Day 7 Boulders Beach by Arushi

This morning we gorged ourselves on the breakfast buffet again, and followed Millen’s lead in smuggling muffins and afternoon snacks into our bags.

We then set off on the hour drive to Boulders Beach, seeing glimmers of sunshine and even the top of Table mountain to our delight!! During the journey we attempted to brush up on our South African history, which I’ll attempt to summarise.

Through rock art it’s been estimated that the first Homo Sapiens were the San (Bushmen) and the Khoikhoi groups.

Skipping forwards to 1652, which is when the first Europeans settled here. The Dutch East India company (trading between the Netherlands and East Indies), pulled into Table bay to set up a refreshment centre for passing ships. The station commander, Jan van Riebeeck was forbidden from enslaving the locals by his Dutch bosses, so found a loophole by importing slaves from the Africa and the East Indies.

The Dutch population grew until 1795, when the British captured Cape Colony (SA). They handed it back to the Dutch in 1803 but took it again in 1806. In 1814 a treaty confirmed British ownership of Cape Colony.

The Boers (Dutch settlers) in South Africa resented the Brits. When slavery was abolished in 18344 the Dutch were more engrave. Finally, the Boers began a mass migration away from the British called the Great Trek. This rift between the two settlers was intensified when diamonds were discovered in the North Cape.

Finally in October 1899 war began in South Africa between the Boers and the British. The Boers finally surrendered in 1902 and the British annexed the Boer republics. In 1910 a United South Africa was given a constitution. It became known as the Union of South Africa.

From the start, black people were very much second-class citizens in South Africa. They had land owning and voting restrictions. In 1912 black South Africans founded the South African National Congress (later the ANC) but at first, they achieved little.

In 1948 the National Party came to power in South Africa. The party introduced a strict policy of apartheid (separateness). After demonstrations against apartheid, the government banned the ANC and the PAC (a strand from the ANC). And in 1963 Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Willem de Klerk came in power and in 1990 pledged to end apartheid. He also released Nelson Mandela. De Klerk introduced a new constitution with rights for all. While he was for apartheid, he recognised it needed to be abolished to help South Africa as a country economically and politically, so surprised everyone by ending apartheid. Nelson Mandela succeeded him becoming the first Black president of SA in 1994.

Now there are still economic struggles with high inequality and unemployment rates especially in Cape Town, but the country does benefit from high mineral exporting and tourism.

History lesson over for now, we arrived at Boulders Beach with the sun still shining. Paying the entrance fee (£40!) arguing the money’s importance in saving the endangered species, we heard the squeaking and braying noises signalling to us the penguins’ presence. These penguins are nicknamed ‘jackass’ penguins due to their obnoxious braying sound, which reaches its peak during mating season. As mum pointed out, we had found the penguins! (get the find penguins blog joke?)

Along the boardwalk it was fairly busy, but we were still able to see plenty of penguins, watching their funny little run down slopes, seeing them set off into the water, and even being able to look at the baby penguins, who were still brown and fluffy. It was amazing to be so close to them, and observe them in their natural habitat. Heartbreakingly, there was some small amounts of litter on the beach, such as a plastic bottle and bag which highlighted another problem this colony faces, apart from their endangered species state. Due to overfishing, habitat destruction and climate change the population of African penguins is in decline sadly, hence why they need these conservation efforts.

We then walked along the main path to the other entrance gate of Boulders Beach. Penguins lined the path, separated by a fence which was for safety, as they’d peck your feet if you came too close! At the other entrance was the other half of the beach separated by boulders, which we even had the place to ourself for the first 10 minutes! It was a beach where swimming was allowed, but sadly no penguins ventured to this part of the beach. Mum and Dad reckoned that last time they came, the colony was much bigger, and did come to the other parts of the beach meaning people could essentially walk among them amazingly. Again, this showed the diminishing population of the penguins.

These penguins are African penguins, and Boulders Beach is one of seven colonies in the world. They’re fairly small, around 3-5kg but efficient, and a young penguin can cover up to 45km a day, and are equally as skilled in navigation as can find their way back to their nesting site months after leaving.

At this second location, we paddled in the water, clambered on boulders and enjoyed the sunshine. After, we walked back to the car to journey over to Kalky’s fish and chips shop.

It was good fish and chips (or chip roll for me and Eashan, which was literally bread and chips), but nothing to write home about. It was a no frills establishment, with a sign stating no sleeping on the tables illustrating the normal crowd. It was fairly cheap at about £20 for the five of us however so can’t complain too much.

We walked back to the car, leaving the parking attendant’s “office” as he called it, and drove back to the hotel to board the hotel shuttle, which then delivered us to the V&A waterfront.

We entered through Victoria Wharf, the main shopping centre, and wandered over to the Zeitz MOCCA, a gallery showcasing Africa contemporary art. The art was very intense, with a lot about colonisation, oppression and realism, and the art was very modern and sometimes fairly odd. Mum ended up waiting outside she hated it so much. After some very heavy art viewing, we explored the shops some more, visiting Patagonia, Cape Union Mart and various sports shops. We also visited some shops inside Victoria Wharf, including a clothing shop where us three kids must have tried on half the store, and Eashan alone spent 40 minutes trying on different black jeans. All in all, the waterfront was somewhat underwhelming and seemed to be a glorified shopping centre, and very commercialised, so not sure we’d go back if we were staying longer.

Finally, we ended up back in the Times Market where re raced around the different stalls ordering food. We enjoyed a selection of bao buns, laksa, pizza and empanadas followed by waffles, cookies, churros and fondant.

Satisfied, we returned to the hotel, however one of the rooms stank of paint strangely, which did not please dad! He was on the phone to the reception and managed to get a new room to sleep in which had no risk of smell induced headaches.

Finally, we settled in for a random movie night featuring whatever was on the TV which was all very depressing so we ended up watching a kids cooking show by the end of the night, before finally going to sleep.

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