Friday, April 19, 2019 - Visited Cape Peninsula

Per our tour manager Jason’s direction, we had an early briefing at the hotel to go over general rules and to do self introduction of ourselves.  

After breakfast, we traveled to Cape Peninsula.  The 1st stop was Clifton, Cape Town which is an affluent suburb of Cape Town. It is an exclusive residential area and is home to the most expensive real estate in South Africa, with dwellings nestled on cliffs that have sweeping views of the Atlantic Ocean.  Then we drove along Atlantic Ocean coast to Hout Bay.  It is named after the wood from its once lush forest. Hout Bay is a popular tourist attraction that also happens to be a residential suburb, a mere 20 kilometers from Cape Town’s central business district. It boasts a beautiful white-sand beach, a bustling marina, art galleries, restaurants, and a working harbor that serves its thriving tuna, snook and crayfish industry.  We just had a short photo stop.  The whole scenery at Hout Bay is breathtaking. 

Then we went to Cape of Good Hope in Table Mountain National Park.  The 1st stop is Cape Point.  

Most of people think Cape Point is the most southern point of Africa.  However, it is not true, the southern most point of Africa is about 100km south of the Cape Point. There is a light house on the top of the hill of Cape Point.  Our guide gave us 1 hour to climb up and enjoy the view.  Fei and I climbed up to the light house.  The view up there is even better.  On the way to the top, we saw a lot of baboons,  One of the baboon even jumped on one of our tour members' head (who has red hair) and pulling her hair.  It was an interesting encounter for her.  

Then we went to the Cape of Good Hope.  There is a sign indicating that it is the most south-western point of African continent.  We all took the opportunity of taking photos there.

The we went to Simon’s Town for lunch at Boulders Beach’s restaurant.  After lunch, Jason took us to visit penguins on this famous beach.  There were a lot of South Africa penguins on this beach.  Penguin is one of the animals everybody likes.  We took many pictures there.

Then we visited the Kirstenbosch National Botanic Gardens. It is situated on the eastern slopes of Table Mountain. Kirstenbosch is internationally acclaimed as one of the seven most magnificent botanical gardens in the world. This 528-hectare Kirstenbosch Estate (which includes the Garden) falls under the Cape Floristic Region, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It includes a cultivated garden and a nature reserve. The developed garden displays collections of southern African plants including many rare and endangered species. There are also visitor facilities in the garden including restaurants, a nursery, a gift shop, and a bookshop.  

Then, we had a welcome dinner at Cape Town.