Eric’s Blog

Last Day in Cape Town

Been a busy week so I haven’t been able to have much internet time.  Just now getting a chance to update on last Sunday’s adventures in Cape Town.  I woke up early and headed south without much of a plan aside from wanting to get to the Cape of Good Hope.  My first stop was at Boulder Beach where hundreds of African penguins have decided to set up shop.  And there were literally thousands of penguins lounging on boulders, hobbling off to another side of the beach, or protecting their nest of eggs in a burrowed out hole in the sand.  Their population has been quickly diminishing and they will likely be added to the endangered species list within the next several years.  

The second through the ~20th pit stops included random pull-offs on the side of the road on my way to the
Cape.  I drove all the way through the southernmost point at Cape Point, the ‘most southwestern point in
South Africa’.  This bit of trivia seemed a bit stretchingly impressive like claiming to have the ‘largest bookstore in
North America between the 36^th and 39^th degrees longitude.’  It unfortunately could not claim the southernmost point.  Nor could it claim the westernmost point.  So, what the heck, southwesternmost sounds impressive, right?  Though it is popularly considered the dividing line between the Indian and
Atlantic Ocean, the actual geographic division is somewhere further east.  Nevertheless, the scenery was far more impressive than its tag-line.  I can’t imagine sailing centuries ago in the days when traveling to South Africa took months rather than 24 hours and spotting the
Cape of Good Hope.  Quite a beautiful site.  As I was scaling up the peak at Cape Point, I spotted several wild ostriches grazing in the bush, methodically alternating ‘watch duty’ ever 3 seconds.  One ostrich would raise its head on the lookout for a few seconds, and then another would take his 3 second watch and then another.  I snuck as close as I could get to them to nab a photo without scaring them off – and the notion of rattlers and various other poison-wielding creatures hiding in the grasses got the best of so I ventured back to the trail.  After scaling Cape Point, I drove over to the
Cape of Good Hope.  The best view of the Cape is certainly from Cape Point since standing on top of the Cape, you can’t fully see the cliffs and waves crashing at its base. 

  As time was running thin with a flight to catch back in Cape Town, my ascent of the Cape of Good Hope took all of 10 minutes running at full pace.  This is probably a good thing since I had somehow managed to overlook wearing sunscreen and got an excellent start on my annual ridiculous farmer’s tan, which really isn’t a tan at all and is more like a smoldering sunburn.  On my drive back to
Cape Town, I saw what looked to be a dog trotting in the bush off to the right side of the road.  Then I saw there were two creatures, one in front of the other.  Bonobo monkeys! 

I snapped a shot on the run as I had since become comfortable with driving on the left side of the road and operating cameras in the midst of cliffs.  I could hear Andrew telepathically passenger-seat nagging about safety, as he is prone to doing, from ~8000 miles away.

I will miss you, Cape Town. Hope you have fun at the World Cup and hope you don’t erode away by the trampling feet of millions of tourists this coming June.