South Africa - Baboons at last!!!

I left you in my last post on New year's eve in Rooiels after a post full of penguins...but no baboons...

On New Year's Day, we headed to the beach again, at about 9am to go and have a swim again.  It was really enjoyable, we drew in the sand; Sarah (little girl) and I searched for sea shells and we paddled.

As we came back from the beach, suddenly, D said, "You've got your wish to see baboons," and there were a bunch of them hanging outside his next door neighbour's house.

Or rather, squatting on the balcony like an errant bunch of lairy teenagers.

It was hilarious seeing them but I was a tad apprehensive as they can be aggressive and they really don't respect women apparently, only alpha males, they just ignore women.

As I stood there photographing them, they looked down at me (I was accompanied by 2 males)

"See the monkeys scritch-scritch-scratching, tails hanging down, all scritch-scritch-scratching.."

And then, a few on the ground headed towards me.  Uh-oh!

There were a few Mummies with babies hitchhiking.

A whole host of them began walking and running along the road in front of us ahead towards our house whilst we snapped the nearer ones.

I loved the sight of this little one grabbing Mummy's hand!

And this little one riding Mummy like a rodeo!

There were older ones, teenagers and babies.

Slumbering infants too.

As we reached the house, we saw they had begun a party on the driveway.

And J was most unimpressed as 3 had climbed up using her windscreen wipers as a rope to board her car.  The windscreen wiper did NOT take to such rough treatment and subsequently broke, hanging down rather like a limp tendril.

It was fantastic to see them up close at last but it was an unnerving experience, given all the signs I'd been seeing all week!

After this, we packed up and drove back to Cape Town to spend our final afternoon and evening watching Mango Groove at Kirstenbosch with a picnic. It was the perfect setting for the concert- beautiful mountains surrounding us, luscious green shrubs and a happy crowd dancing to Mango Groove!

It had been a wonderful holiday and we just had to pack for our long flight back to England in the morning!

xx

South Africa- penguins at Rooiels and Pringle Bay

The day after we were in Cape Town's city, we drove to Rooiels which is around 2 hours drive from Cape Town to stay in the beach home of J, our host's dad.  Her sister and family were there too and I was immensely glad to be spending New year's eve in a home rather than braving vast crowds which always sets me On Edge.

After arriving at Rooiels, we saw signs warning of and were told about the baboons that roam the tiny little seaside suburb.   Yet, I'd seen all these signs for baboons but not ACTUALLY glimpsed one of the elusive beasties!  We drove to nearby Pringle Bay to see the penguins! We were super keen to see them since the day we were supposed to see them at Boulders Beach (the day we went to Cape Point), the beach was absolutely heaving so we decided to forgo a visit!

Pringle Bay was beautifully bereft of tourists. If you ever go to South Africa, whilst Rooiels isn't a big well known place with much to do (great in my opinion), it was a great place to see penguins!

This comical fellow walked up the slope towards me!

I delight in penguins leaning down to, what I perceived to be, inspecting their tummy buttons!

It was truly a mesmerising activity. I liked seeing them in various gradations of down showing a plethora of ages.

Suddenly, as we reached a low hedge, I spied a small furry animal...

Unbelievably this Rock Rabbit came right up to the hedge and was less than 10cm away from me.

As it chewed upon leaves, I couldn't believe I managed to capture such a cheeky shot!

CBC and J and D were less impressed than I and so soon we continued onwards.

When we reached the very end of the wooden walkway, we noticed other birds- are they Cormorants?

The colours suddenly seemed to change here with light, almost white-coloured rocks and an increasingly blue and turbulent sea.

Alas, it was all too soon that we had to leave as the sun was baking down and J was keen to get back.

I captured a pair of bickering birds on film which I found quite amusing so it is here for your delectation.

I couldn't believe it that on the way back, every else spotted 2 baboons on the road, and I somehow missed them! Ahrgh, would I ever see them?

Following that, we proceeded back to the house as Rooiels where we collected together our swimming costumes and walked down to the beach (no camera alas!).  This beach was on the WARM side of the ocean so the sea was really pleasant to swim and splash in.  This beach had many sea shells and a lovely lagoon too so it was a great AND quieter place to swim. I still couldn't believe I was spending New Year's Eve swimming in the sea!

Back at the house we had a bonefide South African Braai (barbecue) with tasty food and then chatted. I watched The Gummi Bears on the TV with J's adorable nieces and ended up sleeping on the sofa until midnight whereupon, I was hauled out onto the balcony/veranda to see in the New Year!

It was a wonderful way to spend New Year.  Chilled, with friends and no crowds!

xxx

South Africa- a day in town and a walk at Noordhoek beach

 I apologise for the brief hiatus in service here on the blog, we went to the North Yorkshire Moors for Half Term and had no Wifi nor was there any sort of Data Connection!

I thought I would resume my South African accounts.  On the next day after we travelled to Cape Point, we went on the Big Red Tour Bus to Cape Town itself. We booked our tickets the night before and alas, I printed the wrong thing so we spent the whole journey into the city fretting whilst trying to connect to a non-existent Data connection on our phones to access the E-ticket.  Eventually we reached the end of the bus route and managed to print out ticket in the office.

 We had a look around a covered art market and ended up buying some really tasty samosas in the hippy food market! I failed to take any photos!

 We hoped to visit Robben Island but it was booked up for the whole of December and January so alas, we weren't able to go.  The queues for the other tour buses were horrendous with 1.5 hours wait so we decided to walk instead to explore town.

 After stopping for some lunch, we walked for a mile or so in the hot sun (not worth it!) to reach the Pan African Market which I failed to take photos in!  It is a great place where you can buy arts and crafts and handmade items from all over Africa.  We ended up buying a few items in there!

A brief trip into the Cathedral was a really welcome respite from the unrelenting heat.

 Next, we headed into the Rhodes Gardens for another sit down.

 Next, we headed into the Africa Museum which was rather a Natural history museum. It was quite interesting but looked a little tired.

We couldn't believe the size of a whale!

Oh, so many comedy moments!

 We caught the final bus back to Kirstenbosch where our friend met us. We went back to rest for a few hours.

Later on, we decided to drive to Noordhoek beach to walk the dog.
It was absolutely glorious there but the sea is bitterly cold.  On one side of the Cape, the sea is really warm but on this side, it is freezing.  It's something to do with some sort of  gulf stream or current that runs in the water on the other side.

 We trailed along for a long time and watched a myriad dogs enjoy the expansive beaches..

It was a fittingly tranquil end to what was a largely hot and active day.

I apologise for my accompanying words being brief but I think sometimes I write too much!

Hope you are well.

xx