Tomato Sauce, Cheers, and servilletes.

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Day 1 in Africa was a big success for the Atkins brothers. We’re already using local terms like tomato sauce (ketchup), cheers, and servilletes (napkins) to blend in like locals. We’re going to interweave and combo this entry since Brady really wants to write about his encounter with the penguins at Boulder Beach (can you blame me? –brady). I (Josh) woke up at 430 AM amped and ready to go, but was a considerate older brother and let Brady sleep in til 7. The city is amazing, the weather perfect, and the scenery nothing like I’ve ever seen before. We started out going to a cool breakfast/coffee café(R cafe) a few blocks from the hotel (thanks tripadvisor), then walked over to the Company Gardens. It’s a great shaded park that butts right up to the House of Parliament for South Africa. After a few snapshots we decided to head to the train station to catch a ride out to Simon’s Town and down to Boulder Beach where the penguin colony resides. We were advised that the rail lines are used mainly for local commuters and not for tourists, but we shrugged off the suggestion and boarded anyway. It was actually a great way to see the sites. Brady can chronicle the fun from here.

PENGUINSSSS!!!!!!! In.the.wild. I know, my mind was blown too. Please feel free to take a moment to take it in....

Whew, okay, let’s proceed. Josh and I had the unique pleasure of witnessing the African Penguins. The species is endangered due to the over-harvesting of eggs (What?!? The species will die out if you harvest all the eggs? Come on!), but, alas, they are protecting the species and trying to re-grow the population. They were beautiful, majestic, and just plain AWESOME. We were able to get within just a few feet and even found a couple of baby penguins with their mama. As cool as this was, we did eventually have to leave – sad day, but we took plenty of pictures and videos to keep the memory for.ev.er.

We grabbed a fresh fish lunch at the “Salty sea Dog”. P.S. don’t eat the tiny bones. After, we took the rail back to Cape Town, got a few groceries at the market, and relaxed a bit before dinner.

After gourmet burgers (bacon and guac burger for me and an ostrich burger for Josh), we decided to retire to our hotel for an early night, and save some energy for Table Mountain tomorrow. Hope y’all enjoy the pictures…we’ll be sure to keep filling you in as our adventure continues to unfold.

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