they not the cutest creatures you have ever seen? Around the corner people are swimming with them at Boulders Beach. When they are basking in the sun they put their beaks in the air and make this funny noise. They are very docile and humorous to watch waddling from boulder to boulder. I will keep this post short and simple. Enjoy and please, please, send us some comments - what is happening in your neck of the woods? Love KandA

Cape Point and False Bay Route

Wednesday December.....6? We're starting to lose track of time like good tourists. The inner flip flop is emerging! We hopped in our speedy little Fiat and headed down Chapmans Peak Road towards Simonstown, Boulders Beach, Cape Point and then back up towards Muizenberg where we watched the local surfers struggle with the rough and mighty Atlantic. More on Boulders Beach in the next post (i just couldn't bear to reduce the number of penguin photos so it must be a separate post). We entered the Table Mountain National Park (over 7000 hectares of wilderness including dramatic coastlines that mark the soutwestern most point in S. Africa) after escaping a potentially disasterous Baboon encounter. A family of five wiley baboons made there way across the road and then stopped on the side preparing to attack through my open window. I dropped the camera as i scurried to roll up the window after Anthony informed me that they can be aggressive. The only offense i received was a bad visual of baboon butt. Onward to Cape Point with busloads of tourists to hike up to almost the most southern point on the continent - the Lighthouse at Cape Point. This time, I wore the wrong shoes. A pair of stylish yet functional sandals but certainly not the appropriate gear for braving the steep climb. We could have taken the funicular (look it up) but we forgot our pass in the car and were up for a little exercise. Stunning views and the usual signpost stating distances to various locations in the world. NYC folks you are roughly 12000 km from the almost most southern point in Africa. The picture of Anthony with the wave in the background in the Cape of Good Hope. A lovely day with lots of sun. Onto the mighty Afican Penguins!

Table Mountain

We had a lovely day on top of Table Mountain, which is a World Heritage Site because of its rich diversity of flora and fauna. The only fauna we actually saw were vibrantly colored lizards crawling on the craggly rocks. The views from Table Mountain are spectacular. The photos show dowtown Cape Town, Lions Head, Camps Bay Beach and the Visa sponsored cable car we hitched up the mountain (you can climb up the mountain but Anthony was wearing flip flops). It is definitely a big attraction as we were not the only tourists there. Once we defeated the Chinese tourists in securing a spot on the cable car we heard Italian, French, Russian, German, Afrikanns (local dutch dialect), Czech, Japanese, etc. Once we got off the main loop aka paved route we were able to take in the natural surroundings in peace. Breathtaking views and a nice warm sunny day! But alas, we forgot to secure a bottle of water and dehydration set in. Not having a map with us we took our chances that the trail we were on would make a loop around the entire Mountain and we were surely more than halfway. Not so! A nice hiker, also without a map but with well founded local knowledge, informed us that the trail went to the highest point and then down the other side into Rondebosch. We were up for a visit with Ouma but once again we were not prepared for such a hike so we turned around and headed for the safety of the Cable Car Restaurant for some refreshing water, guava juice and an icy cold Sprite! So we made it back down and onto more adventures the following day at Cape Point (see next post!) Lots of love to you all and hoping you are all happy and healthy. KandA

Room with a View

Thanks to Suzanne and Leon (Anthony's aunt and uncle) we have the best accomodation in Seapoint (just west of Cape Town) complete with a stunning view (see photo). We have experienced many beautiful sunsets and moonsets (5am gorgeous full moon - too sleepy to take a picture). I took Anthony out to La Perla (a local Seapoint restaurant that Suzanne recommended and was absolutely devine!) for a belated birthday dinner since I was sick on his actual birthday on November 25 (he's 36!). To continue the celebration, we sampled some local wines at The Nose (their t-shirts say "thanks for picking Us" hahaha). We had a lovely Pinotage (see photo) after sampling a flight of local whites (Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc, Fume, Chardonnay). We are planning a trip up the garden route and then back through the wine country, but a few days of drizzle have delayed us.