Cape Town 2013 (aka PENGUINSS)

[penguin19]

So in April 2013 me and my boyfriend went to Cape Town - South Africa. He is originally from South Africa and felt the first place I needed to visit in SA was Cape Town. Although we did visit Durban for 2 days (where he is from) this report will only have Cape Town pictures.

We took over 2500 pictures and this is just a small selections - including my unhealthy obsession with Penguins

We flew emirates via Dubai. For someone who hates flying this was an awfully long trip, but emirates were fantastic

Our first views of Cape Town, the mountains are beautiful and the clouds over them are a stunning sight

This is my first penguin picture. This is the colony in Betty's Bay. We visited Cams grandad and these little guys were just round the corner!

These are the views driving back from the penguins. We were heading to stellenbosch for our 1st couple of nights to Camp with Cams Uncle and his family and friends. We were staying with them for the 2 weeks so they invited us along to camp too

This was the Camp site, best one I've ever been too. Amazing

We went wine tasting in Stellenbosch. Glorious. We paid around £2.30 for 9 glasses of mine. Bargain

This was a common site, and one we saw on our travels back to the camp site

We headed into central Cape Town on our 3rd day after leaving the camp site, this is a massive statue made from coke boxes celebrating the achievements of the South African Olympic team

We also visited Two Oceans Aquarium as the weather was rather wet, was a great aquarium

Love this guy...

More penguins... The next day we decided to go and visit the main penguin colony in Simons Town (Boulders Beach)

I was very excited!

This was fantastic. You could go down to the beach and chill with them (these pictures to come)

This was a picture of the breeding colony you couldn't go down to these, but there was hundreds of them

Me and my little penguin friend. Amazing to get so close to them. Was also important to give them their space and not touch them

We then decided to go for a drive round the coast. The route was called chaplains peak and it was stunning. It was a stunning day so we went at a great time.

We went past some lovely towns and beaches which we would revisit later and headed down to Cape Point

Our view on Chaplains peak

Cape Point was lovely. We walked up to the lighthouse and the view was stunning. We were also able to head down to the Cape of Good Hope which is Africa's most south western point.

As it was such a beautiful evening we headed to signal hill for the sunset. This is opposite Table Mountain and you have a fantastic view of it. We also got to witness the 'table cloth' over the mountain which was amazing. Not a cloud in the sky except here

Beautiful sunset

We then headed off to Durban for 3 days... When we returned we went on a game drive, we went to a fantastic reserve called Iverdoorn. It was in the middle of nowhere but it was stunning

This is the reserve before we headed off. Just a fantastic day out really. Our drivers were amazing

We were lucky enough to see 8 of these little guys

The next day we officially called Penguin day, as we went to visit the little guys again. Firstly we went to a penguin rehabilitation centre which looked after injured or abandoned penguins. They do a fantastic job and most of the penguins are released back into the wild again

However not all can be for various reason. This picture is of Rocky, he is a rockhopper penguin who turned up in Cape Town. He is not from Africa and cannot be released but is happy to meet the general public and is very friendly.

We then went back to boulders beach to see the sun set with the penguins. We were staying in a hotel right on the beach for the night meaning we could wake up to penguins and spent some more time with them.

I love this photo they live in a beautiful place

This is one of my favourites. I love his little face here. Again I made sure not too get too close and distress him. He was happy to stand there and pose for a photo!

Now this photo is just amazing. As I said we stayed in a lodge next to the penguins. We were sooo lucky here as we had a family of penguins outside our door. This is quite rare here so we were over the moon. It was amazing that the penguins just walked around the town at night time, we saw them everywhere.

We watched our little family for hours

The next day it was time for table mountain. We chose a good day weather was great and we got a clear view of the mountain and also on top of it it was freeeeezing on top though. Brrr

However the views made up for the chill

On our way back we made a quick visit to kristenbosch gardens, these are next to table mountain and are simply stunning. Unfortunately we didn't spent enough time here

I just thought I'd throw this in here. This is a shack in a township, really is quite sad to see the poverty in South Africa right next to such wealth and beauty.

Now then, this was one of my favourite days (not including penguins)

We went GREAT WHITE SHARK CAGE DIVING! And it was the best thing I've ever done! Simply stunning. The sharks are just beautiful. We saw 8 different sharks, each coming to the boat about 4 times so we saw lots of action.

Shark!

Love this one

Our turn to go into the cage...

A sight to behold. At one point we came face to face with one underneath the water. Amazing

We also went surfing one day... Cam was good, I was horrific!

These waters contained sharks, I kinda wanted to be kicked out of the water due to a shark just to say it happened... Although obviously without anyone being attacked!

We also went scuba diving which was great fun!

All in all a fantastic trip in a beautiful city in a beautiful country. If you get the chance to go, please do!

[app]

New Photo Added by penguin19 - 16 Jul 13 6:09 PM.

[JackyH]

What fantastic photos. A brilliant experience and the penguins are sooooo cute. Thanks for sharing.

[penguin19]

Originally Posted by JackyH

What fantastic photos. A brilliant experience and the penguins are sooooo cute. Thanks for sharing.

See more...

Thank you

It really was a fantastic holiday! The penguins were amazing!