South Africa has amazing diversity. We only travelled around the southwest corner of South Africa but we saw many beautiful areas. We have several blogs worth of stuff to share. Here's the start of what we saw.
We headed south of Cape Town to the Cape of Good Hope. The Cape is a peninsula on the southwestern tip of Africa. This put us 16,000 kilometres (10,000 miles) from home which is the furthest distance on our trip.
North of the Cape of Good Hope, we stopped at Boulders to see its colony of African penguins. The signs in the area direct you to a stretch of beach where you stand on boardwalks and view the penguins from above. The area is nice but we had much more fun when (on the advice of our travel agent) we headed to the unmarked part of the beach. We stood on the sand and the rocks and watched the penguins up close.
We headed east from Cape Town along Route 62 which is known as the wine route because of the large number of wineries. We're not wine drinkers so we drove on past all the signs for wine tasting but we did enjoy the scenery.
At the end of Route 62, you'll find Sanbona Wildlife Reserve and we spent three days there. The area was agricultural and pasture land until 10 years ago and is now being returned to its original state by reintroducing native plants and animals.
Sanbona is a very large area and the number of animals is relatively small so we had mixed results in game sightings. We saw some really cool things but we also spent lots of time freezing in the truck (it was early spring when we were there) as our guide drove all over the park searching for animals.
More to come from South Africa.
Vanessa and Blake
We headed south of Cape Town to the Cape of Good Hope. The Cape is a peninsula on the southwestern tip of Africa. This put us 16,000 kilometres (10,000 miles) from home which is the furthest distance on our trip.
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| Chapman's Peak Drive - road south of Cape Town is cut into the mountain |
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| We stopped on the way to feed a seal |
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| 16,000 kilometres from home |
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| Enjoying the scenery |
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| Where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet |
North of the Cape of Good Hope, we stopped at Boulders to see its colony of African penguins. The signs in the area direct you to a stretch of beach where you stand on boardwalks and view the penguins from above. The area is nice but we had much more fun when (on the advice of our travel agent) we headed to the unmarked part of the beach. We stood on the sand and the rocks and watched the penguins up close.
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| Following the leader as they headed home at the end of the day |
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| They went across the beach ... |
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| Into the water ... |
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| Swam around some boulders ... |
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| And then climbed up to their burrows under the rocks and bushes |
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| A straggler |
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| You're in my way Mr. Tourist |
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| They jump between rocks to get to their burrows - tough to catch them jumping |
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| Got him! Now we can go for dinner! |
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| Dinner overlooking the ocean |
We headed east from Cape Town along Route 62 which is known as the wine route because of the large number of wineries. We're not wine drinkers so we drove on past all the signs for wine tasting but we did enjoy the scenery.
At the end of Route 62, you'll find Sanbona Wildlife Reserve and we spent three days there. The area was agricultural and pasture land until 10 years ago and is now being returned to its original state by reintroducing native plants and animals.
Sanbona is a very large area and the number of animals is relatively small so we had mixed results in game sightings. We saw some really cool things but we also spent lots of time freezing in the truck (it was early spring when we were there) as our guide drove all over the park searching for animals.
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| The landscape |
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| Lions just after they ate |
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| White rhino |
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| Male and female white lions |
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| Yes that's a toque on Vanessa's head - it was cold! |
More to come from South Africa.
Vanessa and Blake
