The last full day in South Africa was spent with a peninsula tour down to Cape Point, Cape of Good Hope and Boulders Beach - one trip I had looked forward to a lot, particularly to see the penguins at Boulders Beach.
It was certainly the perfect way to finish this vacation: the weather was awesome, sunny, bright, not too warm, the things we got to see and do were just stunning.
Our first stop was at Hout Bay for a short photo stop before we drove along the 9km long very scenic Chapman's Peak Drive.
The drive is just breathtaking. What a view! But with the mountain being so close you can just imagine that there were severe rockfalls in the past but a lot of work has been done for a few years to reduce that risk (a reason why the drive is a toll road these days).
How must it be to walk or cycle along this road (though at some of the narrow curves I wouldn't want to come across a coach!) but already on the coach sitting on the right side it felt so unreal sometimes.
I really didn't want the journey to end.
Our first stop was at Hout Bay for a short photo stop before we drove along the 9km long very scenic Chapman's Peak Drive.
The drive is just breathtaking. What a view! But with the mountain being so close you can just imagine that there were severe rockfalls in the past but a lot of work has been done for a few years to reduce that risk (a reason why the drive is a toll road these days).
How must it be to walk or cycle along this road (though at some of the narrow curves I wouldn't want to come across a coach!) but already on the coach sitting on the right side it felt so unreal sometimes.
I really didn't want the journey to end.
But it eventually did and after a short stop to grab some food for lunch
we were off to the southern end of the peninsula to finally go to the
Table Mountain National Park, well as everyone else to Cape Point and
the Cape of Good Hope.
First stop was at Cape Point where we could either take the funicular up to the top of it or walk up there.
I
easily could have walked up but since I love funiculars I had to give a
go. Short but nice journey and the view over the sea, Cape of Good Hope, Dias Beach etc. up there was certainly spectacular.
We then had the choice between either taking the coach down to the Cape of Good Hope or walk down there.
I decided to walk down there which was a beautiful even though some bits at the end climbing over and down some naked rocks were not to be underestimated.
But I managed, felt good and was happy.
The spot where the famous sign is up was very overcrowded. Got my pictures though but that was it as now I could get excited to the other thing I really had been looking forward to- the penguins at Boulders Beach.
The first time I learnt that there would be penguins in South Africa I knew I wanted to see them. It just sounds so strange that these animals live there, even still when I tell people I saw penguins during my vacation they think am joking.
Well, I am not and see these was definitely one of my highlights.
Most of the area where they live is now a nature reserve and wooden boardwalks have been built around them for the tourists to see them. You still can get so close to them at some points that you could just touch them but knowing that you can transmit some illness you do not do that (well I do not, seeing pics on Instagram etc. there are people who do that... ).
It is so much fun to watch them and I cannot take my eyes of them. Time flies and I think I was the last one who left the reserve when it was time to take the coach back to Cape Town. Really did not want to leave!
The day was over way too quickly. What a perfect day to spend the last full day in South Africa!
The last dinner was at the Africa Cafe, it is a (these days touristy but maybe once) original traditional restaurant not far away from the hotel.
The food we were served has the following idea behind it as described on restaurant's website:
The Communal Feast was conceived as an introduction to African food offering the wonderful flavours of ‘Africa on a plate!’ And a good African host never allows their guest to go home hungry, and so the Communal Feast was born!
There are various courses with different kind of African food from different African countries.
Yes, there was meat, there was fish, nothing for me, but there were also some yummy vegetarian dishes and even though it is a tourist place it was still quite a great place with the restaurant being interestingly decorated, good food and some entertainment at end of dinner!
And then it was already time to say good bye to a few people as they would not return to Germany with us but continue to the Victoria Falls and the end of the vacation was so real as all we had left were another 12 hours in Cape Town.
