A fabulous day of getting familiar with the car and the surrounding Cape Town area. We head south along the coast towards Cape point and get our first glimpse of whales in the bay. Funny, back home we have robins announcing the arrival of spring, here they have whales.

A stop at Boulder beach lets us view a colony of African penguins. We were definitely more excited about these animals than the preschool group that happened to be experiencing this with us. We also benefited from their education as their teachers quizzed them on the sounds that penguins and elephants make (sort of similar – at least this is what we learned. What happened to just knowing the call of a cow or chicken?). When looking at our pictures see if you can spot the different ages of the animals according to these fun facts we learned; 30 days or less the babies are covered in down, ~60 days old the are called Baby blues and turn a blue grey color, and by 1-2 years they have molted completely and have developed the characteristic black & white.

Heading further south and we arrive at Cape point, a point at which they claim the Indian and Atlantic Ocean meet (although who really knows as this is an imaginary line). The nature reserve provided some nice walking opportunities along the cliff, to a lighthouse, down to an almost deserted beach, and past wildlife (ostriches just feet off the trail).

As we start our hour drive back towards Cape Town, traffic is slowed and then stopped by a colony of baboons. And as tourists we further clog the road to take pictures of some giant males and a baby baboon.

September 3rd
Our Clumsy arrival into Africa

September 4th
Driving around

September 5th
Robben Island & Nelson Mandela Gateway

September 6th - 7th
Cape Town

September 8th
Stellenbosch & winery tours

September 9th - 11th
Hermanus / Whales & White Sharks

September 13 & 14th
Wilderness (town's name)

September 15th
Back in Hermanus

South Africa Country Summary