The day was capped of with an encounter with the South African Penguin colony, at Boulders Beach in Table Mountain National Park near the southern tip of the Cape of Good Hope.  These penguins are only found in South Africa, in these warm False Bay waters, and seem to wander quite freely, indifferent to the viewers and residential houses along the shores.  The kids spent time spotting all the eggs in the nests (an early Easter egg hunt) and were amused at the penguins waddling style.  Ben has become our keen videographer, and ensured that we got ample footage of the penguins in action.  Supposedly you can also swim with the penguins, but we arrived at the end of the day, as the sun was setting and decided this would be best in warmer conditions.

On our drive back down the Cape, we encountered a pack of baboons, enjoying the lingering heat from the road - at the risk of traffic ...

... and a wild species of Kite Surfers at Scarborough Beach - keen and indigenous to these parts.  Scarborough beach appears to be the "hippy-surf" hang out - with it's beautiful white sands, rocky shoreline and wave action. 

Our drive back home, took us along Chapman Peaks Drive, an incredible pass through the mountains from Hout Bay to Noordhoek. While the eastern flank of the mountain rises fairly gradually, the western flank falls sharply for hundreds of metres into the Atlantic Ocean.  Separating the road from the 250 m drop to the ocean, are a few sporadic rocks-barriers, so this drive is not for the faint of heart.  We marvelled at the overhanging rock formations, which extended over the road and also the string of road signs marking "falling rock".  The top of Chapman's Peak consists of flat, sedimentary rocks related to those that form Table Mountain. The base of the mountain, however, consists of Cape Granite and the two formations meet at a geological unconformity that is world-famous amongst earth scientists. The pass was "hacked" out of the face of the mountain between 1915 and 1922, and was at the time regarded as a major feat of engineering (always looking for great engineering landmarks too!).

... and some Gymnastics, Beachcombing, Ice Cream and Beer

To the beach at 'Fish Hoek' for a Swim and Pickup Soccer

Hmmm .... wonder what that black flag means ... ?


Ahh, OK, so an interpretation: "We can't say for sure whether or not there's a shark in the swimming area, as we're not actually able to see well enough at the moment, but there have been sharks here recently". Yes, travelling always introduces a wealth of learning opportunities.  Having seen the sign, we read through all the flag colour symbols and repeated 3 times for memory sake - red means shark in the water the last 2 hrs; white means no spotting today; white with shark means shark currently in water, etc.  A Shark Spotter and official hut was permanantly established on the beach, and with the beach high chair, horn, hut and flag system - it sure looked like official business spotting these sharks!  Having read the sign and flag systems, it would appear to be a bit risky to enter with anything other than the clear white flag flying ... and even then, you don't want to be the reason they put the other flag back up.  We decided beach playing and beach combing would be safe enough, so we spent a few hours frolicking along the shoreline and all dipped our toes into the Indian Ocean - a first for everyone but John.

... more Kirstenbosch

An avenue of Camphor Trees,

and an inviting lillypad.

Friday Already! Beautiful Kirstenbosch Gardens

So, it's Friday already, and we're still busy researching and preparing for the rest of the trip - lots to do apparently!  In the meantime, we went to the beautiful Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens on the east side of Table Mountain.  Kirstenbosch is the largest gardens in South Africa and is used also as a teaching and research facility.  Lucky for us, we also were there for the BioDiversity Expo and the kids had a good look at some of the research and conservation which is occurring throughout Africa.  David was brave enough to allow a scorpion walk on the back of his arm - while the others shivered at the sight.  Closely investigating what "species" of spiders and insects are native to this area can cause a few sleepless nights!  The University research display booths empahsized the wealth of research diversity this country offers and got us thinking "what a great place for schooling", along with the beautiful University of Cape Town campus, it seems like an ideal post-secondary experience (hint, hint, ben, david, anna or sam!).  Kirstenbosch gardens offers an incredible variety and collection, with a history back to the first Dutch settler in the late 17th century. In 1913, John Rhodes donated the 528 hectares of land to be used as a botanic garden for the public. We had an incredible guide (Patrick) who managed to go beyond the latin names of each plant he pointed to and find something of great interest to the kids to say about it - e.g. "can be boiled and applied as an analgesic"; "those thorns are some of the most painful, as they break off below the skin and cause intense irritation" ... you get the drift - great stuff to keep the kids (and adults) interested for the duration.  We also were able to see our first traditional building construction (mud walls, thatched roof and 'dung' floor).  Our guide had to repeat the 'dung' floor a few times, since with the south african accent some words at times can be difficult.  Finally he explained that this was from the cow, and was smelly at the beginning, but when dried made an excellent floor covering.  Of course the kids were very amused with the concept of a "poop" floor.....


... and oh, yes, there was a golf cart involved, with Sam invited to sit shotgun with the guide - always a crowd pleaser.

Anna's impression of Cape Town