Cape Town – Muizenberg, Kalk Bay & Boulders Beach

The next morning we had planned to go to the top of Table Mountain, but the cable car was closed due to high winds & low visibility.  It was a dreary, drizzley kind of morning; not the best for photography, but we weren’t about to let that stop us.

Muizenberg is a seaside suburb of Cape Town; it’s beach is home to colourful beach huts.  These huts are no longer in use, and early in August this year the city of Cape Town decided they should be taken down; the first step was to remove all of the doors.  A public outry resulted, and, as of September, they were still there.

The beach is a popular surfing spot and home to a surfing outreach program for at risk youth.  Even on this dreary cold day they were surfing…

After Muizenberg we stopped at Kalk Bay, a small fishing village that is now part of greater Cape Town.

Boulders Beach is home to a colony of African Penguins.  These penguins (also known as Jackass penguins because of the sound they make) make their home in South Africa and coastal Namibia.  The Pink gland above the adults eyes helps to regulate their temperature.  If they’re hot, more blood gets sent to the gland to cool them, causing it to become a deeper shade of pink.

There were a lot of young chicks losing their baby fluff and becoming juveniles.  The juveniles have bluish feathers and are very easily distinguished from the adults.  This chick is almost done moulting…

Boulders Beach is aptly named.  There is a boardwalk here that you follow; you aren’t allowed down on the beach with the penguins.  Could you imagine living there, looking out your window every day at these little guys?

After Boulders Beach we headed to the Cape of Good Hope – the most south-westerly point in Africa.  The rain by this time was coming sideways, we didn’t stay long but got soaked anyway!