SOUTH AFRICA TRIP (Part 3)

After  the excitement of stroking two live cheetahs, a visit to the Ostrich Farm, was much less of an exciting  sojourn.  

The day ended late and the next day was spent taking an early morning cruise on the Knysna lagoon after which we left of a  seven hour drive to Cape Town. The drive in itself was uneventful but took us through some of the most scenic routes that one can hope to witness. Arriving at Cape Town and checking into the hotel, we were almost ready to hit the sack, but the small business of dinner had to be completed.

The next day was to be another activity packed day called the Peninsula tour.  We first started off by  visiting Hout Bay. The pier has lots of shops from which tourists can buy curios and knick knacks. You have to bargain hard and we did some curio shopping here. Then we set off on a boat to Seal Island. This is a 45 minute round trip – 15 minutes ride to the island itself 15 minutes spent observing the seals and then the return journey. The island itself is made up of granite rock with no vegetation at all. The island  is lashed by the sea. The sea that day was very choppy and the high waves were tossing the boat around.  A few minutes out of the harbour, we spied a few chubby, furry, seals sitting lazily on a huge rubber pipe... apparently sun bathing (even when there was no sun shine). 

 

They looked languid and lazy, with most of them asleep, in their precarious perches. Then about 5 km into the choppy sea, we got to see a small rocky out cropping, coming closer and closer. And as we got nearer, we saw, literally, thousands of seals sitting, crawling, trying to climb up on a slippery rock face and slipping, some, in the icy cold waters, swimming aimlessly, some snoozing, others just lost in thought and a vast majority doing just nothing.

But what a sight.. hundreds of chubby, fat Cape Fur seals in a single place !! 

However, since the sea was very rough, the boat was lurching madly. So photography was difficult.  And we could not get close enough to them, for fear of hitting the rocks. So after some time, of observing and enjoying their funny antics and fun and frolic, we headed back to the harbour in Hout bay. Our guide mentioned that In December- January, when the baby seals are born, they attract the biggest predator  the Great White Shark. These great whites feed on baby seals who are learning to swim and do not yet know what danger means. Disembarking from the boat we headed back to our boat each one of us in pensive silence.

Our next stop was  Boulders beach. The route took us through the Chapman’s Peak drive a very scenic route, where we had a photo stop. And then onwards towards  Simons town and Boulders Beach. This was another fantastic sight.. viewing African Penguins who have made  Boulders beach their home

There are no predators here and this colony of African Penguins flourishes. There is a wooden walk way along which tourists walk and come quite close to some cute, inquisitive penguins who waddle up to us. These penguins are also called white footed penguins or Jackass Penguins  because of the donkey like braying sound that they make.

They grow to up to two feet tall  and have a distinct pink colouration around their eyes. And their white under body is dotted with black spots. 

What a wonderful sight, to see a full colony of them, some on the rocks -sun bathing, some emerging  from the sea, some nesting, some tending their young and a few lazy fellows taking a cat nap. I spent quite some time observing and photographing them and I got some great pictures of these social flightless birds.  In fact I was one of the last ones to leave the walk way and walk back to the bus. I had never seen such an incredible sight in my life. And I was the richer for it.

The rest of the ride to the southern most tip of Africa, the Cape of Good Hope, was in stupefied silence, each one with her or his own thoughts, wondering at mother nature’s marvels. And she has many many more marvels which she will open up to us, slowly. And perhaps grudgingly.