Saturday, July 2, 2011
We spent the day at Cape Point and Boulder Beach (where the penguins are)! Our guide was awesome! He is a botanist from South Africa and is very knowledgeable about the Fynbos (similar to chaparral in Southern Cali) and made learning about plants fun! We saw wild ostriches, and a few ungulates as well as penguins!!! We first went to Cape Point where we learned about the importance of natural fires in the Fynbos in the Cape Peninsula and the plains of South Africa. We climbed to the top of the lighthouse hill and could see the southern tip of the continent! It was very cool and beautiful up there!
We then moved on to Boulder Beach, where a colony of African (Jackass) Penguins have made their home. They are SO cute, I think I took over 200 pictures! It's the breeding season, so there are males fetching sticks and presenting them to the females and nest building. Additionally, this species of penguin breed for life, so each pair is like a Penguin-couple! And they are very loving towards each other! We ended the day having dinner in Camps Bay at a local restaurant. I wasn't feeling so well by then, so didn't enjoy the meal as much as everyone else, but it was still fun to have a group dinner with the whole group. I will only post a few penguin pics, but just in case you can't tell, they are just awesome!
A Bontebok, a medium sized ungulate at the Cape of Good Hope!
Wild ostriches! Two males (dark ones on the outsides) and two females!
If Rio de Janeiro is where the sign is pointing, then America has to be where I am pointing... I think.
Pretty landscape at Cape Point (western shore)!
Cape Point, so cool!
Adam and I on our way up the hill to the Cape of Good Hope!
Our sweet bus... the speedometer doesn't work and there is no defrost. It's Africa.
This Rock Kestrel was just sitting by the bus looking at us, it was beautiful!
Love.
The tip of Africa!
Love.
This is a bar that sits on the water and as the tide comes in the waves get bigger and splash on the windows, very cool!
Penguins at Boulder Beach!
Breeding pairs and juveniles (the gray, fuzzy ones) at the beach.
Cute!
Fetching a stick for his mate to build her a nice nest for baby making!
Not sure if this was a mama and baby or a breeding pair, but cute nonetheless!
Shaking the water from his wings.
Boulder Beach, so pretty!
Boulder Beach again.
So excited for the penguins!
They're the cutest! Can you tell I was excited/happy to be there?!
I got to be so close to this one I could have touched it! Didn't, though, because I respect nature.
Young love.
♥
This one obviously has a high maintenance chick for a mate. He was trying to lift this huge piece of drift wood!
Lone penguin.
Me at the colony!
Adam excited about the penguins!
Me at Boulder Beach, too pretty to not get a pic!
So pretty!
Boulder Beach again, I couldn't get over how clear the water was.
Cutie!
Oh, hello!
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