Cape Town - Day 2

There is so much to see and do in Cape Town that it was hard to narrow it down and fit it all in.  One of the places that we knew we wanted to visit was Cape Point.  Since it is not far from where we were staying in Fish Hoek, we decided to start there.

Day 2 - Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope inside of Table Mountain National Park

The drive from where we were staying to the Park was on a scenic highway that takes you right alongside the ocean.  We couldn't help ourselves but to stop at a viewing point to take some pictures.  All along this stretch of road there were warning signs about baboons, but we had not spotted any...at least not until after we took a picture of one of the signs, without actually paying attention to what it said.  While Mommy got out of the car to take pictures, Daddy and the boys stayed in the car.  Before leaving, Mommy wanted to take just one more picture.  She grabbed the camera and ran to snap a shot of a flower.  Within a few minutes, Daddy and the boys could hear her and the people from the other car that had stopped, yelling and screaming as they just kept pointing in our direction.  Not knowing what they were screaming about, Daddy was looking around for the whale they must have spotted in the ocean behind him.  (This area is known for whale-watching, but not during this time of year.)  They continued to scream and Daddy continued to look at them through the open door with a puzzled look.  And then suddenly, a baboon showed up at the open door.  Daddy begins trying to shoo him away with his foot, while all three boys begin crying from the back seat.  Looking for food, the baboon grabs a bag out of the floor board of the car.  It was the camera bag. 

Sitting by the road with our camera bag next to him

Mommy had the camera, but there was still an extra lens and battery inside.  He runs away, but not too far.  We are all throwing pebbles at him at this point to try and get him to drop the bag.  The lens falls out.  He carries the bag up near the main road and sits there. 
We all get back in our cars, because now there is another baboon in the area and about twenty more on the road ahead of us.  Time was crucial as they can be very dangerous and destructive.  We watched him and waited.  He eventually realized there was no food in the bag and left it.  We made our move and were able to retrieve the bag with everything still in one piece.  Lesson learned. 
Baboons are a common problem in this area with vehicles and tourists, but also have been known to enter houses to raid them of any food.  They are obviously not afraid of people.  After our encounter, the boys did not want us to roll down any windows or open any doors anytime we stopped somewhere.

We eventually made it to the Park and down to the Cape Point area.  Once there, we had the option of the funicular (train car) to take us up to the main area or we could walk it.  Mommy and Daddy wanted to walk, the boys all wanted to ride.  Since they could ride for free, Daddy took them up and Mommy would ride with them back down.  At the top, the views were

At the original lighthouse

amazing of the ocean beyond the Point.  There was an old lighthouse that they stopped using many years due to the fact that it was too far from the actual Point to warn the ships sometimes.  It still provided a nice lookout across the ocean and around the Point and its cliffs.  We decided to go ahead and hike as far as allowed down close to the working lighthouse that is situated much closer to the water.  Aden was amazing in that he hiked it all.  We knew we would have to carry Noah for most of it.  Wiley, who was tired and ready to go back to the car, accepted a compromise.  He would go if Daddy carried him.  We took off on the trail and were met by

Looking back toward the old lighthouse

other parents carrying their kids back.  They all wished us good luck, sweating and panting.  Not a good sign, but we pressed on.  Wiley found that there were flat areas where he could walk on his own and enjoyed it.  The boys all enjoyed looking at the ocean, but also looking back to the top and marveling at how far we had come.  We stayed long enough to take pictures of the lighthouse, take family photos, and most importantly catch our breath. 

Looking down to the current lighthouse, from the Point

The hike back to the top was of course a little tougher, but we all made it and it turned out to be a great family hike.

From Cape Point, we drove more around the Park, and read about the history of the first explorers who rounded the Cape.  That, of course, brought us to the Cape of Good Hope.

Again, we had some beautiful views of the coastline and the ocean.  Many believe that this area around the Cape is where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet.  We heard that it was actually a bit further south-east from here near

Cape Agulhas (the southern tip of Africa).  We later read that the place where these two oceans (currents) meet can often fluctuate between Cape Agulhas and Cape Point, so that is the story that we are going to tell.  The rest of the Park was a beautiful area, filled with various kinds of flowers, plants, and even animals.  There were baboons that we did not spend much time looking at (for obvious reasons), ostriches, and various kinds of antelope.  After a big hike, the drives through plants and flowers was enough to lull the boys to sleep.
We drove back to Fish Hoek in the afternoon, and decided against making any stops to admire the views.  And what better way to end the day, but with some time on the beach.