Cape Town Day 2

We awoke early on second full day in Cape Town ready for a full day of touring! Today the sun rises with a little fog, but no rain like the previous morning. On today’s agenda is a Cape Peninsula tour with stops to see the penguins at Boulder Beach, Botanical Garden, and Cape of Good Hope.

After about an hour scenic drive from our hotel our first stop in Hout Bay for an optional boat ride to seal island. The harbor is full of boats and merchants selling goods. The boat ride to seal island was approximately $8 US Dollars.

The water was calm so it was a nice day to take a boat ride to see the seals! We didn’t know what to expect seal island to be exactly, well it turned out it was a rock formation in the middle of the bay with a lot of seals just lounging around! The scenery was also spectacular and the 45 minute ride was a good way to start off the tour!

After the boat ride we then headed to a spot to take a few minutes to stop and take in the scenery and take pictures. It was definitely a beautiful spot to take in the mountains. The one thing that did surprise me was all of the mountains that surrounded Cape Town.

After our quick stop, we moved on to Cape Point. Cape Point is a nature reserve in the Table Mountain National Park which is a designated World Heritage Site. Our first in Cape Point was the Cape of Good Hope. The Cape of Good Hope is the most south-western point of the African continent. Here the rocky landscape that stretches out to Table Bay. While our group was waiting in line to for pictures with the Cape of Good Hope sign my friend and I went off on our own for a big to walk along the coast on the rocks. Our tour manager was the best and took pictures of everyone who wanted to take pictures with the sign as well as a group picture. Luckily our fellow travels made sure that we got our individual pictures as well as partook in the group picture!

Our next stop in the Table Mountain National Park was the old lighthouse. We took the Flying Dutchman funicular to the top and climbed the steps to the old lighthouse. Here we got a beautiful view of Table Bay and the beach below. We had some time to enjoy around the lighthouse and just take in the views.

After our trip to the lighthouse we took a lunch stop in Simon’s Town at a restaurant that Johnathon made reservations for us. It was a cute little place on the water where we were able to get fresh seafood and ate on the deck. It was a nice little break to rejuvenate before moving onto the next stop – Boulder Beach and the penguins!!

When we got to Boulder Beach we took a short walk to the entrance where Johnathan got our tickets. There is a little boardwalk that takes you to the main ‘viewing’ area of the penguins on the beach. As you walk along the boardwalk there are some penguins on the beach, but the majority of the penguins were at the end the boardwalk and near the water. They were so cute and just basically chilling and relaxing!

Our final stop of the day was Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. This is an award winning gardens that our tour manager was very excited for us to visit. When I think of a botanical garden I generally think of extremely colorful flowers and large flower displays. Here the botanical gardens are mainly lush greens nestled in the mountains. We were advised by our tour manager to take the tree canopy walk and it was definitely a good way to experience the gardens. We did see the local protea flowers even though this is not their season, we saw birds of prey and lots of succulents and trees.