Just the tip...of Africa

Today was awesome! I feel like I can say that everyday but today was really something else. On the agenda was seeing the penguins at Boulder Beach, Cape of Good Hope, and Cape Point. I feel like I've been fortunate to see some pretty cool places in my life, but I've never been so blown away by the natural beauty of a landscape like I did today. I've learned on this trip that South Africa has most diverse fauna(animal species) and flora(plant species) in the world and even further that the Cape of Good Hope national park is the more diverse than all of Great Britain and this contributed to what I was able to see today. Our first stop was to play with the penguins, not really play, because they apparently vicious little creatures and have an intense bite. But that first penguin you see is great. Its like, "they're real life". Although they didn't exactly dance like I was expecting them to like in the movie "Happy Feet", we did get to see a baby penguin being born which was pretty cool. After watching the penguins for a while and snapping some photos, we got back on the bus and headed to the Cape of Good Hope. On the way in we were greeted by a lot of baboons which are little monkey creatures that have bare flash for their booty. Apparently they are dangerous and are not shy or afraid to attack you for any scent of food so we were sternly instructed to leave all food on the bus! Stepping out of the bus was just like stepping into paradise. The huge waves crashing up against the cape and the water crystal clear. Me and the guys instantly ran up to the top of the cape. I'm not even going to try and describe it, I'll attempt to let the pictures do it. We weren't satisfied with just the tourist view, we saw the waves crashing down at the bottom shoreline and wanted to be down there. We went outside of the path and went down the side of the mountain. As we were going down, the rocks starting sliding under my feet, this was just a small scare. It was well worth the hike down once we got to the bottom. I got some great videos and pictures. Our last stop of the day was Cape Point. This was thought to be the most southern point in Africa for many years but its actually just east of the point at Agula's National park. But I'm pretty sure Cape Point still wins for me. We went all the way up to the lighthouse and looked over the whole area which included Cape of Good Hope where we had just been playing on the rocks. The lighthouse wasn't all the way at the very tip so we kept going past the "No entry" sign and went further down the rocks, which got a little dangerous at times, have some cuts and bruises, but it was well worth it and I'm still alive. Snapped our last pics of the day and headed back. I am now exhausted and Brooks is cooking for us again, chicken on a bed of steamed rice with some vegetables. Robben Island tomorrow to see where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for years.