Today is a rolling tour of the National Park south of Cape Town. Cloudy conditions remain. Table Mountain that dominates Cape Town is still elusive; we head south in the coach. Our first stop on a narrow road carved into the cliffs is Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve. This is where the cold Atlantic Ocean meets the warm Indian Ocean. The wind was so fierce that it was difficult to stand up. A funicular takes us to the promontory where the first and abandoned lighthouse stands. It was replaced with a lower lighthouse when it was realized it was so high on the cliff that either the fog was obscuring it, or it was missed by passing ships; too many ships were lost to allow its continued use.
We also visited the most south-western part of Africa, seeing baboons, and ostriches on the road. Interesting back story on ostriches. First, an ostrich’s brain is smaller than their billiard ball size eyes. They see well and think poorly. In all the shops and road side stands, ostrich eggs are the rage; and cheap. We wonder why until we were told why. When a captive female ostrich lays her eggs, it is five at a time. The keeper removes them all immediately. When she goes back to the nest to incubate them, she realizes they are gone and assumes she didn’t lay them and lays five more. He removes them again, and she lays five more. She is allowed to do this 13 times, or 65 eggs. She is then removed from the nest and “rebooted” with calcium and rest; then the process starts all over again. Hence, cheap ostrich eggs.
Baboons are very unpredictable. They are very aggressive and unafraid of people. We were advised to stay away from them. Jeremy, our guide, told the story of a thwarted kidnapping of his infant daughter 38 years ago from his parked car. He caught the male baboon trying to sneak the infant out of her car seat but by throwing food a distance from the baboon, he released his daughter and went after the sure thing!
After lunch, we continued on the peninsula to the African Penguin rookery. 2000 penguins live here. The colony started with two wild breeding pairs in 1982. It is unique because most penguins live on islands with quick and close access to fish for food. Here the penguins have to travel 25 miles out to sea where it is deep enough for the anchovy schools, with many hungry sharks and sea lions between bedroom and dining room. Further, this is a human residential community. Since it is winter and cold, no one was sunbathing on the beach, but videos showed penguins resting and nesting right next to people sprawled out on towels during the summer months.
One interesting adaption of the African Penguin. They only drink salt water. The membrane between the nasal passage and the mouth is an osmotic filter forcing the salt out of the water into the penguins nose. If he can’t sneeze the salt out fast enough, his back up is to excrete the salt through the pink pads above his eyes!
As we we leave the Penguins, it started to pour rain. Our final stop was at the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. World famous. The fore-link will show you what we couldn’t see on a wintery-rainy day. We know what the coffee shop and gift shop look like.
The weather continues to plague us. Tomorrow's boat tour to Robben Island to see the penitentiary where Nelson Mandela was held, was cancelled. The seas are treacherous. We will still take our ticketed gondola ride up to the top of Table Mountain, though we haven’t seen the top of it yet. We may just have a close look at the cloud cover.
I think Alex should consider replacing his five chickens with one ostrich!
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