Chapter 10 - Capetown 2

Tuesday, January 18th

Tabletop mountain is often shrouded in clouds like you see here.  The local refer to it as the "table cloth" and you can see why. 



The "table cloth"



The clouds usually roll in mid afternoon when the cool air coming in off the ocean collides with air eminating from the gradually warming earth.  This would happen right around the time we would get back to W to relax and hang out.  Every day at four in the afternoon they serve cookies, port, and sherry.  I had never had port or sherry before this trip and had no idea how sweet they are.  Cookies don't exactly make sense for an accompaniment either but that didn't keep me from enjoying them daily.

On to the day.   After another lovely breakfast, Mareli was there to take us to Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens.  Home to over 4000 species of indigenous plants of which some 2600 are endemic to the Cape Peninsula. 







Daisies I think?




















Unfortunately I was not able to keep track of names for the flowers like I was for the animals.  Lets not forget, I am a dude.

The gardens are also home to a collection of sculptures by an artist named Dylan Lewis.  The series is entitled "Untamed" and many of them intertwine man and animal.  We found them very intriguing. 

Milkweed

I'm pretty sure this plant is just Milkweed but I thought these big pods looked really cool with the blue sky in the background.

Cheetah Chasing Buck

Another Dylan Lewis here entitled "Cheetah Chasing Buck."  All of these sculptures are huge and (I think) were bronze. 














Orange flower















We only spent about an hour at the Gardens but I was laggin behind most of the time while Kate and Mareli were blazing the trail.  It's so much easier to photograph (somewhat) still life and I was taking pics of everything.
















Mareli and Kate



















There were awesome paths through the whole place.



















Crouched man with antlers














This was our favorite from the Untamed exhibition. 























Dude with wings on pile of crumpled paper








This last one reminded me of what I'm like on the basketball court. 



What?  You think I'm kidding?!  I have mad game...

Helmeted Guineafowl

The Gardens are home to a variety of wildlife as well. 

Ibis of some sort

Don't know what kind of fish this is...

This was fun but I'm running out of things to say = It's time to get moving.

Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens

So now we are making are way down the eastern side of the Cape Peninsula.  Our intention is to get a little time on a beach while seeing the most southwestern portion of SA.  The drive out of Capetown down to the peninsula is a little more than an hour but full of some incredible scenery. 

I hate to admit this but I have now been Brazil, Australia, and South Africa have yet to try surfing.  I will.  I just don't know where or when.  Love the above pic though because of the one guy that is up on his board.

 The buildings below we found on a few different beaches and are actually changing houses.  It looks like they let the local children pick the paint scheme for the whole complex.  So cool!

So a few entries ago I alluded to an impending encounter that would be "the most unusual" of our trip.  It would happen in Simon's town on the eastern cape.  Although it would not come as a total surprise since our friends Emily and Ryan had shared their experience with us, it would still be a fascinating...

these two were sleeping.

Meet the African penguin!  To my surprise they are one of several warm climate penguins.  South America is home to several varieties that live close to the equator.

No snow in sight but these guys/gals are everywhere.

Jackass penguins going for a dip

Because of a donkey-like braying call they have been referred to as the Jackass pengiun. HA!  Sounds like a few of my college buddies.

These two thought no one was looking.

Okay so about this time we decided we needed an hour to lay on the beach and do nothing so made a quick stop.  We had to do a little seaweed removal to clear a a spot off but soon were sunning nicely.

Welcome to Cape Point.  If you click on this link you can see a Map of Cape Peninsula and get a better idea of where we are as well as Simon's town where we saw the penguins. 

View of Cape of Good Hope from Cape Point.

We were shocked to find St. Louis Park did not make the post...

Cape Point.

Lower lighthouse at Cape Point.  The original was built at the highest point possible but was ineffective as it was often clouded over.  The lower lighthouse was added because it would lie below the fog line. 

From the point we could see the beach we'd spent time on that morning.

Kaap Die Goeie Hoop

I think this website gets a little slow at night.  Guessing there's more traffic but it's really annoying as you're trying to update and load pics.  More tomorrow.