South Africa 2011 - 2

Dear Sophia,

Well today the jet lag hit me and I am tired.  We have a tour today to the end of Africa where the Indian and Atlantic Ocean meet at Cape Point.  The Atlantic Ocean is cold and the Indian Ocean is very warm like when we were in Mexico.  After having the breakfast buffet in our hotel, that you would love since it has a made to order pancake and egg station, all of the fruits you love and a yogurt bar with mix ins, we boarded a van to go from Cape Town to the Point.

The Lions Head

Our first stop was Maidens Cove in the Camps Bay Area.    This are has some of the most expensive real estate in the world.  You can see the beautiful white sand beaches that they have all through this area.

The 12 Apostles from Camps Bay-but there are 18 mountains in the chain

.

After that we went down to Houts Bay to take a boat ride to see a colony of seals.   The money in South Africa is called the Rand or ZAR and $1 US = $6 ZAR.  The boat ride cost $42 ZAR so about $7 USD.  We were out about 45 minutes and saw a colony of about 300 seals.  Coming back in we had a good view of a castle built into the side of the mountain. Also there was a craft market with Zulu dancers and drummer performing.

Next we drove to the Cape of Good Hope Nature Preserve.  This is the where we went to the southern most point of Africa. The guides refer to the terrain as moonscape because it is so rocky.  I don't think I mentioned this before but all of this area was under water 60 million years ago so the mountains are flat on top like a table.  That is where the name came from.  AlsoI did not get a good picture but you can see that the base of the mountain is pre-historic granite with sandstone on top.  Mixed in with the sandstone are red layers of manganese.  On the way to Cape Point we passed ostrich farms and several wild ostriches.  The male ostrich has black feathers because he sits on the eggs at night and this is good camouflage.  The females are gray to blend in better during the day when they are responsible for the eggs.  One ostrich egg is the size of 24 large chicken eggs.

Once we got to the park there were wild baboons everywhere.  They have no fear of humans and will take food right out of your hands.  Also they will open car doors if not locked if they smell food.  We saw one sitting on top of a car waiting for the owners to come back so he could swoop in and take the food as soon as the door opened.  I got a picture of a mother carrying her baby on her back. 

Our next stop was Boulders national park and a visit with the penguins.  The penguins were also nesting and there were lots of new babies in the colony.  It seemed odd to be looking at wild penguins when it was 80 degrees outside.

 

Our final stop was for a late lunch at a beach side restaurant in Simons Town  named Bertha's.  Then we drove back to Cape Town where we had a traditional type of South African Cusine know as Cape Malay for dinner.  It was a mix of Indian and Asian dishes like curry and samosas with a distinct South African flair to it.  We all enjoyed our meal.

Love, Mom

More pictures here