Rotary Scholars Jolene, Rose, Andrea and I spent a day together to visit Boulder’s Beach and Cape Point.
Boulder’s Beach is located just past Simon’s Town, a very picturesque town and the base for the African navy. Boulder’s Beach gets its name from the large boulders along the beach front that protect it from the southeaster and is home to a colony of more than 2300 jackass penguins. The penguins get this name from the sound they make which sounds like a donkey braying.
We were very excited to see penguins at a beach! Something quite unusual and they lived up to our expectations. They were all over the place. Jumping in the water with the swimmers, waddling up onto the beach, and down the walkways with the people, it was amazing.
After having a picnic lunch on the beach and enjoying some sun and penguins we headed down to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve. Our hope was to see baboons at Cape Point, preferably from inside the car, as they tend to be very aggressive as they are always on the lookout for your food.
We went to the lookout point, which is the lighthouse and the view was spectacular! Although very beautiful, Cape Point had been fierce and deadly for many a ship and sailor.
We took lots of pictures and savored the view from every possible angle before making our way down and then drove the tip of know as the Cape of Good Hope. Again, beautiful scenery, but still no baboon sightings.
When we got back to the car to leave, we joked that we might have to pull out some food to entice some baboons, and Rose decided we needed to break out the cookies anyway, so we decided to bring the box of cookies from the trunk (boot in South Africa) and snack on them in the car, but we would have to hide them if we spotted any baboons. Baboons can get very aggressive about food, and we didn’t want a window smashing for a cookie.
So, we were heading out of the reserve talking about how beautiful the place was, how good the cookies were, but that we were disappointed we hadn’t seen baboons. We finished our cookies and not much further down the road, there they were! The baboons! Wonder if they knew we had cookies? Thank goodness we ate them all! We actually hid the box, just in case…..I think they have a keen sense of smell.
A mother with a baby on her back crossing the road, a male sitting on a rock at the side of the road….it was fantastic. So, Jolene drove drown and turned around so we could come back and get a better look and some pictures….with the windows rolled up! They were pretty well behaved, no jumping on the cars or anything. Then other cars starting coming along as well to get their pictures too, but they still stayed calm.
So, we had a wonderful day. Spending time with good friends, penguins and baboons, what more could you want on a sunny day in South Africa?
Enjoy the photos on PicasaWeb. Link on the Right Side.
La Shona
Boulder’s Beach is located just past Simon’s Town, a very picturesque town and the base for the African navy. Boulder’s Beach gets its name from the large boulders along the beach front that protect it from the southeaster and is home to a colony of more than 2300 jackass penguins. The penguins get this name from the sound they make which sounds like a donkey braying.
We were very excited to see penguins at a beach! Something quite unusual and they lived up to our expectations. They were all over the place. Jumping in the water with the swimmers, waddling up onto the beach, and down the walkways with the people, it was amazing.
After having a picnic lunch on the beach and enjoying some sun and penguins we headed down to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve. Our hope was to see baboons at Cape Point, preferably from inside the car, as they tend to be very aggressive as they are always on the lookout for your food.
We went to the lookout point, which is the lighthouse and the view was spectacular! Although very beautiful, Cape Point had been fierce and deadly for many a ship and sailor.
We took lots of pictures and savored the view from every possible angle before making our way down and then drove the tip of know as the Cape of Good Hope. Again, beautiful scenery, but still no baboon sightings.
When we got back to the car to leave, we joked that we might have to pull out some food to entice some baboons, and Rose decided we needed to break out the cookies anyway, so we decided to bring the box of cookies from the trunk (boot in South Africa) and snack on them in the car, but we would have to hide them if we spotted any baboons. Baboons can get very aggressive about food, and we didn’t want a window smashing for a cookie.
So, we were heading out of the reserve talking about how beautiful the place was, how good the cookies were, but that we were disappointed we hadn’t seen baboons. We finished our cookies and not much further down the road, there they were! The baboons! Wonder if they knew we had cookies? Thank goodness we ate them all! We actually hid the box, just in case…..I think they have a keen sense of smell.
A mother with a baby on her back crossing the road, a male sitting on a rock at the side of the road….it was fantastic. So, Jolene drove drown and turned around so we could come back and get a better look and some pictures….with the windows rolled up! They were pretty well behaved, no jumping on the cars or anything. Then other cars starting coming along as well to get their pictures too, but they still stayed calm.
So, we had a wonderful day. Spending time with good friends, penguins and baboons, what more could you want on a sunny day in South Africa?
Enjoy the photos on PicasaWeb. Link on the Right Side.
La Shona
1 comment:
Yay! You're back. I've been checking your blog every so often and was wondering if you'd given up on it (which is something I would probably do...ha ha).
Take care, and write more!
Wendy
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