Lions, penguins and whales! Oh My!!

After a week of child-care, creating databases, writing document templates and going to several very heady meetings, I was ready to clear my mind and what better way than to trek all over Cape Town? After work on Friday (wow, yesterday feels sooo long ago), the volunteer crew headed over to Lion's Head and we started our semi-arduous journey to the top. Words cannot do this mountain/hike/lifetime experience justice. There's nothing like taking on some craggy rock while discussing social justice with some of the most incredible individuals beginning their own journey in the field. The incline got increasingly difficult as you spiraled around the peak of the mountain, going from flat path to crude rock steps to an undefinable path of rough rocks sloping steeply to the summit. There were ladders and even these chains to pull yourself up flat rock shelves - definitely more of mountain climbing in some places than hiking. With every turn of the path there was another incredible vew of either table mountain or the city or camps bay or the seemingly ceaseless Atlantic. When we finally made it over the roughest patch of rocky cliff that seemed to really want to test if you were TRULY worthy of the rewards about to come, we reached it! And while pictures will never do it justice, I would have to be a poet to come close to describing the panoramic views of the most beautiful city in the world. The sun was late in the day and we all took turns taking pictures on various rocks and with as many differnet backgroundas as we could. There was even a full rainbow to add to the moment which eventually turned into a DOUBLE RAINBOW! We remained there for awhile but as the lights of the city in the shadow of our mountain and the sun edged closer to the horizon, we knew we had to try to get down the mountain before dark. We climbed down about a third of the way but then realize we might get caugh on the dark side and miss the sunset and so decided to wait it out. As we watched the sun slip away and leave an explosion of color in its wake, I realized the 6 pm sunset here would be the 12 noon sun in New York and I had an immense sense of it all (okay, that sounds cliche but that's bound to happen when watching the sunsetting on the ocean from the cliff of a mountain). We continued on immediately because it is no joke that being on this mountain in the dark is down-right dangerous and stupid. Aside from sprained ankles, muggers have been known to take advantage of the nightfall for jumping up on silly tourists who meander too long (and yes, we did see people just starting on the way up on our way down). It turned out to be an overall spectacular way to spend an afternoon and was topped off well with a braai when I arrived back at the hostel. This simply means bbq in South Africa as they love their spice-charred meat and we had quite a feast. I tried beetroot and, as expected, I don't really care for it but it's supposed to be very good for you. By the time I was properly recovered from the hike, I had to get to bed since I was getting up early this morning.
Today, I took on the eastern shore town and the cape peninsula which turned out to be totally incredible! We headed along the atlantic seaboard and cut across to Kalk Bay to see the seals on Douker Island. When you enter the town, a sign welcomes you to the "republic" of Kalk Bay as the town claimed it had seceded from the SA national government at the time of apartheid. It's now a facecious reference but points to a time when even the people favored by the apartheid government would stand up and refuse to let them get away with it. It;s a quiet little fisherman's town shielded by mountains on both sides with a large marina. Pretty soon after arriving, our boat took off for the island and after about 15-20 mins, we came upon what seemed like little more than some rocks where hundreds of seals covered nearly every inch and a few swam around. It was surprisingly neat to see and I leanred that this is where the juvenile males come to mature into a proper mating age (what a bachelor pad!). Back at the dock, there was a local doing tricks with one particularly fat seal. From here we drove along the eastern beach towns and stopped right above Muizenberg to have some muffins and juice. It offered a great view of False Bay - so named because early sailers would round the Cape of Good Hope and start to turn up toward what they thought was toward the east caost of Africa to discover they had entered a large bay. Onward to Simonstown (and through Fish Hoek, another fisherman's town where the sailors used to use as drinking hole until the town got tired of the drunken slumber parties and made it a dry town), where we visited Boulder's Beach and came face to face with African Penguins!!!!!! If you know me, you probably know that I hate birds but these little guys were so neat and cute and waddly and just plain awesome. They're formerly the Jackass Penguin because they bray like donkeys which I was actually able to hear! I took way too many pictures, but seriously, PENGUINS!!! Okay, okay, I guess I just wish I could share it with you. After not getting nearly enough of these cute creatures, we rode toward the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve where we would be cycling through. It was such a great way to experience the reserve and 6K turned out to be too short! There were a couple wild ostriches along the way but really it was just the scenery of rolling hills between the two different oceans on either side that really got me. We had a picnic lunch at the visitor's center where they also had loads on info on the flora and fauna of the cape (own of the most biodiverse spots on the globe). We hiked to the lighthouse of Cape Point where you can look straight out down the line of water where the Atlantic and Indian oceans collide (at some times of the year you can actually see a line created by the dramatic change in temperatures). After lots of pictures, we walked along the lowest tip of the cape toward the Cape of Good Hope (which you can see from Cape Point but takes about 45 minutes to walk). About halfway down, Roger (our fabulously knowledgeable and fun guide) challenged the group to try to beat the nine-minute record to the bottom of the cliff to the beach and back. After a few minutes, I of course took the challenge and was joined by a Dutch girl I had befriended and we soon found ourselves running down 244 steps to the beach. We ran toward the water and ended up getting knee-high, boots and all. We took a quick picture and raced back up. After just the sand hill toward the stairs I thought I'd have a heart attack but we made it all the way up and beat the 9 minutes by a whole minute! We caught our breaths and continued to the most south-westerly point of Africa. On our way we saw some whales in the distance and the guide said it seemed like they were mating because there was an awful lot of action (we'd seen some spouting earlier but only for a second and then they'd dive down but this was going on for quite some time). Again at the Cape of Good Hope(so called because the king of portugal took Dias's trip around it as a good sign that they would be able to work out a sea route to asia), the views take your breathe away and I could have sat on that rock looking ouit over the atlantic forever (well, maybe the wind would eventually get to me but the sun was taking care of that for the time being). We drove back along the western shores, spotted some babbons and wonderbok and saw the cloud over table mountain turn a bright hot pink around sunset.

Not a bad day!! Forget the big five - the penguins had me at hello!!!