Cape Coast Tour

Today we did a Cape coast tour, which consisted of a lot of driving up and down the gorgeous peninsula south of Cape Town. The coast looks a lot like California, specifically Big Sur – absolutely spectacular. Many of the seaside towns also looked similar to what you might see along the coast, up north in Marin or down by Half Moon Bay. For those of you who haven’t visited such places, you have fishing villages and trendy shops along the water and up steep hills, with the backdrop of higher mountains behind. There are also some gorgeous wineries just south of Cape Town in a very ritzy area called Constantia. Most of this day I felt like I was back in California, driving on the wrong side of the road.

Along the way we stopped at a sanctuary for African penguins, which are severely threatened both by overfishing and the increasing cormorant population. They were very cute little things waddling around!

Cape Point itself is a national park and reminded me for all the world of Point Reyes, but the vegetation was different of course, and there was more of it so it didn’t quite have that end-of-the-world feeling to it I always get at Point Reyes. Okay, yes, I’m feeling nostalgic … moving on … there is a lot of wildlife here. We saw a lot of baboons, and I spotted a large adult elgin which is like an antelope and apparently very tasty – it’s next on my list (kudu was first, and tasted like a cross between cow and buffalo). We also saw a wild ostrich right by the side of the road!

We had a lovely lunch at a restaurant called Two Oceans. I was happy to have some seafood, and the panoramic view of False Bay was absolutely spectacular. Sorry Nepenthe, they have you beat there!

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful – at the moment I am waiting for the USA-Brazil Confederation Cup final to come on the TV since I don’t particularly feel like braving the smoky bar, and getting ready to prep tomorrow’s lesson plan. I finally found a beer that tastes better than Coors Light by trying the beer the college kids didn’t like (why didn’t I think of that earlier??). Feels to me like there’s an opening for a good microbrew here because the selection is pretty sparse …