The Aviva mini-bus picked a group of volunteers up this morning to take us on a full day trip of the Cape. We were 7 of us in total from UK, USA and Germany.
We headed through Cape Town past the site of one of the stadiums for the 2010 world cup which South Africans are really proud to be hosting.
The weather was not brilliant as it had been bucketing down with rain in the early morning but the sun was now breaking through. At Camps Bay we could see the road twisting it's way along Chapmans Drive hogging the cliff behind Table Mountain and the sea. The 12 Apostles were obscured from view by low cloud but we made our way along the road pass several South Afrikaans preparing for their traditional Braai (BBQ). The road used to be very dangerous with rock falls but it was closed for 4 years in the late 90's to allow for a major overhaul with netting and tunnels to protect the passing traffic.
After 6km driving along Chapmans Drive we descended into Houts Bay pretty little fishing Village. Here we were to take a boat trip to see the seals on the appropriately named Seal Island. Whilst waiting I could see seals swimming in the harbour and then came across a crowd being entertained by this old guy who had a large seal in front of him and he was feeding it fish. Apparantly he had befriended this seal over the last few years and it has become tame enough to eat fish from the guy's mouth.
On next to Simons Town the home of the South African Navy and it's old radar station which is now without it's masts. A short distance outside Simons Town is Boulders bay where we saw a colony of Cape penguins. You can get right up close to them and although the beach is an official sanctuary for them you often see them wandering up the road.
After lunch in a nearby restaurant overlooking Simons Bay courtesy of Aviva we headed to the Cape Point Nature Reserve. Just before entering the Reserve we came across a colony of baboons by the roadside who were entertaining the passing traffic and eating any thing that came there way. We were warned they can be aggressive and can snatch food out of people's car so if attacked by one just give them the food!
On to Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point where we walked to the most South Westerly point of Africa. Whilst driving though the game reserve we managed to see some elk and ostrich. They tend to keep away from tourists so we were quite fortunate.
The drive took us back past old haunts of Fish Heok and Muizenberg finally ending back in Observatory.
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