South Africa Day 9

Tuesday, we drove east across the southern coast of South Africa. We stopped first in Betty’s Bay to see another colony of African penguins. We saw many more penguins this day, including some HUGE baby penguins (they looked bigger than their mother) whose mother was still trying to sit on them. We then drove up the street to the Harold Porter Botanical Gardens. We hadn’t really planned on a visit, but since it was close, we decided to duck in. It was beautiful. We went on a short hike up to a waterfall and then across the face of a mountain with great views back to the bay. Since it had become lunchtime without us much noticing, we decided to have lunch at the restaurant in the garden. It was delicious. I had a spinach quiche, while Tim had a delicious burger. We had started our lunch outside, but we decided to move inside because it was a little chilly. It was a good thing we did… during lunch, a family of baboons (including a teeny baby) came running up to the restaurant and tried to open the doors. They hung out on a side patio for a while, before taking off across the parking lot, over the fence, and across the highway. After lunch, we continued our drive on to L’Agulhas, the actual southern tip of Africa. There was not much there besides a plaque indicating the merging of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. It was also cold, windy, and rainy. Tim did stick his hands simultaneously into the two oceans. We continued our drive on to Swellendam, where we had booked rooms at a guesthouse for the evening. The hotel was super lovely, and had a delicious restaurant attached, so we had dinner and wine, with only a short required stroll back to our rooms.

South Africa Day 9

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