Penguins, Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point

Thursday morning we left early for a full day excursion on our bus. First we went to Simonstown where we looked a colony of penguins. Can you imagine penguins living in Africa? It was the weirdest sight, almost as weird as the cows on the beach, to see all these penguins lying on the white sand! The Atlantic Ocean is in Cape Town so it is cold enough for them. Babies were just hatched so there were tons of cute penguins to watch. Next we went to the Cape of Good Hope which is the southwestern-most point of Africa. It used to be called the Cape of Storms because the storms kept ships from going around the point and returning. Once a ship made it around the point and lived to tell about it, it was renamed the Cape of Good Hope. It was the windiest day in the world while we were here and we barely could take a step without falling over. I think the combination of strong winds in the country and being on this point made it so difficult, but we just held on to each other and stayed low to the ground to make it out to the point for pictures. Next we went to Cape Point, which I guess I don’t really know the significance of. Maybe it was just the next point down the coast. Anyway there were several hikes to do there and lighthouses to see, so we did that for a few hours. When we got back to our hostel, aka backpackers, we got ready to go out to see a play. The play was called Coming Home and it was about a coloured (a person who is some mix of white and black) family living on a farm near Cape Town and the hardships they faced because of apartheid and AIDS. It was very interesting to see and get that perspective.