Silwermynrivier

I got up at around 7.30am after a very disrupted night thanks to our inconsiderate and noisy French room 'mates'. I got a cold shower and the light breakfast offered in the communal kitchen. I then discussed the planned activity for the day with my fellow travellers Lauren, Phil and Bro. Phil and Bro wanted to go to a town called Simonstown and Lauren and I were interested to see the penguins at Boulder Beach nearby. We had thought about getting an Uber taxi there but this would be quite expensive. We therefore decided to all get the train to Simonstown and Lauren and I would then get an Uber taxi to Boulder beach. We all walked to the railway station and tried to buy a ticket to Simonstown. After a lot of confusion with the first person we spoke to, we managed to get a 1st class ticket and waited on the platform for a train that was delayed by half an hour. We boarded the old and worn local train and we set off for a long and slow journey to Simonstown involving stopping at 26 train stations along the way. I had become pessimistic about what time we would eventually arrive but was encouraged by Lauren to take on the role of an optimist while she, usually an optimist, took on the role of the pessimist. This allowed us some amusement on the journey as I made statements along the route that would be the opposite of what I might usually say and vice-versa. The final challenge to my new optimism was when we reached Fish Hoek station where the train terminated before reaching Simonstown. Apparently, the line was blocked to Simonstown by sand blown onto the tracks, but the staff who sold us the ticket neglected to tell us or didn't know. I managed to optimistically see it all as an adventure as we got off the train to unexpectedly explore Fish Hoek. We found a supermarket and fish and chip shop and ate wonderful fish and chips on a beautiful beach front right above the waves at high tide. Phil and Bro decided to get the return train back to Cape Town while Lairen and I ordered an Uber taxi to the Boulder Beach seal colony. We arrived at the beach area and walked along the back of the visitor centre (we decided not to pay to go in) and were still able to see penguins basking in the sun on the rocks and got close to a young tree hyrax and its mother. We continued walking to an area of more large grey boulders in a lovely azure blue sea. We found a spot to sit on the rock and then Lauren spotted a penguin lying under the shade of a boulder nearby. We got close to the penguin and watched it preen its feathers and look up towards us. After a while its male mate (these penguins pair for life) came out of the water to join the female. They then endearingly preened each other and clearly had a close bond. Later another pair of penguins came out of the water to join the first pair. They waddled around the rocks together and came within arms length of where we were sitting. It was a really special experience to spend nearly an hour watching these delightful birds in such a beautiful sunny spot. Their two footed leaps from rock to rock with their small wings flapping in the air was funny to see. As the evening approached, it was time to leave and walk back to the car park. We bought a well needed sorbet to counter the strong sun and heat. I tried to order an Uber taxi back to Cape Town but couldn't get any signal to do so. We walked up to the main road and sat in a bus shelter to try and get a signal but to no avail. We were starting to get concerned that we were stranded and would need to walk 3km back to Simonstown to see if we could get a signal there. Suddenly, a car stopped in front of us and a voice said 'Scott!'. Amazingly, it was our fellow travellers Oscar, Simon, and Annette who had left our trip a couple of days earlier and just coincidentally happened to be passing on their own day trip around Cape Point. They also had Oscar's girlfriend in their car so it was a challenge for them to help us out with a lift, but kindly Oscar sat with his girlfriend on his lap to give is enough room to get in. Annette kindly drove is back to the other side of Cape Town where she lives and works in a local prison. She stopped at a lovely viewing point over the mountains and invited us to join them for dinner at a local Sushi restaurant. We agreed but were concerned for Oscar's girlfriend having to sit on his lap for any longer. The solution was for me to sit in the back of the hatchback which caused some hilarity when Lauren took a photo of me pressed against the back window that made it look like I had been kidnapped by Annette. We drove through the bypasses and motorways of Cape Town to where the Sushi restaurant was. I tried several different kinds of sushi from the rotating sushi bar and enjoyed them all and we also ordered two plates of sushi. This proved to be too much to eat, but Oscar stepped in to finish off our sushi with his notoriously large appetite. Once we were all full with the sushi, Annette very kindly drove us back across the city to our hostel. We dropped off Simon, Oscar and his girlfriend at their hotel and said our final goodbyes. It had been a very adventurous day and I felt very tired when I got back to the hostel. We said our final goodbyes to Annette and I thanked her for saving us from our potential stranding earlier., I also said my sad goodbyes to Lauren ahead of her leaving the trip the following day as I would definitely miss her on the journey ahead. I then returned to my dorm room where I had the task of putting my remaining photos on Lauren's hard drive as a back up for my photos and to share our photos of the journey. This proved to be a long task as I had thousands of new photos to download since my previous download and it kept me up until 1am in the morning. I tried to then get some sleep, but to no avail as our inconsiderate dorm room mates kept coming in and out of the room for most of the night, slamming the door each time and keeping me awake. I got no more than two hours sleep and knew that I'd be exhausted the following day as a result. I got very frustrated and had some strong words with the French woman for slamming the door and she did then stop slamming it. This challenged my new optimism to its maximum, but it had been an adventurous and very enjoyable day, so the optimistic approach had worked very well there.Read more