Bali to South Africa – Fall 2025

The day started early with a 5:45 AM wake-up to make it onto the bus at 7 AM. We had a 95% success rate on making it onto the bus in one group, the only exception being Sam, who just missed the bridge being open, and was stuck on the other side as we watched the blue pedestrian swing bridge slowly rise up, a yacht sailed through, and the bridge slowly lowered.
With everyone now on the bus, we drove to Boulder Point to look at African penguins. African penguins are endangered and endemic to Southern Africa. They are called “Jackass Penguin” because of the similarity of the connotation of that name with their braying call, which is for attracting mates. 80-90% of the penguins stay together their entire life, and lay two eggs at a time. Penguins also moult for 3 weeks every year, in which they grow new feathers, become fluffy, and the old feathers fall out. We saw that on the beach, a lot of penguins were in the process of moulting, so they looked really fluffy or like fluffy feathers were falling out. We also saw a penguin being released by park officials from a cardboard box – it had its toes bitten off by something, so they brought it to the hospital, determined that it was still a very healthy penguin, and decided to release it. Unfortunately, we also saw another penguin struggling to walk: it was tripping and falling as it slowly made its way through the crowd, other penguins getting out of the way, and the park officials noticed and started keeping an eye on it.
After the penguins, we went to a kelp forest—the same ecosystem where they filmed the documentary My Octopus Teacher, where many of us snorkeled. The water was freezing, even with wetsuits. We dove through the forest, seeing a lot of kelp, sea urchins, echinoderms, some sea snails, fish, and even a carpet shark. Some of us took a sun break and climbed onto a rock in the middle of the kelp forest to warm up, watching waves crash and move through the forest, their energy dissipating as they made their way across the rocks.
After a 45-minute café and lunch stop, we went to our last destination – Lion’s Point hike. Despite 1300 feet of elevation, under the extreme afternoon sun, rocky and scrambly trails next to the cliff, and a lack of water, a lot of us still made it to the peak of the peak and enjoyed the 360-degree view of Cape Town, coasts, and the ocean. It was a tiring but good day—everyone appreciated all the excursions during the squeeze.