Do you love penguins? How about spectacular beaches?
I thought so. This post is going to blow your mind.
Boulders Beach is located in Simon’s Town, one of the highlights of Cape Point (which, as I detailed in yesterday’s post, is a highly scenic peninsula just south of Cape Town). Here are the giant granite boulders after which the beach is named:
Don’t you just want to jump in? Me too.
But as if a pristine beach wasn’t enough of an attraction, there are PENGUINS frolicking all over the area. In fact, I spot dozens of them just walking from the parking lot to the viewpoint. Dozens!
Many of them stand still with flappers open to the air, drying their feathers following a morning swim. The plastic numbered containers above encourage penguins to nest in this protected area.
Wooden pathways continue towards the water. Penguins are all over the place, walking freely under the boardwalk and in blissful ignorance of the humans above them.
Watching these little tuxedoed guys reminds me of my visit to Phillip Island near Melbourne, Australia — where I watched penguins come in from the ocean and waddle their way to nests in the hills at sunset. It was a very memorable night.
Here is the primary viewpoint where tourists congregate to watch the penguins:
How impressive are these boulders? Honestly, even without adorable penguins roaming around, it would be a pretty remarkable destination.
On my way out, I run into new friend Vanessa from Germany, who is staying at the same hostel as me in Cape Town. She is just delightful, as is her friend Sandra — I end up running into them again a week later in another hostel in Port Elizabeth, as we are covering the same stretch of the Garden Route. It’s so comforting to bump into a familiar face on the road.
The sign below cracks me up — it’s just like this one on Phillips Island. Clearly penguins like to hide under vehicles!
At this point I leave Boulders Beach to head south towards Cape of Good Hope. But when I pass by later in the day I return for a few minutes (my ticket from this morning is still good) because now the sun is out in full force and all the clouds are gone. This time I just walk through for about ten minutes to snap a few photos in different light — the colors of the water are more intense:
TL;DR: penguins and beaches are a fabulous combination.
