Penguin Selfies!

Today was supposed to be a hike up Table Mountain, but unfortunately the weather was not cooperative. Instead, we extended our plans for the Cape Pennisula to fit the rest of our day. 

We visited the Cape of Good Hope. Our safari began with viewings of ostriches and elands in Table Mountains National Park. The cape is the land of two oceans, with the Indian and Atlantic oceans meeting. We hiked up the moutains around the area, and a few of our number proved pretty fearless. Kyle, Coleson, and Alexis got super close to the edge. 

Mountain hiking was followed by a drive to Simon Town for lunch at a restaurant on the beach, where we watched penguins waddle across the beach and itched to pick up our cameras. After a delicious and much needed lunch at Seaforth Restaurant, we viewed African penguins on the beach and the theme of the day was penguin selfies! Beat that! Here's a just a sample of the penguin selfie phenomenon

Update

Update : The day after our arrival we visited Robben Island. Our visit really had a impact on us, since we read Nelson Mandela's " A Long Walk to Freedeom" for class. A man who had been imprisoned for fighting for education gave us our tour, and we all were struck by his bravery. Returning to a place where you had been tortured and imprisoned to retell your story is impressive. 

  While on the island, we saw red deer, tortoises, and seals. On the boat a few of us got to see dolphins jumping.

 The city is beautiful, and we are busy exploring the tidal pools on the coast in what little spare time we have. Beach front walks are a favorite too. 

Wednesday:

 On Wednesday we explored the beach front in the opposite direction. We discovered a sandy beach, where Kyle took the lead on jumping into the ocean, followed by Alexis, Coleson and Haley. 

Our guide arrived later that day, and took us to Blouberg Strand for a wine and cheese tasting at Fairview Winery. We are officially wine snobs now. That wonderful event was followed by a visit to Stellenbosch, which hosts one of the largest universities here. A tour of the botanical gardens ended our events for the day. 

 We had a fantastic dinner at Quad Four in Victoria Wharf, where we had exotic seafood and springbok shanks. 

Everyone is doing fantastic, and we are all having a wonderful time!