Betties Bay Penguins

The early nights are producing some subsequent early mornings... at least for Shannon and I.  We also figured we needed to get the girls on a better routine for the safari as I don’t think we’ll be sleeping until noon!  So after a nice bacon and eggs breakfast we headed east towards Betties Bay where we were told there is another penguin colony and a stunning drive.  We had hoped to do the Garden Route as it supposed to be absolutely incredible but couldn’t due to time so this is our easterly excursion.

The drive out to Betties Bay.

 The drive around False Bay was great.  It started out with a bunch of surfers ripping it up on some great surf that’s been blowing in over the last few days.  There are some beautiful beaches as we rounded the inner portion of the Bay and the sand blows across the road, narrowing it a bit but giving it a cool sand dune, almost desertish feel.  

We passed numerous shanty towns and Shan got a few great drive by photos.  As I looked at the photos (as I was too busy avoiding other vehicles) the one thing that stood out is all the satellite dishes.  Many of the houses barely had a roof on it but did have a satellite and TV.  The other crazy thing is the electrical layout.  Each power pole has a circus tent like appearance as the lines that go into the houses run from one pole to all the houses.  Many of these towns go on for as far as the eye can see and were no bigger than our kitchen back home.  

 

Shanty towns outside of Cape Town.

Heading around the eastern part of False Bay the landscapes were tremendous with reds and oranges of the road cuts and soil surrounded by rocky mountains and the incredible blue of the ocean.  The swell coming in was awesome and we stopped in a number of places just to watch the waves crash against the rocks.  

 

Shark lookout and ratings, poor visibility today.

We made it into Betties Bay and it was sure different from the busyness of the Cape Town side.  Very few signs so we decided to take the only paved road towards the beach and finally stumbled on the place we were looking for.  There were no crowds or tour buses and we got to hang out with the penguins for a few hours.  No matter how long you watch them they can always make you laugh with the way they strut about and jump from rock to rock.  We watched one trying to collect sticks for its nest although most already had their chicks that were cool to see them together.

Betties Beach used to be an old whaling station back in the day and then in 1980 the first African Penguin (also called Jackass Penguins) showed up on this beach.  Since then they’ve protected the area and there were over 2000 mating pairs.  The nests and birds were way easier to see than in Boulders Beach and it was so nice to just kick back to watch the waves break over the rocks while the penguins clowned around in the forefront.  

We decided to take the direct route back home to hit the money exchange place before they closed for the day.  Got that dealt with and we made it back to our place for a round of chicken quesadillas and another mellow evening.  Everything closes pretty early around here and unless we headed back into Cape Town there isn’t much to do in the evenings.  It’s pretty nice just chilling out with the girls and catching up on reading, blog stuff or just kicking back to watch a TV show.

Betties Bay watching the waves roll in.

My navigator.

Penguins Galore!

What a view!  We woke up this morning looking at the Indian Ocean.

Boulder Beach

Hey, there's a penguin right there!

Today is the day we decided to go for a walk and check out the penguins.  The girls were really looking forward to seeing them so off we went.  Not far from our place is Boulders Beach which is part of Table Mountain National Park.  We started our walk by following a fenced in path that led to the park’s kiosk.  Along the way we had our first sighting of a penguin.  They are truly cute!  They were poking out of their burrows and some had some chicks with them.  Some burrows were what looked like large old fashioned milk containers.  Apparently they make it easier for them to borrow and provides protection from the heat.  One thing I learned in reading some information about the penguins was that the penguins here are endangered so special measures have been put in place to help protect them.  

Daisys

As we walked along Jenna had a shock as a “Daisy” as they referred by the locals sat in a tree that was slightly overhanging the path right above her.  The daisies are super cute creatures about the size of a marmot but look like a brown guinea pig.  I took a few pictures because I thought it was so cute but had that been a snake I may have ran back to the car.  Upon arriving at the park kiosk we paid our fee and proceed down a boardwalk that was meant to keep people on the trail and away from the penguins.  As we got closer to the beach we saw more and more penguins and all we kept thinking was they are sooo cute especially when they walked.  Jenna took a short video of one as it walked around.  For a little while we had great views of the penguins as they went about their day.  At one point I just sat on a bench and just took in the beautiful day and the scenery before me.  Unfortunately it didn’t last forever as a couple of tour buses came and with the boardwalk not being that big it  made it really hard to see much of anything so we decided it was time to go.  Before leaving we had to stop in at the gift shop as Alyssa was dying to buy a stuffed penguin.  Believe it or not she didn’t have any problem finding one which she has since named “Boulder”.  With the purchase of a stuffed animal a portion of the sales goes back to the protection of the penguins which made Alyssa feel even better about her purchase.

Are you looking at me?

