some days it pays to be slow

So it was Saturday and since I have switched to working out in the mornings, it was time to sleep in.  Consequently, we got a late start to our day.  I know, quite shocking! (for those of you who don't know us well, we are late on a legendary scale...)  First order of business was to get the Boo a haircut.  Once that was accomplished it was time to eat.  We ended up at the Millstone, the cafe with the awesome treehouse we spoke of in a previous post.  It also had this very cool swing and lots of other great outdoor places to play.  Consequently, brunch went on for hours, which suited us just fine.

Since it was a gorgeous day with little to no wind, we thought a sojourn to the beach would work just fine.  By now it's late in the afternoon and the Boo didn't get a ton of sleep the night before.  He passes out in the car as we are trying to figure out which beach to go to.  Since we want him to nap a bit we decide a beach a bit further away would be a good idea giving the Boo plenty of time to sleep in transit, plus we knew our friends Bruno and Antoine were at Boulders Beach checking out the penguins.

When we were at Boulders last weekend we had lamely forgotten to bring our beach gear.  Now we may be slow but we do learn, so we figured we could do Boulders Beach round 2, only this time we were ready to swim and play.  So off we went to Boulders.

And this is why being slow pays off - not only were the crowds on their way home by the time we got there but large parts of the beach were now in shade AND as the people left and the sun dipped, the critters came out.

This curious penguin was just a meter or two from our beach towel and kept on eye on us for quite a while.  Eventually, he decided that things were safe and took a stroll across the beach.  The Boo gave chase though we did explain the difference between "watching" and "harassing" the penguin, and he backed off a bit.

As the penguins kept criss-crossing the beach singly and in pairs, we were visited by a small family of Eqyptian geese, a dassie and a large-spotted genet.

Finally, as sunset neared we thought it best to pack up and find a restaurant to enjoy the last rays of the day.  On our way out of Boulders Beach, we caught a couple of penguins making a break for it.

They hopped down to the asphalt and toddled off up the hill and away from the beach together, two for the road ;)

We headed back up the road a bit to Kalk Bay and our current favorite seaside restaurant the Brass Bell.  Where we enjoyed the sunset and I finally remembered to photograph the yummy, and beautifully presented, Cape Malay Curry (only this time Tim ordered it with chicken instead of the butternut and lentil I had previously.)

Love it when a full day at the beach can start at 4pm!

before we get to the baboons

I'm a bit short on time today, but wanted to get a few more pictures up.  Above is the view from the terrace of Boulders Beach Restaurant.  The restaurant (and there is a lodge too) is located just above the parking area for Boulders Beach, home to our penguins from yesterday's post.

Tim commented that he is fast becoming accustomed to eating lunch by the beach and I wholeheartedly agree.  This is one of our favorite things about the Cape, gorgeous places to eat and drink are always close at hand and they are often quite a good value, especially considering the high quality of the food.

I had the open-faced vegetarian sandwich.  What you can't see in the picture is the truly yummy pesto that anchored the vegetables to the bread.  Delicious!  Tim enjoyed his antipasto plate and a cold beer and the Boo...well the Boo was only interested in chips (french fries) but at least they came from a less expensive kiddie menu.

penguins, baboons, and ostriches, oh my!

Well, can't believe we really live here.  So Saturday was another mind-blowing day.  We took 269 images with the big camera just to give you an indication of all the eye candy South Africa offered up to us.  Amazing!

I'll have to make multiple postings in order to really do our day justice.  But let's start with the penguins.  There is a colony of African Penguins (aka Jackass Penguins, due to the braying sound they make) on Boulders Beach just south of Simon's Town on the eastern shore of the Cape Peninsula.  This is just a little further down the road then our previous foray in to Kalk Bay.

The colony only established itself in the 1980's once the fish stocks were able to recover somewhat from the vast overfishing that occurred up through the 1970's.  The penguins took over the beach but started making a nuisance of themselves by showing up in people's gardens.  So the South African National Parks System (or it's predecessor at the time) made Boulders Beach a national park. They put up "penguin fence" to contain the colony and allow people to view and experience the penguins without tramping over their nests or putting the penguins (or the people...) at physical risk.  There are boardwalks that wind through the thickets that border the beach and jut out over the sand to provide viewing points for the beach itself.  The penguins seem completely unfazed by all the human attention they receive and just go about their business as usual, which is fascinating to watch.

Some of our favorite penguins but first a warning:









It was quite common to see two penguins cuddled up together as they mate for life.  If they are nesting on their own they'll seek out the shelter of the dense thicket and bushes.  Otherwise they build nests in the sand and group together for security.

Their interactions could be quite hilarious.  In the photo of the the penguins in the sand nest, the one penguin that you can barely see because he's so far in the nest is actually digging the sand and flipping it up and out of the nest.  The sand was hitting the penguin on the far left of the photo full on in the face and you could just see him getting more and more irritated, until he finally moved out of the line of fire.


That security thing is key as Tim spotted this mongoose in the grass not far from the above nests.  The mongoose is pretty well camouflaged but you should be able to see his tail in the center of the photo.  For whatever reason, he didn't make a move on the penguins while we were watching.


More shots of life on the beach, penguin-style.  In the first you can see some penguins are molting. This is a 5-6 week long process that they do entirely on land, meaning they don't eat during that time.  The brown penguins are under 2 years of age and haven't had their first molt yet.  You can see the boulders that give the beach it's name and provide some shelter and security for the penguins.




We leave you with a few parting shots.  First of the Boo showing off his "penguin egg." You put the penguin egg in water and after a while it hatches a baby penguin, leave the baby penguin in the water and it continues to grow.  This process fascinated the Boo for the rest of the weekend!

The Boo got a huge kick out of the boardwalks through the thickets that brought us up close and personal to the penguins.  He loved spotting the penguins in the bushes and even found one right under the steps of the boardwalk that we would have completely missed.  He had less patience for the hanging out over the beach and watching the colony as a whole.  But the whole day made a big impression.  He kept asking to go back to the "Wild."






Watch for our next post for babboons and ostriches and 360 degree views.