The winter solstice is just around the corner here in the Southern Hemisphere. In South Africa, that has meant chillier weather and quite a few rainy, overcast days.
Sunday, however, we were blessed with sunshine and clear skies, so it was a lovely day to take a trip around the Cape Peninsula. Shannon helped arrange a little bus tour for us to travel down around the areas south of Cape Town. We started with a stop in Hout Bay, a little fishing community. In Hout Bay we found colorful boats, a man who yelled at tourists for trying to take a picture of his sea lion friend, and a little open air market where Shannon convinced me to buy the first real souvenir I've bought in this country--a funky wooden thing with safari animals carved all over it.
From Hout Bay we continued south. The road is the windy, twisty kind that curls around sea cliffs and provides beautiful, but occasionally terrifying views. When we stopped to take photos at one of the overlooks we actually witnessed a pretty nasty collision between a reckless driver and an ambitious cyclist. The cyclist was hurt--hopefully not too seriously--but it was a relief to see his fellow bikers were well prepared with first aid supplies, and an ambulance arrived fairly quickly.
A little shaken we got back in the van to continue, at a reasonable speed, down the windy road.
Cape Point, is the southwesternmost point in Africa, a little comma hanging out into the ocean. It turned out to be a beautiful spot for a stroll hike up to the lighthouse and a lunch by the water.
Cape Point also has an abundance of "rock dassies," curious little rodents with round butts, pointy teeth, and no fear of humans.
From the Cape Point we got to the main attraction of the day's journey, Simon's Town. Simon's Town is where penguins live. Did you know there are penguins in South Africa? There are, and they're adorable.
They're called African Penguins, but sometimes they're called "Jackass Penguins" because the sound they make is, literally, just the same as the sound of a donkey.
They're clearly sweet, so it's obviously not because they're jackasses.
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