I woke up at 4am feeling completely over whatever the weirdness was from the day before, even got a decent 7 hours of sleep. I started on the blog, Ash was up about 5:30. We went down for breakfast around 6:45 and lingered there for a couple of hours, just reading things and playing games on our phones. It had been a while since we’d just done nothing, and today was going to be a lot of that. The only plans we had was to check out of the Marriott in downtown Cape Town and check in to our Airbnb in Simon’s Town about an hour south.

The weather today was much different than the prior day – as forecasted – and we’d intentionally left it pretty open. We wanted to be able to chill some before the 36-hour trek home. We finally checked out about 11:30am and got on the road. One of the benefits of the weather: the beautiful rainbows we saw along the way, above and below.

We made it to Simon’s Town about 12:30 as planned. It’s a little town, population about 7000, nestled against hills on the east coast of the cape on False Bay, just north of where we were yesterday.

One of the reasons to come to Simon’s Town: it is home to a colony of South African penguins. There are only about 20,000 of them in the world, and about 3500 of them are in this colony.

When was the last time you had to search for penguins under your car?

There were two wooden walkways that led to the beach in different directions, and penguin nests were on either side of it. One section of it went up and down quite a bit; it’s a hilly area.

This is breeding season and we saw some of them sitting on eggs. And it’s not always the mother – the parents take turns. Penguins mate for life and always return to the same spot for breeding.

Here’s an example of a good downward part of the path.

A few penguins coming out of the bay.

Selfie or it didn’t happen! See the landing with all the people on it across the beach? That’s where we went next.

A reminder that they are not tame and living, at least somewhat, in their natural habitat. Somebody jumped the walkway into the penguin area and one of the birds got so freaked out it jumped onto the walkway and worked its way into a corner of it. The staff was trying to use gloved hands and a net to get it back on the beach but it wasn’t having any of it. We figured us staring at the scene wasn’t helping – there were lots of others to do that! – so we moved on.

We could see them a little better from this side. Above and below.

Babies somewhere in the middle there.

On our way back to the car, we bought a wooden mask (which Ash collects) from this guy, We’d looked at his stuff on the way in and told him we’d catch him on the way back.

The penguins are about a quarter mile from our Airbnb, and maybe 1/2 a mile from the town. We drove into town, parked and walked until we found something interesting for lunch. Or the first thing we came across in this case, a little spot called Due South.

Above and below: I took a photo of the place with Ash; he took a photo of me.

Ash ordered a chicken roulade dish with rice. I had springbok carpaccio – yes, again! Not as complex a dish as at the Four Seasons but it was fresh and tasty. I also had a beet salad with calamari which was excellent, and Ash had some of that as well.

We shared a piece of carrot cake at the end.

We walked some of the town after and bought some things from an artisan leather shop.

We went to our Airbnb after, which Ash booked for the view. It didn’t disappoint. In fact, it’s much more comfortable than I imagined from the photos.

It’s just one room but super charming and well equipped.

If the weather was better, we could sit on the balcony!

Nice bathroom!

It’s called Penguins View. We visited with Heather, the owner, a bit. She lives here and there’s 4 units for rent – 3 studios and a 2 bedroom. The name is apt – that sliver of beach far left center is where we were in the above photos. And she says they are all along this area in front of us. Maybe if the weather is better in the morning we can see some of them.

It stopped raining for a few moments, and I was able to catch some nice views and fun clouds, above and below. In the above photo you can see the penguins on the beach on the left if you look carefully :)

It’s about 6pm and we’re about to go find dinner. Yes, I’m actually writing this on the day it happened! We’ve been warned that there probably won’t be any electricity from 4am – 8am (that load-shedding thing I mentioned many posts ago now) so I figured I’d get as much of it done as I could since we were just hanging out this afternoon.

And we’re back. We went to Saveur, #2 on TripAdvisor, in the same area of town we were in for lunch. (Tomorrow we will go to #1, The Lighthouse Cafe, for breakfast, same area.)

It was in a building on the wharf which housed several restaurants and other shops. This replica of a ship – two of them, actually – built here in 1931 or so was in the common area. These 2 ships were in use for 30 years before being decommissioned.

It wasn’t crowded – easily because of the nasty weather – had a nice feel, and the service was excellent. That chalkboard has the specials on it.

We started with baked camembert, one of our favorite cheeses but we rarely see it on a menu.

We both ordered mains off the specials board. Ash got yellow fin tuna, cooked perfectly. He enjoyed every bite of this dish.

I had an ostrich burger, something I’ve never seen on a menu. I’ll tell ya – those fries and onion rings were some of the best I’ve had anywhere. The burger had an onion jam on it – that dark sauce coming out of the top bun – and while good, that flavor over-powered everything else. Less than halfway through I tore it apart and ate the tomatoes, cheese, and most of the burger by themselves, left everything else. Ostrich tastes pretty much like beef.

