March 25, 2025

We must have pulled into our moorage very early this morning because when we got up at 6:30AM, we were already tied to the dock. We stepped out onto our balcony and could look down to see the “Cape Town Cruise Terminal” sign. The weather was clear but regrettably there were low hanging clouds over what we assumed must be the famous Table Mountain. Although it looked like it would start pouring rain any minute, the forecast on my weather app predicted no precipitation. I thought it must be like San Francisco where most days it looks like it will rain until the clouds burn away.

Our adventure for today was to go in search of South African penguins. I’ve been a huge fan of these little black and white birds my whole life and was thrilled to finally be able to see them in the wild. We boarded another giant bus that was only half full and had a marvelous tour guide, a tiny lady not much younger than me. We never learned her name, so I’ll just refer to her as TG. Off we set through the morning traffic which was absolutely dreadful, but luckily, we were going against the commute. TG said that there is very little public transportation in the city and private taxis, and Uber is prevalent. The typical commute she says is about 2 hours (!).

Soon we were speeding down the freeway as she continued to point out various points of interest. Sadly, the famous Table Mountain was not to be seen today but that was ok because we had 2 days in Cape Town and today was a mission to see penguins. After about half an hour we turned south down the Cape Peninsula where the terminus is the Cape of Good Hope, the point where the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean meet. About halfway down the peninsula, we turned to a place called Boulder’s Beach. The bus parked and we climbed down (and I do mean climb, these buses are so high!) to start our walk to the penguins in a national park. We walked through a bunch of locals selling their wares, like beautiful carvings of African animals and the like. Soon we made it to the park and the first creatures we saw were Hyrex. They are cute little furry creatures that reminded me of prairie dogs except slightly bigger and chubbier. They were scattered all over the sand dunes and would stop, stare and then go about their business. TG said one of their closest relatives was the African Elephant. Wait, What?? I googled it and she was right according to Wikipedia. Somewhere a few million years ago, their genetic paths diverted and so there you go. She said you could see the resemblance which I couldn’t, so I’ll take her word for it.

We continued zig zagging down a path through some white sand dunes and soon, there were the penguins and they certainly did not disappoint! In total we saw 100 or more in various stages of penguiness! Some were nesting, some had little gray babies, some were bickering with each other, some were just wandering around aimlessly, and dozens were in the water bobbing amongst the kelp beds. I was so thrilled I actually got a little choked up! They were everything I had hoped them to be.

The Cape Penguins average about 6 pounds and are about 2 feet tall. They mate for life, so if they lose their mate, they tend to wander around by themselves. When they molt (lose all their feathers to replace with new ones) they’re not waterproof anymore so must just stand on the beach until the new feathers come in. Apparently, they gain a bunch of weight before this, because they can’t go in the water for their usual diet of fish and squid for a full 3 weeks.

They are the most critically endangered penguin according to TG because too many illegal fishermen are catching all their food about 20 miles offshore. But the great news is that within the last week, the government has banned all the fishing that endangers them. I certainly hope so!

I was absolutely besotted with them. We literally could have pulled up a chair and watched them for hours. After a half an hour, reluctantly we headed with the group back to the bus and off we went to a very cute little coastal enclave called Kalk Bay. It was built at the base of a mountainside and was reminiscent of any number of funky little beach towns you see on the California coast. There were lots of Victorian style buildings and charm. We wandered around for a bit shopping in a few bohemian shops and then sat down for iced coffees. Since it is fall, it wasn’t crowded, but you could see it had the capacity to cater to tons of tourists.

We returned to the ship about noon, and decided to eat a quick lunch and take a short break before heading back out. We were going to try to catch the “hop on hop off” bus that circles around the city with narration by earphones in 20+ languages.

Soon we were climbing on the bus, and climbed to the 2nd level which was open air. Because Tod had the sniffles, we sat toward the front where we were sheltered from the wind. Although it was brilliant sunshine, there was a chilly breeze blowing. Off we left the Victoria and Alfred (not Albert) dock area and set out for our city tour. Wow – what a gorgeous city! It had the cold breezes and architecture of San Franciso, dramatic coastline of Big Sur, the beaches of LA and the drama of the mountains of Salt Lake City all rolled into one. This is where we saw the “haves” in that I can’t even dream what some of these houses and apartments must cost to own. We were very impressed but could only imagine how much more beautiful it would have been without the clouds. Yet we wondered how often the wind must blow there considering how a lot of trees were tilting. The residents of these upscale neighborhoods driving the Porsches and Ferraris were all white. Since there were many of these quite populous communities on the ocean, we found it interesting since the white population is 4-7% in this city of 5,000,000.

It took us 1 ½ hour to do the loop and although we did have a stop at the base of the Table Mountain tramway, it was closed due to winds. Sometimes it’s hard to remember it is the beginning of Autumn here.

Very satisfied with our couple of tours and since we had an overnight in the city, we decided to take the time to visit the Victoria and Alfred dock area before we headed back on board. It was a lovely place, peppered with the usual waterfront type restaurants and shops. It was nice to see a few natives selling some of their wares in the upscale shops. One artist I really liked was selling beautiful things that he had made from recycled flip-flops. We found a large pharmacy and picked up a few things and then headed back to the ship and dinner. If we had been 50 something rather than 70 something, we probably would have sat outside at one of the trendy restaurants, drank wine, ate a great meal and watched the world go by. We didn’t because we weren’t but still we were happy return to our room and process another incredible day.

Nesting area, note hyrex scampering by

Cape Town, South Africa

Cape Town, South Africa Day #2

Sea Day #6 Indian Ocean