The Bottom of the Continent

  Cape Town, South Africa
November 30, 2013

We had a great welcome to Taj last night - a bottle of wine, some desserts, fruit and a gorgeous floral arrangement. Very nice!
The breakfast spread at our hotel is incredible and the staff is extremely professional and sweet. They all refer to us as Mr and Mrs Humphrey which is amazing and slightly creepy! 
Gaston is our driver and guide for the day. We joined the group of 9 others for today's tour to Cape Point. As we left the city core he provided us with some history of South Africa such as the Dutch settled here in 1652 and formed a "refreshment stop" for the Spice Route. In other words, they were farmers and started the wineries here at this time Theresa at Boulders. 
1688 French Huguenots arrived in the area and developed The wineries and brought their culinary skills to this country. 1795, the English arrived for the first time, won a battle or two and settled in a small area. They arrived two more times and colonized South Africa. 
We drove past or through several places along the Atlantic Ocean: 
Muizenberg Beach which has a lot of shark attacks, but ironically is also a good spot to learn how to surf. 
Kalk Bay which means lime and was named so because the English burnt shells here and the ashes became lime which was used for construction. Now an area with antique and collectible shops. 
Fish Hoek has a shallow beach, so great for families. It is also famous for being a dry town. 
Simons Town which was named for the second governor of Cape Town. It used to be the home for the Royal British Navy. There is a ship wrecked submarine visible on the coast. 
We stopped at Boulders Park to see the African or Jackass Penguins Cape Point. Some of them were moulting. Most of them we just hanging out but, a few were fighting over the rights to a nest. They were pretty serious about it. They are very quirky and fun to observe. 
Along the way we saw a pod of hundreds of dolphins near that area. It was pretty incredible. 
7750 hectares make up the Cape of Good Hope, which is part of Table Moutian National Park. There are over 6000 species of plants here, 1100 are endemic to this area. Three antelopes in this park - Blesbok, Bontebok, and Eland, Mountain Zebras, Ostrich and reptiles. 
We saw the Bontebok near the Diaz Cross, but I did not get a photo. We opted to hike up to the lighthouse instead of taking the funicular. It was nice to be In the cool air instead of in the tiny van. It was incredibly windy and still overcast. We really enjoyed watching the cormorants flying over the water and up onto the cliff beside us. 
The lighthouse was crowded so we snapped a quick photo and then headed down for lunch Cormorant Fighting the Wind at Cape Point. The restaurant was really nice and we had a great seafood lunch. I tried the local line fish. It is a very firm and mild flavoured fish.  
On our way to Cape of Good Hope or Cape of Storms we saw two Eland fighting and another Bontebok. At the Cape we saw Dassies, two adult Ostriches and some babies! It was so cool bananas!!
On our way to our next destination Bill and I had naps. We stopped at Hout Bay and walked around the marina. We had some ice cream while being whipped with the wind and then checked out the gift shop. We had to wait a while for the four South African ladies to return! 
Next we saw the beautiful beach at Camps Bay below the Twelve Apostles mountain range. Maiden's Cove offered a nice view of it and a great spot for photos. 
One thing about today is that it is freakin windy. Like really windy, like 100 km/hr windy, like can barely stand up windy. Everything we did today was fighting the wind, but it was totally worth it. The views have been spectacular, like really hard to put into words beautiful. We can understand why people love living here and why visitors rave about this city.
We were both still full from lunch and a bit sleepy, so we ended up staying in the room for the evening. Had we known that everything would be closed on Sunday night, we probably would have ventured out. 

Pictures & VideosTheresa Fighting the Wind Cape of Good HopeBaby OsterichCompany Gardens with Table Mountain