Penguins Bite
Trip Start
May 25, 2005
1
14
283
Trip End
Ongoing
Simon's Town, Western Cape,
South Africa
Saturday, June 25, 2005
Simon's Town is great; a beautiful oasis after the hectic days of Durban. I have tomorrow off before heading to the University of Cape Town for a conference on HIV modelling, so I decided to avoid going straight into the city, and make the most of my time.
It nearly didn't turn out so nicely though, thanks to the inability of the car rental company to find my reservation. So after calling my poor supervisor, who was moving house and sanding a floor on HIS day off, we finally managed to convince them to let me take a car, so long as we paid for an extra day! Of course, why wouldn't we
Give me a kiss!
!It was definitely worth the wait, and actually ended up being cheaper than taking a taxi into town. It seems that it is the same throughout South Africa - getting to and from the airport is the hardest thing. How the country will function when it hosts the World Cup. Well, I'm sure to find out! Anyway, the geology of the Cape makes life pretty simple and easy to drive. The mountains form such in an impassable barrier, all the roads curve around the coastline one way or the other. Go right and you end up in Cape Town, go left and you don't!
The western cape of South Africa is stunningly beautiful. It is like a completely different world tacked on to the bottom of the continent. The air is fresh and the climate is cooler than inland by a number of degrees. It rains and then shines, keeping you guessing as to what the day will bring. Yes, it's very different.
The coastal road swings down along the cape, but I'm running out of daylight and decide to stop in Simon's Town. Not many of the smaller communities have cheap accommodation, so I was hoping the hostel would be open.
My Bedroom View
Simon's Town is a small place with a heavy military influence, although you are hard pushed to find it. The base is discrete and historical, but provides enough people to keep the local economy afloat. The houses all face the ocean and follow the main (only?) street along the water, so the hostel was hard to miss. In amongst the little antique shops and small pubs the hostel has probably seen a lot of business over the summer, but now, I am practically the only guest.
The folks in charge give me the best room and a pile of blankets; the weather is coming in, and as is common in South Africa, there's no heating. The hostel is the upper part of an old wooden house. They own the whole place, but use the downstairs to run the town's laundry and bike hire place. The rooms run out onto a balcony, from which you can see the whole street and coastline, and would be perfect for a braai in other circumstances. But for me, there was just enough time to drive to find the penguins.
A little further up the coast is penguin paradise. A small cove with lots of rocks and plenty of fish, the black and white birds have everything they need. When I arrived I was breathless in anticipation; how long would it take to see one? This was to be my first sighting of a penguin in the wild. So, I crept quietly from the car, camera ready, hoping for some good fortune. And then, as I turned the corner, there were hundreds of them, waddling along, sitting singing and completely uninterested in my arrival.
It was mating season and the boys were randy. Making nests and curling their heads to submissive positions, they were desperate to attract the females' attention
Penguin
. How fascinating to stumble across the equivalent of penguin speed dating! So, as I crouched down to get some photos I was unaware that to some, I may look like the perfect female penguin. Whack!
OOooowww! What was that!?!
Whack!
Hey! Stop that!
I stepped back and there he was, my little admirer, following along, ready for another bite. He didn't seem surprised at my sudden height or movement, he just wanted to get a closer look. So, after we had established that biting was not polite I sat next to my new penguin friend until the light began to fade and the rain began.
What a lovely little guy. He must've been so lonely, or maybe just overly ambitious to try and befriend me, but he certainly makes a pretty picture.
Anyway, it was fish and chips for me that night as I strolled along the beach front, feeling safe for the first time in a while. No hassle, no bother, totally alone.
The wind howled all night, a taste of what was to come as I decided to drive south tomorrow and get to the end of the earth, Cape Point.
