Cruisin the Cape

Today I decided at take an all day long Cape Tour.  There was a French guy, a Japanese lady and two Pakistani guys on our small bus.

First stop Clifton Bay...I think.

At Hout Bay, we opted to take a boat ride out to see the Cape Fur Seals on Duiker Island.

Chapman's Peak Drive.

Noordhoek or North Corner Beach

You can buy any one of these massive stone sculptures here and have it shipped anywhere in the world.

Ostrich Farm! Ostriches are the world's largest bird. are the fast runners of any birds or other two-legged animal and can sprint at over 70 km/hr, covering up to 5m in a single stride.  They have three stomachs and the largest eye of any land animal, measuring almost 5 cm across, allowing predators such as lions to be seen at long distances.

Hunter-gatherers in the Kalahari use ostrich eggshells as water containers, punching a hole in them. 

When attacking a person, ostriches deliver slashing kicks with their powerful feet, armed with long claws, with which they can disembowel or kill a person with a single blow. Yikes!

Beautiful eagle.

The Cape of Good Hope was a stopping point for trading ships sailing between Europe and European colonies in the east. Initially the Europeans bartered with the local Khoikhoi people for food and water but in 1652 the Dutch East India Company established a small provision station in the sheltered bay behind the Cape peninsula, forming the first European settlement in the region.  

The Cape of Good Hope is the legendary home of The Flying Dutchman. Crewed by tormented and damned ghostly sailors, it is doomed forever to beat its way through the adjacent waters without ever succeeding in rounding the headland.

The Beacon of Good Hope up above the Cape.

I was super excited about our stop at Boulder's Beach to see the African penguins.  

African penguins also called the jackass penguin, as the penguins’ call sounds similar to a braying donkey. African Penguins are medium sized penguins and they reach up to 27 inches in height and weigh up to 3.5 kg.

African Penguins live around 10-15  years. They start breeding when they are around 4 years of age. These penguins are monogamous, the penguin pair stays together usually for many years and often move back to their old nesting sites too.

Penguin nests.

They are very social.  This penguin is helping his friend shed his molting feathers.

Chillin' on the beach.

After Boulders Beach, our last stop would be the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens established in 1913.  We only had about 30 minutes to walk around since it was getting late. 

What makes the Gardens so famous worldwide is that (with minor exceptions) only indigenous plants are cultivated.

Guinea Fowl

I was excited for the day to be over.  I was excited to get back to the hotel.  Someone special was waiting there for me.  :) 

Shark Diving

The diving company was supposed to pick me up at 5:15am.  I was ready to go.  I was staying in a small boutique hotel, so the reception wasn't open that early.  I went downstairs (the hotel is above a restaurant) and couldn't believe all the weirdos that were out!  It was really making me nervous.  Long Street is a touristy backpacker area, but it is full of crazies and homeless people too.  I saw about 10 security guys run around the corner.  Great, who is protecting me!  I was accosted by weirdos a couple of times and ended up having to wait inside.  45 minutes late, but the finally arrived.

A bit chilly this morning!

I have to say that I envisioned being deep under the water in a big shark cage with maybe 2 people.  

I was kind of disappointed that we were just in a cage hanging off the edge of the boat.

The problem for me was that we were very buoyant despite having dive weights around our shoulders.  When we would "dive", I was trying to hold my mask against my face to keep it from filling with water, camera in the other hand, and desperately holding on to the bars with my leg wrapped practically around the poor guy next to me to keep from floating up.  In the meantime, I wondered if my leg was actually sticking out of the cage and would be bitten off.  In addition to this, visibility was barely 2 meters, so you couldn't see any sharks unless they were practically on top of you anyway.

Some people really loved the experience.  One girl got scared when a shark practically jumped on the cage.  For me, it was...meh.  I guess I am spoiled.  I am glad I did it though!

Here is the complete video.  Watch at the 4:30 mark for the shark almost jumping on the cage.

Sea birds looking for some food.

Getting ready to go in!

In the cage waiting for some sharks!

This was the only picture of a shark I got while underwater.

Fish heads, fish heads, roly poly fish heads. Fish heads, fish heads, eat them up YUM!

                                                 Just a glimpse of this shark.

                                                             Shark jump!

This shark practically jumped on top of the cage!  (1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

We were the only boat that was attracting sharks, so another boat came over to our area.  Some chick in the cage was screaming so much that she was probably scaring them all away!

That night I decided to have dinner inside.  I spied a guy out the door walk up to the table right outside.  The people sitting there had just left, and their empty plates and alcohol glasses hadn't been cleared yet.  At least I thought they were empty.  I saw some guy walk up to the table, look around and down the last bit of drinks.  Wow.  That's and alcoholic to walk up to a random table, and think to yourself..."Mmmm those mostly empty glasses look tasty, I think I'll have some of that."  Wow.

Table Mountain

My first day in Cape Town.  I found a nice hotel on the touristy Long Street aptly called Long Street Hotel. The kind manager helped me plan my few days I would have in Cape Town.

Since it was a beautiful day, I decided it was best to head up to Table Mountain National Park.  

Table Mountain is approximately 260-million years old. By comparison, the Andes are about 250-million years old, the Rockies are about 60-million, the Himalayas are 40-million and the Alps are 32-million years old. 

The highest point of Table Mountain is 1085m (3559ft), marked by Maclear’s Beacon. A large stone cairn – built by Sir Thomas Maclear in 1844 – marks the exact spot.

Panoramic view from the cable station.

There are actually two cable cars, which counterbalance each other – as one goes up, the other comes down. They cannot operate independently of each other.

Walking path up the mountain.

South Africa boasts the third-highest level of biodiversity in the world, and is the only country to contain an entire floral kingdom. The Cape Floral Kingdom is one of the country’s eight World Heritage sites.

View of the city as I ascend the mountain in the cable car.

Man, I hate heights!

The Cape has the highest known concentration of plant species – 1 300 per 10 000km squared.

Lion's Head

 Although it resembles a small rabbit, and is sometimes called a rock rabbit, the dassie (rock hyrax) is actually most closely related to the elephant. Their evolutionary relationship is based on similarities in their feet and teeth. 
Dassies’ soles are kept moist by special glands. They are able to climb smooth cliffs using their feet as suction pads.

The indigenous inhabitants of the Cape, the Khoekhoe (pronounced and popularly referred to as Khoikhoi), called Table Mountain Hoerikwaggo, meaning “sea mountain”.

Table Mountain’s cloudy “tablecloth” is the stuff of legends: one tells of the San Mantis god smothering a blaze on the slope with a huge white karos (animal pelt). Another says the cloud comes from a smoking contest between the Devil and a local pirate called Van Hunks.

At the end of my morning on Table Mountain, I took the Hop on Hop Off bus around town.  I stopped at the lovely Camp's Bay for lunch and a nice massage.

The breeze was wonderfully cool on the beach in contrast to the hot sun.

The trees grew in this bent position from the constant wind.

These trees actually bend towards the water from the wind reflecting off the buildings.

The Castle of Good Hope is a star fort that was built by the Dutch East India Company between 1666 and 1679, the Castle is the oldest existing colonial building in South Africa.

My day was finally over.  I headed in to my hotel room for a good sleep.  I had a 5am wake up call ahead of me for some shark diving!