Today we had booked a hire car so we could drive out to Cape Point. Much as we wanted to use the train out to Builders Beach to see the penguins, we couldn't find a method of getting to Cape Point without going on an expensive guided tour, so a hire car was the best option.
Picking up the car was easy, and after we had negotiated our way through the city traffic we were soon on the road out to the west coast of the peninsular. The views all along the coast were spectacular, and we had several stops for photos!
Further south we turned inland, but not before we had seen the smoke from the veldt fire that has been burning for the last week.
Turning back out towards the coast we drove the section called Chapman's Peak Drive. This is a toll section of road, with a very low speed limit, and some of the best roads we have driven on. Sweeping curves, views and a road cut into the cliffside.
There are many baboons on the peninsular, and we saw warning signs about them everywhere, but we saw none at all! We did see an unknown antelope as we got closer to the National Park section though.
Once in the park we drove through large sections of low shrub and fynbos until we got to the car park at Cape Point. As Teri was feeling bad we used the funicular train to get up to the base of the upper lighthouse, before walking down the ridge of land for a view of the lower lighthouse. The former was built so high it was frequently obscured by low cloud, the latter has the most powerful light beam in South Africa.
The walk along the ridge was full of more spectacular views, and was very windy in places, even though we had a very calm day by all accounts.
Back by the upper lighthouse, Mick and Teri went down by train, whilst I walked down, and then trekked over to The Cape of Good Hope. It was a lovely walk, though very windy. At the highest point I could see Mick and Teri in the car park, but they failed to spot me. Mick walked up to join me on the last section, and we enjoyed watching more dassies and black agama lizards. I also saw striped mice and more sea birds.
From Cape Point we drove north on the east side, round False Bay. As we approached the Boulder Beach area we saw a sign saying 'penguin viewing', so we parked and walked toward Fowey's beach. A small entrance fee got us to an area with a raised walkway towards the beach. Under the shrubs were several artificial nests for the penguins, and several penguin 'walkways' under us, also several penguins.
The colony started with two breeding pairs in 1982, and now numbers about 2000 penguins. Unlike the New Zealand penguins we tried to see, these are not shy and tend to ignore their human watchers.
Down on the beach we could see penguins all around, some with young, with many swimming in the surf. We stood and watched for perhaps an hour, loving every moment of it.
Finally dragging ourselves away, we realised we had left it rather late to reach Signal Hill to watch the sunset. We got stuck in traffic in Fish Hoek, so changed our plans and cut across inland to wards the motorway back into Cape Town. Our strategy worked, and we got to Signal Hill in plenty of time. Four tandem paracenders took off as we watched, then more poeple arrived, scattered over the whole hill.
Nice sunset, then we drove back into the city, returning the car 1 minute before the main office closed.
We had dinner in Carne, an upmarket meat restaurant, with Mick eating the safari special - five different fillets of game animals. Good food, but slightly pretentious, and not quite as good as the Butchery Shop in Johannesburg. Still, at least we weren't soaking wet this time.
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