Day 2 in Capetown

From Dancing Lady 2:

 Wednesday’s peninsula tour featured breathtaking vistas, unexpected wildlife sightings and beautiful flowers. We drove out of town along the coast road - reminiscent of Highway 1 in California. The Atlantic Ocean was blue green with frequent foamy whitecaps. We stopped at a couple scenic overlooks where Samo pointed out seals sunning themselves and then a whale

surfacing. Unfortunately both of these were too far away for a photo. We were driving toward the Cape of Good Hope when we came upon a troop of baboons, digging for insects and pulling up plants along the roadside. There was even a very cute baby in the group. Samo pointed out the ugly butts on the adults. A bit further on after we declined our chance to visit an ostrich farm (who knew their skin was prized?) we ran into a big group of wild ostrich walking along the road. The males have black feathers and sit on the nest at night and the females are lighter colored and sit on the nest during the day. The female eats the first egg - which is not viable to produce a chick - as nutrition for the rest of the eggs. A bit further on we entered a conservation area and saw some eland - large antelope and frequent crossword answer. Nice to put a face with the clue. Then we arrived at the Cape of Good Hope. There’s a sign with the latitude and longitude for a photo op. There’s a lighthouse to climb to - we declined. Another closer eland. We left and headed for “Boulders” home of the African penguin - as with many attractions, admission required. There were dozens of penguins at the site - some were out fishing, while others waddled around and dug nests. There were some babies in a group being guarded from mongoose. The penguins mate for life with the female selecting the mate by turning away all suitors until she finds the right one.  Samo remarked it’s just like with humans. When they moult they cannot swim and are dependent on their partner. You can’t tell the males from females except by their behavior. Unlike the ostrich, the penguins are quite smart and will work together to fish. It was really fascinating and Julie ran her phone battery down to 6% taking a million photos of the penguins. We had a nice lunch in Simonstown - a harbour town and naval base. Samo told several stories about the royal family and British navy when they were in power. We saw a restaurant called Fran’s Place although we’re not sure whether Fran is male or female. We then headed for the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens where we saw gorgeous displays of Bird of Paradise, spring annuals, gold flowers named for Nelson Mandela and more. It was well laid out, very popular, especially
with a large group of uniformed school children and apparently gets even better when the summer flowers are in bloom. We headed back to the hotel, tired but with our heads filled with memories.