about those baboons...

So to continue from the penguins...a little later that day, after our lovely lunch...we arrived in the parking area for Cape Point.

We wanted to go the lighthouse atop Cape Point, way up here:

But we have a 4.5 year old who has decided he's not much for walking.  Fortunately for us, we could take the Flying Dutchman funicular to the top.  Woo hoo!  The Boo loves anything related to a railway and the views going up were spectacular:
I was completely captivated by this lovely beach between Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope:


The view from the lighthouse to Cape Point made you feel as if you were at the end of the world.


Eventually, we went back down and headed to the Cape of Good Hope.  On the road we met up with a resident troupe of baboons, who we'll hear more from a bit later.  We also made the acquaintance of a young ostrich.




When we finally made it to the Cape of Good Hope (we were slow not because the distances were far, but because the wildlife was so fascinating...), the Boo loved practicing his rockhopper skills while telling the photographer (aka me) what to do and where to go ;)




We eventually tore ourselves from the view, chased the Boo off the rocks and reluctantly got back in the car to go home.  As we passed the now closed Buffelsfontein Visitor Centre, we met back up with our troupe of baboons.  The alpha male, who is quite intimidating and not to be trifled with (actually, no one should let their guard down around baboons and all of our photos were taken from the car), was no where in sight, but the females and younger baboons were grooming and playing on the grounds of the Centre.


We then got a complete acrobatic show courtesy of the younger members of the troupe.  They took over the deeply slanted roof of one of the out-buildings of the Visitor Centre and played what appeared to be the baboon version of King of the Hill.  As each young'un ascended the roof, the others already there would try to knock him off.  They sometimes succeeded and the newcomer would fall to the ground, bounce (literally!), shake himself off and head back up.  We watched this cycle over and over with a few variations for about 20+ minutes.









Oo-de-lally, Oo-de-lally
Golly, what a day!