*title replaced by incomprehensible baby babble*

*gagagoooteeheeheepenguinsgoogoogooheeheelookathelittlepenguinsgagaheehee*

01/10-2007
We got up early so that we could get to Betty's Bay relatively early. Our backpackers' didn't serve breakfast, so we took off hoping we would find a place to get something to eat. But alas, no. Fortunately I had a package of peanuts with me, so we munched on that and drank some water... not ideal, but better than nothing...



The actual penguin reserve is at a place called Stony Point Nature Reserve. It's a bit more “off the beaten track” than Boulder's Beach, the better-known locale for penguins in South Africa. I think Betty's Bay is nicer than Boulder's Beach (except that you don't get the nice sandy beach photos), as the area seems bigger and there are more bushes and “caves” and holes in the ground for the penguins to hide if the humans (and other creatures) get to be too much for them.

So we saw penguins. Lots and lots of penguins. Adult penguins. Fuzzy baby penguins. ”Teenage” penguins. And among the penguins, lots of cormorants. The cormorants were busy gathering nesting material, but a few took the time to walk among the penguins, invoking curiosity in the babies (“huh, what's this?”) and aggression in the adults, who were pecking at the rather indifferent cormorants.



And if the photos here and the links posted weren't enough, there are even more penguin photos on my flickr site... just click around and enjoy ;-)

We spent about an hour at the penguin colony. Afterwards, we headed towards Cape Town, making lots of scenery stops to take photos...


Our next major stop was Somerset West, to go to a shopping center there. Boyfriend of feitpingvin was hoping to find some clothes there. We got some lunch first though... at Dros, a chain restaurant. We ate at their Stellenbosch locale last year and enjoyed the food. This year – ugh. Bad mistake. First of all, it took forever for our food to get to us. Secondly, I threw up around a half hour after eating it :-/ Boyfriend of feitpingvin didn't get sick, so it must have been something Ms. Stomach didn't care for... grrmf...

He didn't find what he was looking for in the mall either. So we just headed towards Cape Town. First, the car was in desperate need of a good wash. We used the same car wash place as we did last year when we were going to return the car; their price had gone up to what... 60 rand for a complete wash (including vacuuming the interior) or something. We then went to our backpackers' (Inn Long Street) to dump our luggage, but this was a bit of a hassle. The girl at the desk, although rather sweet, wanted us to just sit down and relax. She didn't seem to get that 1) we were parked out on Long Street and parking costs money (a few rand hah!) and we really didn't want to stay parked out there anyway, 2) we had to get the car returned to the rental agency and we wanted to get that done right away so that we could relax properly afterwards. Sheesh :-) But we finally made it clear that this had to be done right away and everything was cool...

Heh. And when we returned the car, boyfriend of feitpingvin noted that he had driven over 2700 km :-) The guy who we handed the car over to also failed to see where we had that little accident pre-Harrismith, so boyfriend of feitpingvin pointed it out to him. It's best to be honest about it. Sure, we were insured and had to pay some administration costs, but that's better than getting caught later on. Oh, and he was also quite pleased that we got the car washed properly...

So we finally got back to Long Street, and hung out for a good part of the afternoon at Bob's Bar & Bistro. It's a really cool place; they have brews from Boston Breweries in Cape Town (a microbrewery). Yum yum, whale tail ale!

We decided to go walk around a little and then go back to the backpackers' to rest before dinner; we were planning on meeting some people I met through the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree African Board (South Africa). We eventually met at Khaya-Nyama - a restaurant specializing in meat dishes. I think the vegetarian platter that one of the women ordered was the “deadliest” of all though. It was huge! Not to say that anyone else got small portions. The food was plentiful and very tasty. At least my eland steak was tasty. And boyfriend of feitpingvin's grilled meat was presented in an “interesting” manner :-) Though we wanted the warthog ribs... but they were out. Boo hoo ;-)

Our wine: Fleur du Cap Pinotage 2005 (Stellenbosch)

color: (too dark to see properly)
nose: mint, tobacco, spices
palate: full-bodied and powerful, slightly acidic, flavor of very ripe dark berries, with a hint of cocoa
grade: :-)+

They had some cool live music going on as we were eating and chatting. The overall atmosphere was great. I highly recommend this place. And it was a very nice evening... the people who were able to show up – carolineb + husband, CTLocal, and tc_sebba were all very lovely and I wouldn't hesitate meeting them again :-)

sky and sea, though in captivity...

