Private Tour of the Peninsula with Owen

Africa » South Africa » Western Cape » Cape of Good Hope
October 5th 2012

Published: October 7th 2012

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JLewX2

Clifton Bay

Cape Town really seems like a sister city to San Francisco, the weather, cold water, great white shark breeding grounds, prison (Alcatraz/RobbenIsland), wine country within an hour from the city, etc etc.

Today Owen took us on a private tour of the cape. We went to Cape Point, Bantry Bay into Clifton, Maiden Cover in Camps Bay and stopped for pictures. He then drove us through Hout Bay where he said the "stinking rich" live, people like Bill Gates. (Hout Bay means Wood Bay) Everything was incredibly beautiful.

Owen speaks both English and Afrikaans which came in part from Dutch, the slave didn't want to speak the masters language, but still needed to be able to communicate with the master, so Afrikaans sprang up.

We then took a boat ride to Seal Island, gorgeous! Then went to Chapman's Peak for more pictures. Owesn says South Africa is very safe, no earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, nothing.

Next was Noordhoek Beach. Owen tells us that the male ostrich is black and looks after the young at night, the female is grey and watches over the young during the day.

Next was Cape Point where the

Clifton Bay

Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet. The Indian ocean is very calm compared to the Atlantic. As you're driving there, you can see the Indian Ocean on the left and the Atlantic on the right. We did a beautiful/short hike to the lighthouse and the to the point, felt SOOO good to get some exercise and we saw three whales!!

Now we were super hungry, Owen took us to lunch at Two Oceans restaurant. A surprising thing to me, is how very easy it is travelling here and being vegetarian, options everywhere! For lunch I had the forest mushroom, feta, and spinach cannelloni baked in a tomato and garlic sauce. John had sushi.

Next we went to Boulder Beach to see the Penguins!! They look like our dog Betsy!! Tons of them and super cute. Check out the couple of videos I've loaded below.

On our way back past Simon's Town Naval base we saw a submarine!

During our drive back, Owen told us a story about his sons born in '83 and '86. They decided one day to go to the beach, and his family wanted to stop for ice cream which was at a whites

Boat ride to Seal Island

John calls me his Inspector Gadget

only beach. This was in Dec '89 and his 3 yr old wanted to go swim while mom got the ice cream. Owen told his son "not now" and his son asks "when", Owen noticed a man listening to what he would tell his son, and got a big smile on his face when Owen said "Not now, very soon". In Jan '90 Aparthied was abolished.

For dinner, went to De Ankur Belgium restaurant... I had the pesto linguini and John had the spicy Africa Malay which was a spicy curry prawns with jasmine long rice. The restaurant couldn't seem to decide what vibe they wanted... music varied from 80s rock, to jazz, to opera, to lounge... very strange...

Really great day!!

Penguins: