There’s something about this penguin that just makes me think it seems to really be enjoying having the sun on its face. It was stood atop a mound, alone in the brush, frozen in this position.
Arriving at Nordhoek to watch the sunset I was immediately struck by the power of the wind whipping sand into your ankles. Then, I saw the waves, powerful and frequent, their violence emphasized by the mist being whipped from their crests, back lit by the setting sun. Accompanied by the rugged coastline the scene was set for an awesome evening, prior to going for an excellent curry.
We came around a bend and the sun was lighting the old naval port of Simonstown perfectly. Finding somewhere to stop on this windy mountain road was not easy. We tried a couple of lay-byes but they didn’t offer up a very good view. I’d just about given up when we came to one last opportunity to stop and I was able to get this photo. Let me know what you think of it in the comments section!
Following this we drove down into Simonstown and had a very nice meal at a little Italian place. Great pizza!
I’m writing this a couple of days before you’ll see it while sat at my friend’s aunt’s house in Cape Town. I’ve had a great time here but tomorrow we are moving on to Livingstone, Zambia. I’ll be traveling with my friend and her cousin.
Yesterday, while taking photos on Nordhoek beach I wondered if they may be getting bored with me wandering about very slowly with a backpack and tripod. Then I looked over and saw this. I think it’s safe to say they’ll do a good job of entertaining themselves the whole trip.
Shortly after I took this photo I heard a shriek of “let’s take pictures of our shadows!”, which was pretty impressive, as the wind was blowing at about 40 knots towards them…
The plan is to spend a few days in Livingstone, then bus our way through Windhoek… though we realy have no idea how we’re going to go about doing that. Hopefully by the time this photo posts itself we’ll have a better idea!
Three out of five of our group, dissatisfied with seeing penguins hanging about in bushes, paid the cover charge to actually go down onto Boulders Bay in search of penguins on the rocks. That, at least in our minds, was where penguins should be. As soon as we came through the gate we spied a penguin lounging in the middle of a small path forking off the main one. We walked down for a closer look, the penguin didn’t seem at all bothered by our presence. We thought this penguin may be a sign of more at the end of the path. It wasn’t. There were no penguins at the end of the path, but there was this incredible view.
If you want to see more of Boulders Bay and the penguins we did find, click on this image to go through to my South Africa gallery.
Iceland Update
Heading off to Husavik soon to go to the Phallological museum, whale museum and then out whale and puffin watching! Apparently they spotted blue whales two days ago. Hopefully they’re still about. Last night, we visited Lake Myvatn and it’s weird lava field surrounds, including an under ground hot spring that made for a pretty cool photo opportunity. Having a jeep paid off last night as our GPS directed us up a rough track, it didn’t look anything like a marked road. After driving a fair way in, the GPS beeped and asked if our car was suitable for that road. I have no idea how it can direct people up that road as most cars wouldn’t be able to take it.
Today’s Photo
This is the last of the photos that I have of Boulders Bay South Africa. I love the way these rocks have been carved by the elements. The tall skinny one jutting up feels like a modern, abstract sculpture.
After drinking copious amounts of wine and petting cheetahs (preferably not in that order) this is your view as you leave Spier Winery. This is where we started our wine tour and from here we went for what may have been the best meal we had in South Africa. It’s called bobotie and it’s delicious. Our guide described it to us in much the way that I’m going to describe it to you and all we could think was that it sounded odd. We decided to go ahead with our guide’s recommendation just the same and were certainly please.
Bobotie is a minced beef dish. The beef is mixed up with raisins and spiced up. It has a bit of a curry flavour. It’s cooked in a small casserole and topped off with a really thin layer of egg. They served it with mango chutney and sliced banana. Like I said, this combination of ingredients sounds odd but it really is delicious.