Biking....to the End of the WORLD

So, we have started to pack as much physical activity into each weekend as possible. A few weeks ago, we went on a bike tour, which was the perfect beginning to our activity regimen. We were picked up at our house by Louis, the tour coordinator, in a van trailed by about twenty bicycles. We were the first ones picked up, so as we drove around town, picking up about seven other tourists from all over the globe, Louis told Sebastien and I about himself, and places we should go while we are here. He was from Zimbabwe, or "Zim" as everyone here calls it, and like many others I have met, as soon as he moved here, he knew he was home. At any rate, we drove the van around the city, and then past all the popular, touristy beaches, and then kept going to Chapman's Peak Drive, which winds around the Peninsula. On one side of us is a rock wall, and on the other side is a large, imposing cliff and then the rocky coast of the Atlantic Ocean. We drove through towns we had been through before with our roommate, Ryan, like Noordhoek and Haut Bay (in Dutch, "haut" mean's wood), and then drove on to Simon's Town, South Africa's premier naval base town. We got out of the van and went through a park, down to a beach that has a penguin colony of about 3,000. It seems that 20 of these little guys just decided, in the 1980's, that they too needed a change of pace, swam hundreds of miles from islands off the South African coast. They are one of only two mainland penguin colonies in the world. The townspeople think they are pests, and the fences around the beach where they live is as much to protect them from predators, as they are to keep them out of the town. We sadly saw one in the gutter on our way to the beach, who made the sewer his home. We had heard that these penguins are fondly called "Jackass" penguins, because of the sound they make, and when we saw them, it was unbelievable that something so small and cute could produce such a noise. We met back at the van, and within a matter of minutes, Louis had stopped so we could watch a whale off the coast. It was going much faster than he expected it should, this time of year, and we had to start and stop the van a few times to catch up with it. When we finally caught up with it in the bay, it stayed to feed, so we were able to watch for quite a few minutes. Mostly what we saw was its back above the water, and spurts of water coming up from the surface, but it was amazing. They are huge, and to be this close was really wonderful.
We continued along the road until the Cape Peninsula National Park. Here is where the story gets crazy with baboons ("don't feed them"). Baboons on the road, baboons jumping on cars, baboons trying to get into windows to eat a sandwich. Don't feed them. They get angry. They are awesome, and very much like people in ways, but they are quick, and they are hungry, and they get what they want. So, shortly after seeing all the baboons along the roadway, Louis let us out of the van, gave us each a bike, warned us again not to feed the baboons, and off we went, on a narrow road, with small shrubs and protea on both sides of us, and the possibility of seeing animals. We unfortunately didn't see any, but the smells were intoxicating, and the landscape was gorgeous and vast. As I rode, I was amazed that everything smelled like honey. On thinking about this now, I think I was mostly just hungry. After lunch we re-boarded our bicycles and cycled along the same road to a path that leads to the Lighthouse of Good Hope (I made that name up, actually, but I like it). There was one pretty steep point in the road, but it did me some good, and besides - how can you argue with the ocean to look at the entire way? We hiked up to the lighthouse, which is now defunct because it wasn't bright enough, and then over to the new and improved lighthouse, seeing many black lizards on the path as we went. When we met with our tour leader again, he showed us the trail to the actual Cape of Good Hope - the one you used to read about in 6th grade geography - and it was beautiful. We walked on a path of wooden planks, and I worried about people slipping when it is rainy (we were there on a gorgeous day). The planks keep you from tromping over the landscape, and, as I am sure over a million people go there every year, and it is a crucial place, Earth-wise (fact: the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve IS classified as one of the Earth's few ecosystems), I didn't stray from the planks. It is like the moon. Boulders and sparse plants were all that was there besides the lizards. I am sure there were plenty of animals there too, but unfortunately (or probably fortunately), they were in bed under the boulders in the middle of the day.
On the trip back, we saw springboks playing in a field near the Cape, and zebras and water buffalo up the street from our house (at the nature reserve). So, all-in-all, it was a very eventful day, full of lots of animals, and thankfully, some exercise.