Another weekend, another IES trip! This time we traveled down the Cape Peninsula towards Cape Point, the most southwestern tip of Africa. We started our day by heading to Hout Bay, a neighborhood south of Table Mountain and along the Atlantic Ocean that is home to the Hout Bay Market. Along the dock at the bay, there were some street stands and a couple cafés that we peaked into before boarding a boat taking us to Seal Island. About 20 minutes out to sea are some large rocks that jet out of the water just enough for seals to have a nice place to rest and lay out in the sun. I don’t think I’d ever seen so many seals at once! There were tons of seals laying out on the rocks, as well as some flopping around in the water putting on a show for us.
After being entertained by the seals for a while, we made our way back to shore and on the bus to our next stop. As we drove away from Hout Bay, up on the mountainside, we passed several viewpoint stops along the highway, until we got to the best one. We hopped of the bus to snap a few photos of the beautiful view. It seems like no matter where you go in Cape Town, there’s always a breathtaking view of a mountain!
The next stop was Boulder Beach, which is famous for its wild penguins! The African Penguin can only be found on the southwestern coast of South Africa and mainly Boulder Beach. Unfortunately, we couldn’t go onto the beach with the penguins, but we were able to walk along a boardwalk and get pretty close to them! Winter is when a lot of the babies hatch, so we saw quite a few feathery penguins. Their feathers don’t become water proof until they’re about 3 months old, so it was easy to spot which ones were the babies. Definitely a highlight of the day!
Even though I could probably sit and watch the penguins waddle around and dive into the water for hours, we left Boulder Beach to grab lunch and head to our final destination: Cape Point. The most southwestern tip of Africa is at the tip of the Cape of Good Hope within the Table Mountain National Park. We spent a few minutes at Cape Point on the beach taking in the views and capturing some quick photos of the edge. But, the better views came once we started an hour hike up to the Old Cape Point Lighthouse which is at the highest peak. Along the hike and at the top by the lighthouse, we looked out over the ocean and at beautiful mountain landscapes. Every direction you turned was a spectacular view and once we got to the top, it almost felt like we were in a cloud.
This trip was full of incredible sights and fun excursions and made me ready to explore more of South Africa!