Day 2 in Cape Town

We arose early and had breakfast again just before our tour guide from Thompsons Africa met us in the lobby. Michael Raa was an exceptional tour guide and he hurried us off in the shiny new Thompson’s van for a tour of the coastal area.

Our first stop was Hout Bay, a center for commercial fishing, primarily of Yellow Fin Tuna. We loved this area when we lived here before, so it was great to come back. We took a boat ride out to a seal colony on an island and took pictures before returning. I couldn’t find Susan so I asked Michael if he had seen her. His comment was that the last he saw her she was walking into the jewelry store. Needless to say, I ran to the store to get her out before he put something expensive on the American Express card! Luckily, she had only gone in to use the restroom. Whew! However, Clay and Erin, Greg and Reese all shopped and made purchases while we waited.

Next was a trip down to Cape Point, the furthest Southwesterly point in Africa. I had been here multiple times before, but the spectacular beauty of this place is beyond compare. We also saw some Elands (largest antelope species in the world that are the size of American elk), baboons, and wild ostriches coming and going.

After that we went up the other side of the peninsula to Simonstown. We had a beautiful lunch by the sea and afterwards went down to a penguin colony there. They are just the most adorable things on earth and hilarious to watch! They call them jackass penguins because they bray like a donkey. After that we saw False Bay where you have seen all those photos of great white sharks breaching the water to grab seals in their mouths and eat them. Remind me not to ever go swimming anywhere near there!

By the time we returned we had seen all that beautiful scenery the Cape has to offer. We were exhausted and so we lazed around before heading out to dinner in Camps Bay. We had a wonderful dinner on the waterfront with lots of fun along the way. Clay was hilarious and kept the entire restaurant in stitches (think ugly American who is loud and boisterous). We didn’t leave until midnight, but the weirdest thing of all is to see a restaurant in Africa will all white people inside. We lived here during Apartheid, but the new South Africa is much more like Brazil with all kinds of colors and hues of people who get along quite well. For Greg it was a shock because he is used to living in Burkina Faso, which is much more undeveloped and he is in the minority by far. With our Native American heritage and my Grandfather growing up in Reservation schools, we detest any sort of discrimination be it racial or ethnic or religious.