South Africa Day 5 - Penguins!

After breakfast we also went to the supermarket to buy water. Then we took the bus towards the coast. We drove through Bantry Bay, a suburb of Cape Town located on the steep slopes of Lion's Head. On the rocky coast of Bantry Bay there is a memorial plaque commemorating Charles Darwin, who made important geological observations on the nature and origin of granite here.
We continued along Victoria Road to Sea Point, another wealthy suburb of Cape Town. There we stopped at the rocky coast. The weather was quite cool and overcast and the Atlantic Ocean showed its rough, wild side. The sea was grey and waves up to 5 m high piled up in front of us and broke with a loud crash on the huge round rocks on the coast. The water was definitely not inviting for swimming, but apart from the weather, the sea was also very cold. So we contented ourselves with climbing up the rocks and taking photos. Two of us also got a short, involuntary shower ;)

At around 11am we continued for about 1.5 hours, first along the coast past Llandudno, a small, very expensive bay. The road we rode along had a steady, slight incline and is very popular with racing cyclists for training for precisely this reason. We then rode along Constantia Main Road in rain and fog for a while. But soon afterwards it cleared up again and we saw the kilometer-long beach of Fish Hoek. A few bends further downhill we rode past the coastal town of Glencarin and reached False Bay. Here the water was much calmer than in Cape Town and a delicate blue.
Finally we reached our destination, the "Boulders Visitor Centre" in Table Mountain National Park. Here we had the opportunity to see the African penguin colony on Boulders Beach. The animals live in the wild and there were walkways on the beach that we could walk over and watch the animals. The African penguins are the only penguins living in South Africa. Each penguin has a unique pattern of black dots on its white chest and belly. The penguins drink salt water, filter it through glands and then sneeze the salt out again. They can dive up to 130 m deep and swim at speeds of 20 km/h. They have a bare strip of skin above their eyes, which helps them cool down. In addition to the adult penguins, we also saw young animals and chicks. The female African penguins always lay two eggs and then share the responsibility for incubating the eggs with their partner, taking turns over a period of 40 days. The penguins are partners for life, with 80-90% of all penguin couples staying together for life.
After a good hour, which went by far too quickly because you could have watched the cute animals for hours, we got back on the bus. The next stop was not revealed to us, however. And so it was a big surprise when we arrived at the Cool Runnings Cape Town summer toboggan run a good 1.5 hours later. Each of us got two rides for free, which was a really great gift. Thank you very much at this point! After a short briefing, all 69 of us went up the hill one after the other and then down a 1.25 km long route with lots of curves. Everyone had a lot of fun and it was a great surprise!
Afterwards we still had time to explore the shopping centre at Cape Town's Waterfront, which was 30 minutes away.
Back at the hostel we had dinner and packed our suitcases as we would be leaving Cape Town on Wednesday morning.