p p p pick up a penguin

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Two km later, I saw a sign for penguin viewing and though this was our mission ignored it because it didn’t specifically say Boulders Beach and I do everything my guidebook tells me. A kilometre later and a sign for Boulders Beach (vindicated!), we turn in, park and are surprised that we have to pay an entrance fee (for a beach?), I hope that locals don’t have to.

We make for the beach cove, going through two metal gates that we have to make sure are shut so that penguins (PENGUINS HE HE!) don’t escape. Very different from beaches we are used to, everything seems ruddier - the people, the sand - more workaday and whimsical than the picture perfect Seychelles variety.

But PENGUIN ALERT! To my left by some rocks I see my first African penguin (formerly Jackass - don’t ask me why the change I don’t know, too rude?!) and so go and talk to him (it’s a habit of mine). He ignored me. I tried harder and started to follow him but he was playing hard to get, maybe he was shy I was filming him or perhaps he was just running scared from the stupid woman who walked right in front of me screeching inane comments, ruining my Attenborough moment. Grrrrrr.

Resolved to get some quality penguin time, this part of the beach clearly wasn’t harbouring the hundreds of penguins promised, we clanged back through the metal gates and hung a right along a wooden pathway that looked far more promising. It was. We stopped at least a dozen times along the shaded path, spotting penguins behind the wire fence in various forms of repose; zen penguin, on parade penguin, sleeping penguins, loved up penguins, waddling penguins, snuggled penguins, sneezing penguin and territorial penguin, I could have spent all day naming my penguin poses but the other one might have filed for divorced.

The path soon opened out to a visitor centre and another entrance; this presumably being where first sign that I’d seen on the road would lead you. We flashed our receipts and were let in and this time the path took us to vantage points on a wide expanse of beach where hundreds of the little fellas were hanging out. We hung around for a while but the wind whipping up we decided it was lunchtime.

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