2023-08-09: Exploring the Peninsula

It was an early start this morning. We got up at 6:00am and gout ourselves ready for the day. We grabbed breakfast in the hotel restaurant and met our guide, Zain, in the lobby at 7:30am. Zain is a Cape Town native who has been doing tour guiding for over 20 years. We loaded ourselves into his van and were on our way.

Zain took us out of Cape Town and down the West coast for a while. He made a couple of photo stops at picturesque bays along the way. Alon the way he explained what was going on with the strike. It is the minivan taxi drivers that are striking. Apparently the police have been cracking down on unlicensed minivan taxis. But the government has been dragging it’s feet and not approving the taxi licenses so the drivers can’t get the licenses. The police have been setting up checkstops specifically looking for unlicensed minivan taxis. The drivers feel targeted and upset with the government for holding back the licenses so they decided to strike. The problem is the strike isn’t peaceful. They are rioting and wreaking havoc.

We drove along Victoria Road and Chapman’s Peak Drive which follow the coastline and were very scenic. Victoria Road was named after Queen Victoria. Chapman’s Peak Drive turned inland and took us across to the East coast. Along the way we came across a troop of wild baboons along the side of the road. We watched them for a minute or two and then continued on our journey.

We drove through Simon’s Town and continued South to the Cape of Good Hope. The Cape of Good Hope is the most Southwestern point on the continent. There is an old lighthouse perched on a hill that is no longer used. The lighthouse worked great in clear weather. But in misty/foggy weather, which was often the case in the area, the light couldn’t be seen through the fog. They ended up building another lighthouse further down the cliff. They have a funicular that takes you up to the old lighthouse. We enjoyed the view from the lighthouse despite it being very windy. There is a sign post beside the lighthouse that indicates directions and distances to some of the major cities around the globe.

From the lighthouse, we took a quick drive down to the waterfront. Along the way we came across some wild ostrich and some eland antelope! We watched them briefly before stopping at a sign that gives the location of the Cape of Good Hope. We did the obligatory photo stop and admired the view for a minute before continuing on.

Our next stop was in Simon’s Town for some sea kayaking! Zain stayed with the vehicle while we got suited up and went on a two hour kayak adventure with several other families. They were two person kayaks. Amanda paired up with Patrick while Darrell paired up with Michael. Usually they take you over towards Boulder’s Beach area where there is a resident penguin colony. It gives you a view of the penguins from the water but the weather wasn’t cooperating. The wind was supposed to die down overnight but it was still present. We paddled along the sea wall that protects the harbor and found a Cape Fur Seal. We went to the end of the sea wall and paddled along the outside of it for a bit to see how comfortable everyone would be continuing. The guides informed us that the difficulty level would probably double due to the wind if we went any further. Several of the group, including Michael, weren’t comfortable going any farther so we turned back and kayaked around the harbor instead. It was unfortunate but we can’t control Mother Nature. We did see a penguin or two in the harbor briefly and kayaked around some of the yachts moored in the harbor. The harbor is also the location of one of the South African naval bases so we saw a few of the navy ships docked. There was a building that looked like a grain silo of sorts. Our guides explained that it’s actually a submarine testing facility. They have part of a submarine mocked up inside the building and they can fill the building with water. They set up submarine flooding exercises to teach officers how to survive a flooding situation. So despite not being able to do the usual route to the penguins, we still enjoyed the experience.

Once we were finished kayaking, we grabbed some lunch at the restaurant next door called Saveur. It was busy so we were lucky that Zain had made us reservations when we headed out on the kayaks. Zain didn’t stay to eat with us. He’s Muslim so he went to a local mosque for his afternoon prayer while we ate lunch. Darrell and Amanda were feeling adventurous so they ordered the ostrich burger. Patrick and Michael were less adventurous and ordered a cajun chicken burger and fish and chips respectively. The ostrich burgers were quite enjoyable. If we didn’t know what we ordered, we wouldn’t have been able to tell you that it wasn’t beef. The kids were still hungry so they ordered some sticky toffee pudding for dessert. Everyone enjoyed their meals.

After lunch, we headed a little farther South to the Boulder’s Beach area to check out the penguin colony. They have a boardwalk set up that you can walk along to view the penguins that nest in the area. At the end of the boardwalk there was a large number of the penguins hanging out. We enjoyed watching the penguins for a while before returning to the van.

We talked briefly about checking out Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden but everyone was pretty tired and Zain though it would be a better idea to check it out tomorrow instead. It had been a long day so we returned to the hotel. Zain left us at that point but he’ll be escorting us again tomorrow.

We had showers to clean off the salt water and relaxed for about an hour before heading out again to grab some dinner. We walked down to the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront as usual. We couldn’t decide what we wanted so we wandered by a bunch of restaurants checking out the menus. We finally decided on one attached to the mall and went to get seated, but they informed us they were closing early due to the strike. Booo. We walked a little more and decided to go back to Quay Four. We enjoyed their food yesterday for lunch. They had a live musician playing music which was a nice perk as well. Amanda ordered clam chowder and a chicken Caesar salad, Patrick ordered “steak on a roll” which was basically a steak sandwich, Michael ordered a burger, and Darrell ordered spatchcock chicken in peri-peri sauce. The waiter warned him that peri-peri sauce is spicy and Darrell confirmed it was fine. It took them forever to make the food. We were waited a good 30 to 45 minutes for the food to arrive. When it did arrive, Amanda’s chowder was missing. Our waiter didn’t deliver the food and he came over a minute or two later to apologize. There was no more soup for the day. It would have been nice to know that 45 minutes ago when she could have made an adjustment to her order. We weren’t impressed. The rest of the meal was enjoyed. The peri-peri sauce was definitely spicy! More spicy than Darrell had anticipated but he still enjoyed the meal.

After dinner we returned to the hotel and got ready for bed. It will be another early morning tomorrow.