South Africa, Day 2

The next day marked another remarkable sightseeing outing. Since Cape Town is located on a peninsula sandwiched between the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans, we decided to dedicate the day to exploring both sides of the peninsula. We started out by driving around the city to see the different neighborhoods, including some of the poorer areas and the black townships. We then proceeded down the Indian Ocean side of the peninsula through a series of quaint seaside towns and beautiful beaches. One former navy town had a cute statue of the dog, who used to accompany the sailors when they were docked.

The highlight of the morning was a lovely visit to Boulder Beach that has a resident African penguin colony. To an animal lover like myself, the whole experience (save for the strong northeaster blowing sand in my eyes and mouth) was amazing. Just watching these adorable happy creatures hobble around, hide in the sand, play in the water, and just sit and stare at us was absolutely invigorating and inevitable made me smile.




After spending about half an hour just looking at them and snapping a gazillion of pictures, we finally left Boulder Beach to travel further down the peninsula to the southwestern most point of Africa---Cape of Good Hope.

On the way down, our car was accosted by a crowd of traveling baboons---they were crossing the road, rummaging through the trash cans (sad), and playing with their youngsters. I was almost in heaven since I absolutely love monkeys!!! Actually, they are considered a hazard in Cape Town, and there are warning signs everywhere.

After snapping some pics at the Cape of Good Hope, we went to the nearby lighthouse, where we hiked a bit, got some more amazing views of the Cape Point, which is the tip of the mountaneous range that stretches across the Cape Peninsula, and had an amazing lunch at a table overlooking the Indian (or the Atlantic?) Ocean (that's right, two oceans in one day). We drove back along the Atlantic side of the peninsula and at one of the numerous beaches we even got to wet our feet in the freezing water.