A Peninsula Drive

We wanted to get out the door early today as we are going to explore the Cape Peninsula which juts into the Atlantic Ocean and extends south from Table Mountain, which overlooks Cape Town, and 52km of rugged, mountainous terrain later ends at Cape Point.  We will travel down the edges along  False Bay (so named by Dutch East India Company sailors over 300 years ago who would be coming back from the Spice Islands and often confused the bay with Table Bay, the entrance to Cape Town) and pass through several seaside towns, a naval base, penguin sanctuary before entering Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve.  Will let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

Looking back at Lion Heads Mountain from the coastal road heading to False Bay

 

A row of colorful Victorian era"bathing boxes" line the fabulous white sands beach in the seaside town of Muizenberg  

 

Simon's Town with it's wonderfully preserved Victorian buildings was founded in1687 as the winter anchorage for the Dutch East India Company and is the countries third oldest European settlement.  We stopped and had an incredibly delicious yellowfin tuna lunch at the Meeting Place Restaurant

 

Just outside of Simon's Town is Boulders Beach, home to over 2,000 African Penguins (also known as Jackass Penguins because of their donkey-like braying call) that started from just two breeding pairs in 1982.  The species is classified as endangered but is thriving here due to the reduction of commercial trawling in Fowl Bay.  Boulders Beach is home to some very expensive waterfront real estate and I am sure they are not very happy with the hoards of tourists and the souvenir sellers they attract that stream by their property to watch the smelly penguins who have taken over their beaches

African Penguins mate for life. Couples start making their nests in December and mating starts in  January.  Here, two pairs have started digging their nests in the sand

Spectacularly rugged Smitswinkel Bay on the way to Cape Point 
 

A mother Chacma Baboon grooms her young cub on the footpath to the Cape Point viewpoint.  Both of them totally ignored several tourists who were standing very close taking pictures

The indescribable view of Cape Point as it stretches out into the Atlantic Ocean

The wind was howling at gale force and it was very difficult to stand up without being blown around on the viewing platforms.  However the Cape Cormorants did not seem to have any problems as they performed their "spread eagle" gliding maneuver as they landed onto their rocky perches along the Cape Point Cliffs

A wild adult male Ostrich with its young chick on the Cape Point grasslands

Built in 1919, the Slangkop lighthouse is 33 meters high and is still operational.  Located in a small bay with pounding surf being whipped up by very high winds and a coral reef.
 

 

The winds finally died down and so we took a wonderful sunset beach stroll in a pretty town called Llandudno before heading to our apartment in Camps Bay