Day Two

May 27

(Side note: As you'll notice, I'm a little behind on posting. I don't plan to go day by day except for these first two posts).

So Nick had an equally exciting second day planned for us. We took a drive on Chapman's Peak Road and went to Table Mountain National Park. We finally saw a couple baboons but they were just hanging out at the visitor's center (pictures below).

Chapman's Peak Drive is a coastal road that brings you along the west side of the peninsula towards the tip. It is a teeny tiny little road...at one point you are actually driving INSIDE a mountain! We went on a Sunday, which is apparently a big day for bicyclists and surfers.

Awesome mural...near Masiphumelele (I think).

This picture is of a mural near a township called Masiphumelele. Masiphumelele is a Xhosa word meaning "we will succeed." I haven't really got the space to explain what is a township. Shortly, townships are places usually just outside of an urban area where historically, under Apartheid, non-white South Africans were forced to live. It is hard to describe and I'm not sure I have the proper vocabulary or historical background to do it right. If you have ever seen "District 9," imagine the areas were the aliens were zoned to live.... small, dense settlements with one room houses that are often made entirely of scrap metal. Suffice to say that almost everyone in the US should be grateful for what they have.   

Our first stop (by my request) was to pull over on the side of the road for some pictures of the ostriches at the ostrich farm. Ostrich is very common here.... especially ostrich jerky, which is called biltong!

Nick, reliving some horrifying memories of being chased by an ostrich.
If you don't know, you should ask.

Just a pretty shot of a spider web in the sun on a barbed wire fence.

At Table Mountain National Park

I'm very excited to be here.

At the Cape Point visitors center...cruising the parking lot for a snack.

Momma and a baby

"Just gonna pop into the gift shop for a post card."

Heading to the beach at Cape Point

After a little ostrich gazing, we headed into Table Mountain National Park. We didn't have a ton of time, as we had scheduled a meeting with someone later in the afternoon but we did about a 1-2 km walk down to the beach area "where the two oceans meet" and let me tell you... it is cold! These waters are coming on northernly currents from the arctic! Anyone who wishes to go diving or surfing is hereby insane.

There is a baboon troop that regularly hangs out at the visitor's center so we did get to see some monkeys. On this day, there were only two mommas and their babies. They were sort of wandering around the parking lot and if they saw someone with a car door open, they'd head over to try and get inside for a snack.

After this little adventure, we had a few items of business to take care of and then the next day we visited at the university and headed out to Hermanus!

I'll leave you with one fun fact for the day....

Fun fact: In South Africa, traffic lights are called "robots."