We departed at 10 this morning and headed out of town. We drove south, going through some beautiful wine country, mountain passes and towns. We stopped in Hout Bay for a quick stop. I walked the beach a bit and saw the seaweed up close. It is huge tubular vines that float on the ocean waves. They export it to Asia. The wind was blowing gale force so we got sand everywhere!

Off we went through see the penguins. Boulders is a small park that has been reserved for the African penguins, also known as Donkey penguins as they bray like donkeys. Because of the wind, today they were very quiet but quite cute. Some of them were molting, some napping and others waddling along the shoreline. I loved seeing them, and the beauty of the beaches, and rocks. The boulders remind me of The Baths in BVIs, mammoth.

We left there and drove through Simonstown, which reminded me of Gaeta. It is a seaside town with a naval station with the mountains right behind it, beautiful. We went into Cape Point park, where we had lunch at the Two Oceans restaurant. Here there are three Capes (which I don’t remember all of their names), including Cape Hope. It has been said that this is where the 2 oceans (Atlantic and Indian) meet, however it is only where the two Atlantic currents meet. We had a lovely lunch and then had about and hour to explore the area.

I immediately went off to explore one area, and saw an ostrich walking around. So I followed that path which takes you out to Cape Hope. I had been told we didn’t have time to do that walk, but I wanted to see some of it. I ended up meeting up with 2 ostriches. They are a funny creature, and I think they thought the same of me. There was a part of the path that was along a small bay where the wind was whipping so strongly I was blown sideways a number of times. At least I was blown onto land, not off the edge. J So I turned around and headed up, that is where I had the encounters with the ostriches, and 2 tourists from Italia. Lovely moment. I felt on a wonderful sense of energy, joy and excitement in that moment.

The vegetation is beautiful and have taken a number of photos of plants, including the pincushions that were in full bloom.

I walked up and took the funicular up to the top, where the light house is. There I ran into Sonita and Shannon. Shannon and I took the walk up and had great fun with the wind. At one point all I could do was scream into it, as I could feel the primeval energy surging through me. It was lovely to watch the seagulls and cormorants flying the gusts. We walked to the top, took pictures, watched a cloud engulf us and then headed down.

On the way down we found another path and took it for a bit. It was on the other side of the ocean/point and had no handrails. So after getting hit by a couple gusts we decided that it was enough and headed back to the leeward side.

On the drive out we saw the famous baboons, who were recently featured on American tv. We were treated by a large tribe with lots of young, old, and a mother with a baby holding on to her belly upside.

We had another lovely dinner tonight followed by a quick trip to the waterfront for a bit of shopping and lemon sorbet….sweetness is everywhere.