Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Cape of Good Hope

This past week we were able to spend time in Cape Town South Africa. The area is as beautiful as its reputation. However, my favorite part of the trip was the day we spent driving down the peninsula.

The highway followed along the coast through charming bays and  lovely towns.


 It was interesting to see the relics of WWII throughout the countryside.


 Section of road hugging the cliffs.




Upon entering the Cape of Good Hope National Park, we were able to see different flora than what we are use to in Namibia.



 

We also came across a new animal crossing sign to add to our collection. Never saw a tortoise though.






 



 The rock formations were fascinating.


                                            This eland is the only game life we saw.


 The light house at Cape Point. It sits up high on a rocky outcrop and was a bit of a climb up to it. It is still in use today and can be seen 39 miles out to sea. The sea here is very turbulent and rather infamously stormy. The wind was blowing so hard that it was difficult to walk and we had to hang on to the rails to keep from getting blown away. Needless to say, we don't have tons of pictures. It was hard enough just to stand still, let alone focus a camera.

Birds on the cliffs at the lighthouse.
 We then drove over to the Cape of Good Hope. Sir Francis Drake called this the "fairest cape in all the world". I am not sure how many capes there are to compare it to, but it is beautiful.

 We have now officially been to the most southwestern point of Africa!

Driving back to Cape Town, we followed the highway on the east of the peninsula that follows what is called False Bay. Here we added another animal crossing sign to our growing collection
 We were excited when we saw a colony of penguins, not on the road, but on the beach where they belong. These are African penguins aka jackass penguins for their loud braying call. They stand about 28 inches tall and have a black stripe across the chest.

Some of the younger birds still had downy feathers and were molting,




Maybe you can tell from Bruce's hair that it had been a windy yet great day!



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