Africa Day Eleven: Cape Point And Capetown: Botanical Gardens And Penguins!!!!! It Doesn’t Get Better Than This.

After lunch we headed north, now along the eastern shore of the Cape Peninsula, admiring the spectacular views of the ocean along the way. 

When we saw this sign we knew we were nearing our destination, Boulder Beach, home of a colony of African or ‘jackass penguins’. These penguins are they only species that live on the African continent. 

I was looking forward to seeing these penguins since they would be the eleventh species, of the seventeen species that live on our planet,  that I have seen and photographed.  And it didn’t take long to see one as we walked along the windy and rocky shore. 

I have always loved these fascinating birds.  And I  loved them even more observing them in the wild. I will never forget my first sighting of the gregarious chinstrap penguins on Bailey Head on Deception Island Antarctica. I have seen chinstrap, gentoo, emperor, king ,rockhopper, macaroni, magellanic. galapagos, adelie, little or fairy,  and now african or jackass penguin. 

The penguins living in South Africa nest from March to May so the chicks were pretty large when we visited. 

I could spends hours watching these curious critters frolicking on the shore or come in from the ocean. Here is a link to a video I uploaded to my YouTube Channel. https://youtu.be/Iz2sUErWo4U

And here is a link to video I uploaded which  will show how they got there name, there braying actually does sound very much like a donkey or jackass. https://youtu.be/Ko53wb-fBD4

Like all of their cousins i have seen these sociable birds provided us  a delightful show. 

There were other shore birds to be seen along the beautiful coast.

But the penguins, in my opinion sure were the cutest. Here is a link to some more photographs of our visit to Boulder Beach and the penguins. https://keepyoureyespeeled.net/africa-october-2016/nggallery/africa-october-2016/South-Africa-Boulder-Beach-penguins-October-19-2016-

We now drove north back to  Capetown and arrived at the famous Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens late in the afternoon. 

As some of you who followed my adventures in Australia, I love to visit botanical gardens.  I can wander for hours through the trees, flower gardens and native plants that are so carefully cultivated for our sensory pleasure and education. 

Our guide showed us this  beautiful and exotic flower native to South Africa, the bird of paradise, blooming throughout the gardens. 

We learned so much about the native floral on our visit as we roamed the pathways of the gardens with spectacular views of Table Mountain in the background. Here is a link to some more photographs of our visit s to the penguins and botanical gardens. https://keepyoureyespeeled.net/africa-october-2016/nggallery/africa-october-2016/South-Africa-Capetown-Botanical-Gardens-October-19-2016-

Penguins and gardens, what a perfect way to spend an afternoon. We made our way back to our lodging, and after a short rest  had a delicious dinner at the Millers Thumb  restaurant. It was another great day on our African adventure. 

The purpose of life is to live it, to taste it, to experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.”- Eleanor Roosevelt”