It was a good day for travelling....a little overcast, and probably about 20C. The drive down was really interesting, wild Calla Lilies grow in the fields, as well as wild geraniums. Wild! The fields are filled with purple (the geraniums are purple-ish) and white lilies and another yellow Dr. Seuss-looking bush. I don’t have photos since bus window pix are usually all cock-eyed and blurry.
We also saw a type of antelope, a sable, which our guide almost fell all over himself when he saw it and couldn’t stop raving. They are very rare and protected. We saw three of them. He said that in South Africa, the game hunts aren’t really “wild” since the sable and the lions are kept separate on the hunting preserves, and the lions are actually fed to keep them from trying to kill the sable. Or something like that.
He also talked a lot about apartheid, but I won’t get into that. He was also interested in Trump and Trudeau, but we won’t get into that either.
He did tell us this, which I didn’t know. He said that everyone wants to go to the Cape of Good Hope to see the two different colours of water from the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean as they meet. Not true. It’s all Atlantic. The two colours are from markedly differing water temperature, there are two currents that meet at the point.
He also warned us repeatedly about the baboons. He pronounced it “buh-BOONS” like David Spade used to say “Buh-bye” on the old SNL skits. The baboons are everywhere there and they are protected so when they’re on the road, which is always, you have to wait until they decide to move. I get it, but I hate baboons. Evil creatures. We were told to make sure that there was no food on us at all, not even a sealed bag of chips in a backpack. They are so used to humans and human food that they will attack you for your items. He said if the buh-boons were there at lunch time we would have to eat our lunch in the bus since they’d assuredly run up and steal your lunch. Fucking buh-boons. They particularly like pizza. And if the buh-boons didn’t steal your food, the starlings would. They were big, beautiful birds, black with a vivid orange wing. I saw them stealing food right out of peoples pizza boxes, you need to have a bite; then put it back and close the lid or they will steal from your hand as well. Fucking starlings.
“Ok Mable, listen up; you send the baby out to look cute and distract them, and I will steal the pizza”
“You look left and I’ll look right, signal when you see an open car window...I smell pizza somewhere...”
We also saw some wild ostriches, big goofy looking creatures. I knew ostrich meat is very healthy, the healthiest meat out there as a matter of fact, but I didn’t know that their eggs are unhealthy. I mean, eating their eggs now and then isn’t bad, but too often will do you in, the cholesterol levels are sky high. One ostrich egg is equivalent to 24 chicken eggs, and will take 6 hours to hard boil and one needs a hammer to crack it open. Also, they are stupid. They generally lay 20 or so eggs at a time and they “count” them. When a farmer takes one away, they “count” again, and realize one is gone and lay another. The supply is never-ending.
Cape Point has a small hike to a light house built in 1859 to let ships know that they were entering one of the most dangerous passages in the world. There are over 650 shipwrecks there, heaven for scuba divers.
This is about halfway up.
We climbed up, checked out the lighthouse, climbed back down and had a quick lunch at the little cafe there, then hiked a bit more strenuous hike to Cape of Good Hope.
We saw this aloe plant, a bit different than ours, but still good for cuts and blisters...all sorts of little pieces were broken off, used by weary and footsore travellers I suppose.
We saw unusual flowers and vegetation. Cape of Good Hope is the richest of the world’s six floral kingdoms, having 1100 species of indigenous plants. Who knew? Not me, I didn’t even know that “floral kingdoms” were a thing.
It was an easy hike, but precarious because you are “thisclose” to the edge (600 ft drop) with slithery shale, slippery weird coloured rocks that seemed better off belonging to Mars and puff adders and cobras to beware of.
You can see how close the edge is. No railings or barriers. You don’t see this in North America.
So we climbed from the lighthouse waaay down, then waaay up to here, then climbed waaaay down to the Cape of Good Hope on the other side. I had jelly-legs.
oOh, I also saw a baby crocodile. (Kidding, it’s an African lizard)
And this is the lighthouse from halfway to the Cape of Good Hope.
And this post is getting to the “Fear point.” where I fear I may lose it all, so I will post it now and write about Boulders Beach shortly.
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