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.