Location: Cape Town South Africa
On Day 4, we had quite an adventure. We were off the boat and on a tour bus by 8 am headed to the Cape of Good Hope, the most south-western point of the African Continent. Along the way, we made a few stops starting with Simonstown, which is a small fishing village filled with stunningly colorful victorian buildings now home to cafes and antique stores lined with vendors along the streets. We heard the tale of a ship’s dog long ago, which would help bring home his crew safely by train after drunken nights. His name was Just Nuisance and is now memorialized in a statue overlooking the harbor. After about an hour exploring this town, which used to be underwater, we continued to our next destination: Boulder Beach.
Boulder Beach is the home to the rockhopper and African penguins who waddled and posed as if they were thinking, “smile and wave boys, just smile and wave” as the penguins in the movie Madagascar always did. However, we had to keep our distance as they could bite off fingers, but, according to Shane, that’s a pretty cool way to lose a finger. As we kept walking through the penguin colony, we watched the mama penguins coddle and protect their babies from the hungry seagulls watching closely nearby. Then we headed to our final stop, Cape Point!
At Cape Point, we hiked, frolicked, and faced fears of heights and baboons (we are proud of you, Benazir!). We climbed higher and higher while the wind got stronger and stronger, to the point where it could nearly hold us as we leaned forward. Some of us also adventured down to the Dias Beach, where frolicking at its finest took place. Afterward, we continued up, heading towards the lighthouse on a pathway cluttered with baboons. As we reached the top, we were filled with admiration and disbelief of the natural beauty surrounding us. Feeling accomplished, we headed down for some celebratory pizza,, which hit the spot before we headed on back to our new home, the Argo.