Bird is the Word in Cape Town — The Sleepy Cheese

World travel is finally back on the menu, boys! Sure, that menu may now be even more expensive, with some items out of stock or overpriced - I’m looking at you, every single Delta flight going anywhere to anywhere - but who cares! The world is on fire politically, economically, and climate-ah-lly, so the odds it/us being around by the time retirement comes around is pretty slim. So allow me to let my 401k whither like that dying pothos on my back porch, and funnel that money into something truly useful. Like taking photos of animals. Let’s start with penguins, shall we?

Penguins getting off work and coming home.

There’s nothing out there for you little penguin, or for anyone.

Our five-country trip with Mike and Shobi starts with a long weekend in Cape Town, a beautiful city that will now be associated with the longest immigration/customs wait I’ve ever had. Aside from those almost two hours I’ll never get back, the arrival process and rental car pickup were fine.

There are many reasons one could find to visit Cape Town, but seeing as my goal for the year is to get enough quality photos to put together my own nature calendar, number one on my list was the penguins. For a small fee, you can visit the preserve at Boulder Beach, one of the few places in the world where you can get up close to wild African penguins. Also called the Cape penguin, or black footed penguin, these sharp dressed little birds have a strong colony on the outskirts of the city on a beach protected by a grouping of giant granite boulders. Visit around sunrise or sunset for the best chance of getting a good photo and seeing the (so cute you gotta poke the person next to you in the ribs) birds coming in from hunting for food in the ocean.

No matter how hard you flap little penguin, you’ll never fly. None of us will.

Time not spent seeing the penguins was used to visit Bo-Kaap, Table Mountain, The Neighborhood Market, Easter Food Bazaar for some tasty Bunny Chow, and recovering from jet lag a bit before heading north to Namibia and Botswana for the main part of the trip.

How we got here: Delta, used points and upgraded to “premium economy” which was totally worth it.
Where we stayed: Protea Waterfront Hotel. Decent hotel in the waterfront area, centrally located. We rented a car and also used Uber as high levels of petty crime make walking the city inadvisable. This is the first city I can recall where home and entire communities are surrounded by electrified fences. It was shocking. Ahem.