Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Third and final day in Cape Town

Yesterday (yes, I again was too tired to do this last night before bed) was our last full day in Cape Town.  We actually spent most of the day outside of the city proper, on a tour of the Cape.  It was beautiful and we had another day of great weather.  We started on the Atlantic side of the cape, driving past idyllic little towns.  The highway along the coast is a tollway, and looks like it took great feats of engineering to keep it clinging to the side of the mountain and not covered in landslides.

This is the view from a scenic viewpoint over Hautbay.


We stopped for a coffee in a little town called Nordhoek, and then continued on down the cape.  Kim explained that the cape floral kingdome is also a UNESCO World Heritage site, and contains more species of plant per square metre than almost any anywhere else on earth.

It's quite impressive actually.  The plants also depend on periodic fires to clear the land and complete some of the seed germination cycles.  If no fires happen naturally in 10-15 years the park rangers set controlled burns.

We continued on to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope.  The picture below shows the old lighthouse, built over 200 meters above sea level.  A new lighthouse closer to the sea had to be built as this one was too often hidden in the clouds.  The view from the lighthouse and the trail was stunning.



Above, view of the Cape of Good Hope from Cape point.

We also had several wildlife encounteres along the way.  An ostrich along the road came right up to the car and tapped the window.  We assume he was looking at his own reflection, but it's also possible he just really liked Matt.  Either way we were glad the window was closed.




We also stopped at the African Penguin colony in Simon's Town, which was really cool.  Apparently years ago 2 breeding pairs of penguins landed on the penninsula, and now there is a sizeable population.  In recent years the colony has dwindled because the babies aren't surviving to reproductive age (4 years old).  They were pretty cute, although it seemed weird to see penguins on sand and with so many green plants around.



On the way back into town we stopped at Kirstenbosch, beautiful botanical gardens next to Table Mountain.  The variety of plants was quite impressive, and the view is hard to beat.


Above, a King Protea.  The South African national flower.

We had a lovely dinner at the waterfront and then called it a night.  We have had a wonderful trip but are also excited to get home.














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