Day 8 - Pt 1 : Penguins on the Peninsula

No idea why I’m not sleeping well, but I’m not. I wake up at 04:30, and just can’t get back to sleep. I get up for a couple of hours, do some vaguely useful stuff, and happily manage to fall back to sleep for another hour or so before our alarm goes off. I know it’s not anxiety or stress driven, so really have no explanation for it. I can always nap later if the need takes me.

We’re up and out in decent time today, heading over to the Cape peninsula. On the way South, we take the coast road - meandering through Sea Point, Camps Bay and down to Hout Baai. These are some of my favourite coastal roads - just stunning scenery… In Hout Baai, we take the road up and over Chapman’s Peak, a tight and twisty road over the mountains. The views are breathtaking, and we stop a couple of times to breathe them in. On the South side of the Peak, we take a wander down onto Noordhooek beach - just the most stunning expanse of pure white sand I’ve ever seen. It joins up with Kommetje to the South, and runs for around 4 miles. It’s all but deserted. The sun is beating down, and the march across the sandy beach is a little more body taxing than we’d signed up for. We cool down in the car a little, and head to a brilliant little brewery called Aegir, just up the road in Noordhoek. Their house beers are terrific, their food equally so. A burger for Vicks, and a proper New York style hot dog for me. They also make a hot sauce in-house. I pour a little on my purlicue and lick it. For 5 seconds, it tastes amazing! The flavour is then overtaken by intense heat. Beads of sweat appear on my forehead almost instantly. I hiccup. Turning the bottle, I read the ingredients. I am idiot. 100% idiot.

Recovered (me) and sated (both), we’re back in the car for the quick drive down to Simonstown, where we’ve an appointment with some African Penguins. We’ve visited these guys before, but they’re always great fun to hang out with for a while. We both adore the way they walk - which can best be described as ’10 pints in’. The juveniles are just shedding their soft fur, and readying to go in the water for the first time. Some are mid-moult, and look more than a little dishevelled.

We take the inland road back to our hotel, which takes us up and over the mountains, and down into the city bowl. Traffic’s building as we approach the Friday rush hour. Vicki passes the time by dozing quietly next to me. We’re back in our room by 16:00, and I’m ready for an ice cold Savanna.Read more