 We still had a fair bit of day left so we decided to head into Cape Town to check out the waterfront.  Alyssa really wanted to go to the aquarium but we didn’t have enough time for a decent visit before it closed.  When we first got to the waterfront we were welcomed by some great African music.  I am not sure if they were scheduled to be there or if they were buskers but we thought they were pretty good.  Not far from here was the South African equivalent of MEC.   We popped in as I thought I could use a warmer top for the Safari as it has been colder than I anticipated. After a quick look we headed back out to look around.  The wind was picking up and it was getting rather cool.  We saw a number of boats including one that was called the “Jolly Roger” that looked like an old wooden pirate ship.  Apparently you can book kids birthday parties on there and Alyssa thought that would be awesome. After walking around for a bit the girls were getting cold so we started to head back.  Kevin took us through some buildings that had different shops in them and Jenna could not understand why he would do such a thing if he had no intention of letting us look.  Have I mentioned Kevin doesn’t like to shop?  

Downtown Cape Town along the Quay with Table Mtn in the background.

On the way back home I know I fell asleep and I think one of the girls did too.   After eating dinners for the last month or so around 9 pm it seems strange to have everything pitch black by 6:30 pm.  The darkness definitely makes for a shorter day not to mention I feel like I need to go to sleep a lot earlier.   There is no heat in our place so we filled up the hot water bottles, read, watched TV and then called it a night.

Baby penguin hanging out waiting for mom.

Safari Prep Day

Today we woke up to a much cooler day with clouds and wind.  We had arrived with such nice blue skies and warm but today it barely pushing 13C and it feels even cooler than that!  Going from the hot and dry to wet and cool sure changes things.  As we drove around the streets people were in parkas and puff coats so I don’t think they’re overly used to this type of weather either.  We figured today would be a good day to find all the things we need for the safari and Shannon desperately wanted to go hit a hair salon where there were actually women working (all the salons in Turkey had old men in them!).  We dropped Shannon off and the girls and I headed for Fish Hoek to work on the list.

The sunrays from our front window in the morning.

 We found a great little cafe there where the girls found the best hot chocolate of the whole trip.  The locals are super friendly and everyone has huge smiles on their faces.  It’s pretty fun chatting and joking around with the locals, they sure must think we’re goofy tourists but it makes for a good laugh.  We headed back to pickup Shan and Alyssa and I found a dive shop next to the hair salon.  It sounds like the diving is pretty good here and its super reasonable for a day of diving.  Not sure if I’ll have time but it sure would be fun!  Alyssa also discovered that she can take the dive course now so that’s on her things to do list now.  Maybe next summer in Campbell River!

We decided to head back towards Cape Town to a big mall to find our stuff and I’m pretty sure the girls could have spent more time here.  Things are quite a bit cheaper here than at home as we found nice synthetic sleeping bags for $40 Canadian.   We went to this place that was South Africa’s equivalent to Mountain Equipment Co-op which was pretty nice.  We were looking for water purifying tablets and one of the sales guys told us about these drops that you can use and it tastes way better.  They gave a whole website so I’ve got to check it out as it kills bacteria and viruses which you can also use for anything from athletes foot to acne!  Its just a back up for our trip but great thing to discover.

The view back towards Cape Town from the deck.

We headed for home and really noticed how early it gets dark around here, by 7pm it’s completely dark but I guess that’s what happens when you go to southern Africa in their winter.  We cooked up a great feast of marinated pork steak with potatoes and corn on the cob.  Home cooked meals are now the treat and going out has really lost its charm.  I never thought I’d hear that from the girls!

Tonight we also had to make our final decision on how to get to Johannesburg, whether to jump on the plane or take the overland route by train and see some of the countryside.  They both cost pretty much the same its just the train is 26 hours while the plane ride is 2!  We decided to go with the train as both girls were into it and we thought it’s unlikely we’ll get a chance to experience anything like this again so we booked our four person sleeper.  As we hung out debating to go to bed or not you could hear the wind just ripping outside.  Reminds me of the big storms back in Campbell River but completely on the other side of the globe!

Travel Day(s)

Today was the big travel day where we

Storks nesting on the old city walls.

leave Turkey and head to South Africa!  We all knew it was going to be a long day as we were catching the train from Selcuk at 9am and getting into Cape Town at 11:45 the following morning!  So off past the nests of storks near the train station in Selcuk to catch the train to the airport.  It stops right at the airport so it made for a pretty easy commute.  We had a wait there and then onto Istanbul.

That flight was easy and we had 5 hours in Istanbul which made for collecting our bags, moving to the international departures and rechecking in for a nice mellow, stress free endeavour.  Grabbed some food and got the crib board out and next thing you know, we’re boarding the plane.  I have to say Emirates Airlines is incredible and if you ever have the option, go with them.  It’s like the old ways were you get food, drinks, alcohol, blankets, you name it and they serve it... for free!  The trip to Dubai went way faster than I thought it would and next thing you know we’re climbing off that plane to jump on a bus that takes you to the terminal.  Walking out of the plane we were hit with 39C heat in the middle of the night.  I can’t imagine what it would be like in the heat of the day.

Train station in Selcuk.

