A Dream Come True: South Africa - Part 2, Cape Town and Boulder’s Beach

I’ve already told you that I love elephants, but you know what other animal I also love?

PENGUINS!

As much as I loved being in the bush and being on a safari again, I could not wait to get to Simon’s Town. Ever since I found out about the penguin colony in Simon’s Town when I was a teenager, I knew that this was a place that I could not miss, and it was one of the big reasons why we chose to go to Cape Town. In fact, we stayed in Simon’s Town precisely because I wanted to be close to Boulder’s Beach!

And I was! I was only a short walk away! Did I go see the penguins a little too often? You bet! But come on?! How could I not?!

We were there during winter time, which means that there were not as many penguins as there are in the summer, but there were still plenty to make me happy! Not only that, there were also plenty of dassies (cape hyrax) around too!

You pay a small entrance fee, and as soon as you walk in you see the boardwalk.

I spent a long time on the boardwalk looking at the lone penguins that were around, little did I know how many I would see only a few steps away!

When we got to the lookout, there were hundreds of penguins around us! For a small fee at the entrance, you get to see them soak in the sun, play in the water, and go out for a swim. It is very important that you never touch the penguins, only watch as they interact which each other in their natural habitat.

Most of the penguins were on the beach, but a great amount of them were also hidden in the shade of the trees and bushes around the boardwalk. We got to see them as we went from one lookout to the one on the other side of the beach. There were penguins on either side of the boardwalk. To my surprise, we went there during hatching season! Meaning…SO many babies! Lots and lots of babies! They were adorable, and cute, and fluffy.

The mamas on the beach had between two to five babies hanging out with them!

It was an incredible experience and I have already told myself that at some point I have to go back in the summer to swim with the penguins!

This was not the only amazing thing we saw during our week in Cape Town. We got to hike Table Mountain! But that deserves its own post. We also went to an ostrich farm and learned about ostriches, ostrich eggs, and the ostrich meat business in South Africa. We also drove all around the cape and saw the Cape of Good Hope.

One of my favorites was our our visit to the Iziko SA museum. If you like museums or if you are traveling with middle school kiddos, this museum is a great activity. It was very informative. Their Nelson Mandela exhibit was especially well displayed.

We saw Lion’s Head from a distance. Unfortunately, we did not have time to hike it like we wanted to. Oh well, that just means we’ll have to take another trip!

I have to say, Cape Town is the perfect city for adventure and nature seekers. You have the beach on one side where you can surf, SUP, or kayak away, and then you have the mountains on the other side, where you can hike, bike, and run. There are also plenty of day trips that you can take from there.

If you want adventure, then I highly suggest you head over to Cape Town.