World of Birds at Hout Bay
World of Birds is the largest bird park in Africa and is an absolute must for bird lovers. After you pay the admission, you go into a very large circular area where you go in and out of different walk-through aviaries with lots of different species in them. The whole park has over 400 different species with a head count of over 3000 birds...

One of the first birds we met was this gorgeous golden pheasant. It's definitely one of the most beautiful birds I have ever seen – look at those colors! The picture doesn't do it any justice though. This is something you need to see for real!

What I really liked was that you could meet most of the birds up close and personal, quite literally. Sometimes, the birds would come up to you to have a closer look. Other times, you would go into the aviary and see nothing... then suddenly you notice lots of bird poop on the ground and then look up above you to see a bird glaring at you...


"Whaddya lookin' at, freak?!"

One thing that was kind of funny, was that some of the aviaries were “open air” but with wire mesh "ceilings." One of these housed cape sacred ibises, among other species. This of course caught the attention of a large flock of wild cape sacred ibises, so you would see a bunch of wild ibises standing on the wire mesh ceiling, looking into the aviary, while the ibises in the aviary looked towards... freedom?

As it was springtime, love was in the air. But sometimes, the Romeos go a little too far hehe...

World of Birds has more than just birds. It has lots of other animals, including meerkats, tortoises, big lizards, and different kinds of monkeys...

Two Oceans Aquarium
Located at the V & A Waterfront in Cape Town, this aquarium houses species from the Atlantic and Indian oceans, from fish to aquatic mammals to...yes...penguins ;-) Two Oceans Aquarium is also one of only two aquariums in the world that has a kelp forest exhibit. It's a very nice place – a good way to spend a few hours on a rainy day (or not).

In addition to seeing the wide variety of species on display, you can also watch the aquarium staff feed the fish, sharks, penguins...




"Mine, mine, all mine mowahahaha!"

Don't miss the freaky puppet shows either; they're meant for children but are rather entertaining for adults. They each have their own save-the-environment message, and have a sort of South Park feel to them, as indicated with the presence of the singing turd...

And, if you're willing to pay for it and plan well ahead of time, you can dive with some sharks or in the kelp forest. We didn't do this because it because we felt it was a bit of a hassle to have to do the advanced booking and know exactly when we were going to go etc. It would have sucked if we booked on a nice day and it rained the rest of the time, right?

Oh, and love was in the air here as well, though I'm not too sure about this one... interspecies love? Hmm...

PENGUINS!!!

(I have posted most of this previously on another blog - I've updated some stuff and added some pictures ;)

Here's a nifty article about helping African penguins with fiberglass igloos (perhaps burrow is more correct) - manmade habitats to provide suitable nesting conditions, in order to bring their population up...

According to the article, the penguin colony at Dyer Island is off-limits to anyone other than researchers. The colony at Robben Island is also off-limits from what I understand. That's OK - there are two other penguin colonies that are accessible to the public, for those interested in seeing these wonderful birds in the wild. So boyfriend of feitpingvin and I visited both of them while we were in the area...


One of the colonies is at Boulders Beach near Simonstown (or Simon's Town - it's different in different maps and guide books). The other one is at Betty's Bay. Boulders Beach, as shown in the photo, seems to be the more "popular" of the two, the one you read about in all the guidebooks and the such, the one all the tour busses go to. I thought the colony at Betty's Bay was nicer in general and more interesting. We were there late in the evening (as opposed to being at Boulder's in the middle of the day), which was a shame as I would have liked to stay there longer...

The penguins are great - totally to-die-for cute, especially the baby penguins. At both places, you walk along a boardwalk... Sometimes the penguins are on the boardwalk and start running away when you approach them; you hear their big webbed feet clomping on the boardwalk, and since they're oh-so-graceful on land, they're constantly stumbling, as if piss-ass drunk, over their feet, quickly picking themselves up and running away again... if you approach them slowly enough, they'll look at you, look down at the sand, wondering if they should stay put or hop down...

Other penguins are on the sand but near the boardwalk, staring at you... some are sleeping... some are preening... lots of action...


Some of them were moulting and looked kind of scruffy, like my little friend with the mohawk... Others liked to show off their fine fatty plumage... and others just liked to make noise... there's a reason why they're also called jackass penguins... they sound like a braying jackass... other interesting noises we heard were the squirting sounds of the penguins shitting :-P

And speaking of shit, a lot of penguins had shit all over their feathers... I think that if not careful enough, a tourist could easily get caught in the line of fire...

More cool penguin pictures on boyfriend of feitpingvin's flickr site...