Cape Town Capers

There are of course lots of other things to do here in Cape Town, from Wine tours to the local Vineyards to bus and walking tours of the town sights, and more adventurous options like sky-diving, paragliding, abseiling and rock climbing... and there are plenty of beautiful beaches too.

I chose a couple of other mundane things to do in between working on the bike and trying to recover from jet lag.

I went out to Cape Point to look at the legendary coastline that has brought so many ships to grief over the centuries. Its not the South-most point of Africa nor is it the West-most point... Its the most South-Westerly and is the point where ships make the turn to go around the African continent and for me its a good "start" point for my ride North.

The drive out from Cape Town is only about 40Km but it can be slow going ... especially on a long weekend because there is so much traffic along the very resorty coastline... Lots of beaches and holiday cottages etc.

 Little holiday cottage type resorts all along the coast from Cape town to Cape Point.

Lots and lots of kite surfing... and man do they have the wind for it :)))

 

After all the developed area there is a large National Park area at the end of the peninsula with Cape Point.

 

The light-house is on the top of a very precipitous peak where the land meets the ocean... No need for a big tower for the light to sit on. 

The cliffs of Cape Point fall precipitously into the Southern Ocean

The light-house is on the top of a very precipitous peak where the land meets the ocean... No need for a big tower for the light to sit on. 

This is an appropriate "start" point for my journey North :)

And on the way back home from my visit to Cape Point, I stopped off at a little village along the way and went to see some of the local Natives... The African Black footed Penguins that live here in burrows along the beaches here :)

 As many of you know, I used to work with penguins when I lived in Tasmania for a few years and worked for the Australian Antarctic division... Ever since, Ive had a bit of an affinity for the little fellows and I like to visit different types of penguins when I get the opportunity.

These ones are the African Black Footed Penguins and they are very closely related (and visually similar to) to the Magellanic Penguins of Patagonia in South America and the Galapagos penguins of the Galapagos islands.

 It seems these guys are happy to nest out in the open as well as in burrows... interesting.

 The viewing areas are on raised walkways and people are rightly restricted from walking in amongst the penguins... But you do get very close to them and they seem very unperturbed by human presence...though these ones must be thoroughly habituated to the we gawking tourists :)