Another short stopover in Dubai, which I was glad we had as we had to go through security again and find our gate in this huge airport so we had enough time to make the experience totally stress free.  Back on the plane for the big 9.5 hours to Cape Town.  We all managed to get a bit of sleep on the plane and were awakened to the smell of breakfast and coffee.  I couldn’t stop thinking how much I love this airline!  Showed up in Cape Town to almost 20C which wasn’t too bad and all our bags showed up which was an added bonus!  We were off to find our car rental and venture off to Simon’s Town where our accommodation was.

There are a few things about South Africa which came apparent pretty quickly.  The goofy buggers are or were heavily influenced by England (not surprising as they were a colonized country) and somehow adopted driving on the wrong side of the road.  So here I go again with climbing into the wrong side of the vehicle and started driving out of the airport on the wrong side of the road!  Corrected that quickly and made it to our place after an unscheduled tour of Cape Town.  Took a bit longer than anticipated but finally we made it.  Wow, what a beautiful place.  We all got our first views of the shanty towns on the way in from the airport and also toured a few areas with beautiful big houses which are all gated and heavily fortified. 

Airport in Izmir.

We arrived in Simonstown and met Pauline, our super friendly, kind host who gave us a run down on the place and the area.  Our place has this stunning view of False Bay and we can see right across to the other side.  We even managed to see whales and dolphins from our deck within one hour of arriving!  It turns out that South Africa has an issue with electricity and is on a blackout system where they are informed in the morning that certain areas will be without power for most of the day.  So far so good but Pauline did inform us to keep our laptop and cell phones charged as you find out the day of the blackout.

Airport in Istanbul.

Airport in Dubai.

Shannon and I headed out to a nearby town to grab some food for the time we’re here and discovered that things are similar to home in terms of food and grocery stores.  It was nice to stock up some food we all will like but unfortunately for Jenna we couldn’t find any Kraft Dinner.  Apparently that’s the first meal we’re having when we get home for her birthday dinner!  It’s pretty cool, we drove no more than five minutes and went from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic in that time!  The surf looks pretty big on the Atlantic side but apparently its super cold as the water comes up from the Antarctic current.  We headed home for dinner and some English TV and I think it was the crack of 9pm and we were crashed.   Wow, that was a quick two days!!!

Whales sighted from our deck.

Disneyland on Water

Cool old heads off statues from Ephesus.

This morning we went to the Ephesus Museum. Well at least me, mom, and dad did (Jenna slept in). It was neat but also quite funny being that the same contents were in the British Museum but these ones actually came from the same area.  We saw statues, really really old coins that were thousands of years old (they’d be perfect for a coin collection), and jewellery that was thousands of years old too.  It was amazing how perfect some of the statues were as they didn’t have half as many tools as we do now. Even some of the statues that we 500 BC were perfect and smooth.  They even had little miniature

Crazy old coins.

toys that you could roll around on the ground.  After seeing the museum we went back to the room to get sleeping beauty and got ready to go to AquaFantasy, a waterpark just out of town.

When we got there, I saw that there was a pool and some little slides.  I was excited.  However, when I saw a picture of it, the park was Ginormouse.  I literally could not smiling, it was pretty much Disneyland on water. If you want a reference the Salmon Arm waterslide isn’t a ¼ of this park. 

We all grabbed tubes (lots of the slides need them and they even have doubles) and headed up one the tower to the slides.  The one I went on was pitch black and had some lights that made you think you were going to turn right and then it went left.  I started screaming and then I shot out of the slide.  Later we went on one slide that you didn’t use tubes.  The slide reminded me of a toilet bowl that flushed you around and around but I didn’t know what happened after that.  I made dad go first and I went next.  At first I got water sprayed in my face but when I saw the exit all it was, was a hole in the bottom.  I screamed at the top of my lungs and was terrified to go out the bottom.  I went head first into a pool and when I surfaced I looked for the exit and swam out.

AquaFantasy aka Disneyland on water.

There were so many slides that we

Toilet bowl.

went on that I can’t even remember them all.  One of my favourites was the biggest one of them all.  It took a while to get on it because it had a pretty big line up but when we got on it, it was well worth it.  It had a toilet bowl, something that shot you down and back up again and then you went into a hamster bowl that had water spraying every which way.   It was well worth the wait.  One of the slides went down then shot you back up and then went back down again then shot you up again and then just went down. I made the mistake of letting my butt touch the ground because there was a vent at the

Alyssa getting flushed.

bottom.  Also when you shot back up you sometimes got a bit of air which wasn’t fun being that water sprayed right in your face when you did. My actual favourite slide for memory was one that went straight down and you just slide on your back. It’s my favourite one for memory because we got mom to go on it and dad ripped his favourite pair of swim shorts! Gosh did it hurt though because it gave you the biggest wedgy of all time.

Well after mom and dad got me to change, we headed back home. When we got there we lounged around but then hunger drove us out of our beds and chairs to a restaurant. Well we ordered our food and ate. I had a delicious chicken schnitzel.  After dinner we headed back to our hostel to get a good night sleep for our big travel day tomorrow!   

The drop of doom!

The statue of Artimenis at the Ephesus Museum.