Simon's Town

Yesterday I arrived in Simon's town on a bus from Cape Town with two people I met in the hostel there. After securing lodgings at the hostel here, we hired the owner to take us by car on a tour to Cape point, where we hiked up the mountain with sheer cliffs on either side. Some brilliant planner built a train-like thing to take lazy people up to the top. Personally i think that's wack and that if you can't make it, you shouldn't be able to see it. After hiking to the second, and newest, lighthouse I went on a hike from cape point to the cape of good hope. It wasn't that far, but the views were amazing, I'll try to post a pic here shortly. The only thing I can compare it to in Colorado is the high country above timberline in the summer, short shrubs, high winds, etc. All the cliffs we made a slight detour and hiked down to what was possibly the most picturesque beach I've ever seen. the downside was that once we were on the beach, the same high winds picked up grains of sand and proceeded to give me the harshest scouring of my life. I still managed to get some sweet pics though. The waves were incredible, long tubes maybe 20-25 ft high. Really really cool to see, hopefully the pictures do it justice. After beating a hasty retreat to the semi-shelter of the cliffs we took lunch. I had been carrying a loaf of bread purchased in Simons Town at a bakery you could smell from a block away. i think I'll go back there and try to scrounge some pastries. After finishing the hike, Kevin the hostel owner drove us around the park there so we could get a chance to maybe see some wildlife, and the changing terrain. I was amazed at how quickly the plants changed, driving along flanked by towering bushes suddenly giving way to low almost tundra-like shrubs, with virtually no buffer. You could look back and it seemed like a wall of bushes just ending. Supposedly there are zebra in the park there, but we didn't see them, we did see ostriches though. I had seen pictures of them before but they are even more impressive up close. They are pretty big probably about 7-8 ft tall, they were grazing so it was hard to tell for sure, but very awkward looking, and I would have to saw the dumbest animals I've ever come across. Back towards town i got dropped off just south of town so I could go to Boulder's Beach, a combination penguin conservatory and public beach. No I didn't go swimming, bit too nippy for that, but i did see penguin couples and chicks/jouveniles. A nice jaunt back to the hostel after procuring some fish and chips for dinner. I'm really sore today from hiking yesterday, probably the most physical thing I've done in a month, so I'm using the rest of the day for planning my next step, and just chilling. Hope all is well, I'll probably write to you from Hermanus.