We split dessert, a sticky toffee pudding with a warm toffee sauce and vanilla ice cream. It was terrific.

We talked about what we would do tomorrow, which isn’t much. We will hang out here enjoying the view maybe until out checkout time which is Noon. We should get to the airport no later than 5:30 which gives us 4-5 hours to kill. We’ll figure it out as we go along, but I’d decided as we were talking that I would finish the blog tonight. For all intents and purposes, the trip is done.

Our dinner conversation sort of confirmed this when Ash asked me what my 3 favorite things were. And they were about the same as his:

1. The conversation we had that first Friday at our handfasting dinner.
2. Everything about Victoria Falls – the falls themselves, not the town – including of course the helicopter ride, my first.
3. I asked, “can I just say ‘the safari’? And if I had to pick just one thing from the safari, it was the Painted Dogs experience.
4. Ash had another which was how much I enjoyed Cape Town. Early in our relationship, as I was learning how much he has traveled, I asked him where he would live if he could live anywhere in the world, and his answer was Cape Town. I was looking forward to experiencing it and agree it’s a pretty wonderful place.

Which is a good way to segue to my final Final thoughts for this trip. I did some already for just Johannesburg and the safari so this will round all that out, including some things I missed. In no particular order:

1. OK, so I’ll start with: Cape Town really was fabulous. Like our Johannesburg experience, everyone is so happy here, and friendly to you. People actually look you in the eye and say “hello” to you on the street. When you walk into a restaurant or store, you’re greeted with enthusiasm. It’s hard to explain. The closest I’ve experience this before was in Costa Rica, and some in Puerta Vallarta, but this is on a level above those. Add that the natural beauty is astounding, the weather very similar to San Francisco – pretty mild year-round – and no one blinks at you being an inter-racial gay couple. That doesn’t happen everywhere we go (well, most places actually but only because we choose that on purpose) but the difference is palpable when you experience the acceptance.
2. OMG it is cold in Africa! No one ever talks about that, somehow in my head it’s hot everywhere all the time. Granted, it’s late fall here and I knew that, but I really didn’t expect it to be as cold as it is. That on safari you are moving in an open vehicle with no windows or doors at 5:30am when it’s 50 degrees certainly doesn’t help. Had I known that specific detail – and that laundry was available at all of the lodges we stayed at – I would have packed Very Differently than I did. I felt like I was cold in Joburg and in the Cape region all the time. I brought one long-sleeved shirt and a light windbreaker. Now I know.
3. The level of respect the people have for animals is inspiring. I’ll leave it at that.
4. Toothpicks are right on the table along with salt and pepper, 90% of the time. As someone always in search of a toothpick, I really appreciate that.
5. The cost of living here is much lower than back home. Sure, so is Mexico and Costa Rica, but the level of infrastructure and overall quality of life here seems much higher than those places. Simple example: Ash asked me how much I thought dinner tonight cost. I said, well it would be about $75 at home. It was $30 here. We looked at a lot of real estate flyers (which we always do when we travel) but here it’s actually affordable AND are places that would work for us. When I retire (and we don’t know when that is yet), we’ve talked about traveling for 2 years straight. And start here for 2-3 months.
6. Someone made a comment on the blog that this seems like a life-changing experience. And I have to agree. I’m not sure if I can articulate how exactly, but this trip certainly had me thinking about a lot of different things I’ve never thought about before. At a minimum, we’ve talked a lot about lifestyle changes we can make so that we can do even more of this level of travel. Time will tell how all of that plays out.

One last photo: I meant to include this in my “thoughts” on the safari but forgot. Every place we stayed in Zimbabwe and Botswana was stocked with 3-4 cans of this nature:

1. Doom – insect killer, in case there are creepy crawlies in your room
2. Air freshener – however you want to use that
3. Peacefull Sleep – insect repellent, to keep the bugs off you. In the safari lodges this was also sprayed on your mosquito netting and sometimes on the top of your bedspreads
4. And, not pictured because I didn’t think to take the photo until Maun, but in Victoria Falls and all 3 lodges of the Okavango Delta, where the animals run wild, there was also a foghorn. You know. In case you come back to your room and there’s a baboon on your bed. Or an elephant comes through your window. It could happen :)

And finally, I think many of you felt something different on this trip, too. I LOVED hearing from all of you – both on Facebook and directly on the blog – and it felt like you got more from it than you were expecting as well. A couple of you even shared how you were sharing it with family members which I was thrilled to hear. As I enter my 11th year of travel blogging, what was true from that first moment in Mainz, Germany, in March of 2013 is even more true now: knowing I’m going to write about it changes how I both experience and recall my day in significantly meaningful ways. I would do it if no one ever read it. That so many of you get something out of it makes it all that much sweeter. So, thanks for the feedback, but most of all thanks for coming along.

Next up is Toronto in September – something new for both me and Ash. We will see you then if not before.