South Africa: Deel Twee

You know the drill... Part Two...

Day 4: Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens & Scramble Up Table Mountain

Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens
After a nice breakfast at Arnolds, which was walking distance from our hostel, we took a cab over to Kirstenbosch.  These are beautiful gardens that are at the base of Table Mountain.  The day's weather started out promising, but rapidly deteriorated.  We were able to enjoy the many flora, fauna, and sculptures the gardens offered but then had to head inside for a while because of the rain.  Luckily, there was an indoor art exhibit, gift/garden shop, and a nice restaurant so we were able to pass some of the time at those venues.  At the beginning of our stroll around the gardens we could see the magnificent backdrop, Table Mountain, however, the clouds and rain moved in and it was covered up almost instantly.

Generally clear skies.

Clouds rolled in, instantly covering the mountain.

Me looking ravishing in my zip-off pants.

See the clouds rolling in...

And...rain.  Luckily, we found these lovely
rain ponchos at the gift shop for 10 Rand, about a dollar.

Will wanted to keep his, but I made him throw it out
because we ran out of room in the suitcase.

This tree was really cool -- it looked like a cactus.

Probably more photos of flowers than you wanted to see, but those are some of my favorite things to take pictures of.  Moving on.

Scramble Up Table Mountain
A 'scramble' is a combination of climbing and hiking.  It requires you to do a little rock climbing, use a few ropes, and just a bit of strength.  We hired a guide to take us up to the top of the mountain and it was our first time using ropes for climbing (other than at a gym).  Even though it was raining, foggy, and cold, we still had a great time.  I'm soooo glad we hired a guide, there would have been no way to tell where we were going without one.  If you are ever planning a trip up Table Mountain and are not doing an easy walking/hiking trail, get a guide.  The only unfortunate thing was that we didn't get the amazing views from the top because of the weather.  But don't worry, we got to see them later.

We climbed up the Woody Buttress trail; went up
one of the Twelve Apostles.

Our guide, Mark Johnstone, of Table Mountain Guides.

Will conquering a section of the climb.

At the top.  Wet and cold...victory is ours!

A warm shower and a hot meal never felt so deserving!

Day 5: Peninsula Tour & Sea Kayaking
We took a private tour around the entire Cape Peninsula, making stops off at various scenic points throughout the day.  Andrew, of Tours and Trails, was our excellent guide for the day.

The first stop was sea kayaking over to Boulders Beach to see the African Penguin colony that lives there.  It was so cool to see them and also to see the seals in the water along our route.  The day was sunny and warm, we had a bit of a headwind on the way back in to the shore, but other than that, no issues.  Will and I finally found our rhythm on the return trip, and were in the front of the 'kayak pack.'  Of course :)

Will read an article about a great white eating a guy's kayak (the guy was fine, he swam to shore) and then a guide on a later trip told us that there is a little device on our kayaking guides', Derek, kayak that sends little signals into the water to keep great whites at least 7-9 meters away.  Oh wow, I feel safe now!  I was so glad I heard that after we finished the trip!  We were definitely not within 7-9 meters of Derek's kayak and ours didn't have one of those shark-repelling devices so I'm sure there were great whites just waiting to eat me :)   We were in the Atlantic Ocean, so it was very cold water, hence the great whites.  The scenery was absolutely stunning on this trip.

That is a fake expression.

The penguins were precious, I really wanted to hold one but
we weren't allowed to.  I have about 400 pictures of them
if you want me to send you some more!

Cape Fur Seal

After sea kayaking, we went and had lunch at a seafood restaurant right on the beach then headed over to get a closer look at the penguins.  They are on a reserve, so you can't actually go onto the beach with them, but can walk on the boardwalk and look down to view them.  So cute!

They sleep on their bellies.

They lay eggs in a hole and take turns incubating.

This poor guy looks like he's having a bad hair day.
They moult once a year and go through this stage before
they get new feathers.

I seriously have an unhealthy number of photos of the little penguins, I couldn't help myself.

Next on the agenda was a beautiful drive down to Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point to see the lighthouse.  The views from Cape of Good Hope were phenomenal and was one of my favorite parts of the trip.  It's where the trade route was opened up between the east and the west by Vasco de Gama (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasco_da_Gama) and where the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean meet.  Pretty amazing to think about where I was standing on the earth at that moment.  What's interesting is that you can actually tell the difference between the two oceans just by looking at them.  If you look left, you see the Indian Ocean, which is a calm ocean and is much warmer than the Atlantic because it gets a warm current.  If you look to your right, you see the turbulent, cold, Atlantic Ocean; it gets a cold current from the arctic.

We saw wild ostriches on the drive down.

There are two in the left corner.

Standing on Cape of Good Hope.

There were tons of these little furry animals. I've forgotten
their name, but they are kind of like a bunny
mixed with a squirrel.

We took a little hike up to get a better view of the
Cape of Good Hope from above.

Cape Point Lighthouse - overlooks False Bay.

After visiting the point, we drove up the coast but first stopped at an ostrich farm where we got to feed them!  I learned that ostriches mate for life, I also learned that they are very dumb animals -- their eyeball is twice the size of their brain.  They eat anything, really, they eat rocks to help them digest.  When the males have red on their break and legs, like in this photo, they are in mating season and can be aggressive.  Bottom line: don't mess with a red ostrich.

Our drive continued along the Atlantic seaboard, winding along cliffs overlooking the ocean.  We drove the famous route along Chapman's Peak, through Hout Bay, then towards Cape Town to Camps Bay.  Andrew took us up to Signal Hill as well to get a spectacular view of Robben Island and we even saw a whale in the bay below us!

Chapman's Peak

Camps Bay and the Twelve Apostles.
We climbed up one of these on our hike - this is the
back side of Table Mountain.

View of Table Mountain from Signal Hill.

Robben Island - view from Signal Hill.

Hope you have enjoyed the trip so far.  I planned it all myself and must say I did a great job :)  Stay tuned...next up is cage diving!