Breakfast with penguins, supper with porcupines and a glass of wine with seals

At the very tip of the old African continent, sheltered by the mighty Table Mountain and the rough Atlantic ocean striking its coast, lies Cape Town. The colourful city where I believe Mr Tutu got the idea of the calling his people “the rainbow nation”. There’s everything for everyone, not only for the locals but also the tourists. So I decided it would be nice to see that wonder with my own eyes.

Staying for a month in KwaZulu Natal was already quite different from my first African experience (Kenya), however Cape Town brought me straight back to Europe. With the city structure, shops, parks, markets, lifestyle and food. 
But I was told there’s more than that, I heard rumours about wild penguins, whales, great whites and seals! Knowing that, the city life was almost boring. Climbing the Table Mountain didn’t bring much excitement – the Proteas were out of bloom, the weather was horrible and the view…well it was a view of a city. Only dassies (fluffy giant-hamster looking creatures with a rat character) improved the impression. Our squad of biologists therefore decided to move on to the Cape peninsula for some close encounters with the wildlife. And we got quite close indeed!

In Simon’s Town, we had breakfast with penguins. We bought fresh buns, some cheese and fruits and drove off to Boulder’s Bay, a place that is home to a decent colony of jackass penguins. Some of them even had babies! So we enjoyed our first meal of the day a few meters from them – the day could not have started better.

The next wildlife experience happened unintentionally. We were desperately in search for a bar to be a bit social and simply hang around people – because most of us were used to living with a very restricted group of conspecifics Just before giving up finding any signs of life, two locals sent us to Polana. That was a bar with a view. But not any kind of view – the bar was only a couple of meters away from the sea shore, where fat Cape fur seals were chilling after the whole day of fishing. Waves crushing on the rocks made a fair background to the view and accompanied with few glasses of good South African wine and soft blues music, the atmosphere was simply enchanting.

Other days included visiting Cape Point Nature Reserve where we walked to the southern-most point of Western Cape (we could almost see Antarctica!), admiring stunning sunsets on the sandy beaches, driving on panoramic routes and enjoying each other’s company while hiking around Chapman’s peak.

All that was unforgettable, but what I will definitely stay in my head forever was an evening with a local family. I was lucky enough to be invited for a dinner by one of my local friends and spend an evening with the whole family. The house was positioned on the foot of the mountain with a spectacular view of the ocean, the food was delicious, we had live music and even some extra guests joined later in the evening. Dogs announced the visitors by upset barking, but the guests never came in. They were porcupines, happy with feeding on composted leftovers outside. Apparently they come around often and are regarded as an everyday sight in Capetonian backyards.

Cape Town therefore gave me the best of its off-tourist season. Wonderful company, nice memories, good times.

(though that was not the end of my travels in the south. Some of the guys had to return to work and only few of us continued, following the east coast. A topic for the next post :))