Safari - Day 1
Sunday, 31 Aug 2014
Our First day on Safari started by meeting in the hotel lobby at 0730. Our instructions from the optional group meeting the night prior was to be ready to go at this time. There we 16 of us and our guide's name was Mishek.
By 0750 we were all loaded up and heading out of the parking lot. Today we were going for a tour of Cape Town and the lower peninsula. Our first stop was to be Table Mtn. The drive out to the v
Base of the cable car was un eventful but gave me an insight to our driver's ability to drive. He maneuvered that bus with ease around the numerous twists and curves en route to the cable car.
The cable car does not start running until 0830 and we had arrived just after 0800 giving us an good spot to park the bus and time to explore a bit. We were given an hour at the top to explore by Mishek.
The car held 32 people and we saw numerous people climbing underneath as we ascended to the top of Table Mountain. The view was impressive and worth the trip. While at the top we saw quite a few marmot like creatures.
On our return to the bus we immediately left for the peninsula. Mishek would give a short talk on what to see and expect, with a "well then,if there are no questions, let's rock and roll".
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| Cape Town, seen from Table Mtn. |
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| Cape Town, seen from Table Mtn. |
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| Cape Town, seen from Table Mtn. |
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| Marmot type creature at Table Mtn. |
Chapman's Peak was our first stop.
The Cape of Good Hope, our second stop, was originally named Cape of Storms but the government at the time wanted to encourage traffic and felt that name was not very inviting, so they re-named it. The drive there was along the seashore cliffs with lots of splendid vistas around each corner. We made a short photo stop at Hout Bay before continuing to the Cape.
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| Hout Bay |
The Cape of Good Hope started with a turn off the main road to a smaller and very rough road. Sitting at the back of a lightly loaded bus in these conditions made us wondering about the "Safari inComfort" we were expecting. ....The actual Cape is a park with entry fees (already covered) and a 10 minute drive to the water where we saw a large colony of cormorants always out with some large waves crashing over the rocky shoreline.
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Cape of Good Hope Comorant Colony
We were there about 20 minutes and then boarded the bus for Cape Hope, which is the actual southernmost tip of Africa. It is not where the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet.
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| Cape Hope |
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| Looking towards the Indian Ocean from Cape Hope Lighthouse |
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6 in. lizard we saw on way to top.
Following Cape Hope, we headed north and stop at Simon Town for fish and chips followed by some declicious apple crumble cake and ice cream. Our next stop was to be the Penguins. We paid 50 Rand (5 bucks) to get in and walk around on a wooden walkway to where the penguins were. It was interesting and a fun way to end the day before we drove back to our hotel.
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