Good Hope and Animals

Sunday was filled with wonderful and new adventures. We received our wake-up call at 6:15 AM and left for the Cape of Good Hope (also called the Cape of Storms) by 8:15 AM. En route we heard many things about the vegetation (the Cape had species of vegetation that can only be found here--up to 7500 of them), animal life, and stories of discovery and storms. As we drove toward the national park we needed to stop along the way for a family of baboons that were playing, laying, and various other things in the street. Baby baboons wrestling is not a typical sight in Eau Claire, so needless to say we were pretty captivated by it all. After many warnings about the baboons interactions with people when we arrived at the old lighthouse, where we all got out and rode up a trolley sort of vehicle to get to the lighthouse, the choir was a bit jumpy at the baboons in the parking lot that seemed to be interested in what they were doing. We took some wonderful pictures at the top by the lighthouse and then proceeded to ride down to the point with a sign making the spot. Group pictures and some rock climbing later we were off towards lunch.

The big adventure on the way to the restaurant was the sighting of two whales (not supposed to be here yet). To get to the restaurant we walked across white sand in 90+ degree weather. After a lunch of sea bass--excellent--it was down the boardwalk to see the colony of penguins. 15 years ago 15 penguins migrated to this part of Africa and have been prolific to the point of a colony of over 2800 now. On our way toward Stellenbosch to visit Stellenbosch University (a school to which UW-Eau Claire has an exchange relationship) we drove past some fences behind which we saw ostrich, wildebeest, and antelope (and probably others I can't remember).

We met with the church choir at Stellenbosch and had some picnic foods that they had prepared for us, talked, sang for each other, and talked some more. It was a great experience to be able to share our common passion for music. Some of the member of their choir mentioned the obvious passion that we had for our music--great compliment. Around 6 PM we were back in the buses and on our way back to the hotel. It was a down evening before another early wake-up call for our last full day in Cape Town--definitely one of the most beautiful cities of the world.