Another full day, and I should be trying to synch my sleep cycle, but so much to report on that I'll at least list the highlights and post some pics.
We drove down to the actual Cape of Good Hope, again on spectacular cliff hanging roads, hundreds of healthy looking bikers going the other way. Breakfast at a restaurant hanging high over the cape, outside as always in perfect temps. Of course John and Veda soon determined that our waiter was from Zimbabwe, and we had a good chat. He's not going home to vote out Mugabe because it's expensive and he perceives it as hopelessly rigged. Apparently all the service industry and mining jobs are done by migrants - South Africans shun them, yet resent the foreigners.
The climb to the peak was not short, and John, in his mid-eighties, set the pace -a goer! The views were worth it, towering sandstone cliffs, with currents and waves from both we the Indian and Atlantic battering against the base. Far below were idyllic coves with rock, white sand and turquoise water, backed by Fynbos vegetation that grows in the cape area and now her else.
it's a nature reserve, and we saw grazing botsbok ?, the giant eland, a small rodent closely related to elephants, kestrels and other shore birds wheeling in the updrafts of the mighty cliffs.
And penguins!! Boulder Beach offered beautiful swimming (Jen died not to have the time to jump in) and close encounters with a recovered population of African penguins. They nest above the beach apparently unconcerned with humans staring at them (they find ufs amusing too...). Watching them waddle awkwardly into the beach, then turn into playful torpedoes is fascinating. they form a hunting group near to the shore - We can watch them and form up - and then they go searching, swimming out up to forty km.
A total delight was a visit by Boodie and his uber-charming 4 year old daughter Maru, who was thrilled to play with goofy Canadians, telling us what was what in her squeaky little voice with SA accent. An outgoing charmer!
Dinner was with Boodie's sister Caroline (J&V's kids) and husband Dick in the spectacular house they built in Klein Constantia wine country. Again warm hospitable fun people with their heads in the right place despite material success. We hope to hike with them tomorrow, then picnic at Stellenbosch gardens while listening to Boodie's wife play viola in the Cape Philharmonic.
Love from j and j, and once again, sorry about the randomizing of the photo order...
We drove down to the actual Cape of Good Hope, again on spectacular cliff hanging roads, hundreds of healthy looking bikers going the other way. Breakfast at a restaurant hanging high over the cape, outside as always in perfect temps. Of course John and Veda soon determined that our waiter was from Zimbabwe, and we had a good chat. He's not going home to vote out Mugabe because it's expensive and he perceives it as hopelessly rigged. Apparently all the service industry and mining jobs are done by migrants - South Africans shun them, yet resent the foreigners.
The climb to the peak was not short, and John, in his mid-eighties, set the pace -a goer! The views were worth it, towering sandstone cliffs, with currents and waves from both we the Indian and Atlantic battering against the base. Far below were idyllic coves with rock, white sand and turquoise water, backed by Fynbos vegetation that grows in the cape area and now her else.
it's a nature reserve, and we saw grazing botsbok ?, the giant eland, a small rodent closely related to elephants, kestrels and other shore birds wheeling in the updrafts of the mighty cliffs.
And penguins!! Boulder Beach offered beautiful swimming (Jen died not to have the time to jump in) and close encounters with a recovered population of African penguins. They nest above the beach apparently unconcerned with humans staring at them (they find ufs amusing too...). Watching them waddle awkwardly into the beach, then turn into playful torpedoes is fascinating. they form a hunting group near to the shore - We can watch them and form up - and then they go searching, swimming out up to forty km.
A total delight was a visit by Boodie and his uber-charming 4 year old daughter Maru, who was thrilled to play with goofy Canadians, telling us what was what in her squeaky little voice with SA accent. An outgoing charmer!
Dinner was with Boodie's sister Caroline (J&V's kids) and husband Dick in the spectacular house they built in Klein Constantia wine country. Again warm hospitable fun people with their heads in the right place despite material success. We hope to hike with them tomorrow, then picnic at Stellenbosch gardens while listening to Boodie's wife play viola in the Cape Philharmonic.
Love from j and j, and once again, sorry about the randomizing of the photo order...
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