An interesting thing about coming to another continent is the variety of plants and animals you don't see at home. It's been entertaining when we are driving on a road near Cape Town and see a sign warning about penguins crossing the road. There are numerous signs warning that baboons are dangerous wild animals, and it's illegal to feed them. The charm of these warnings hasn't really worn off yet.
Yesterday, we visited the Harold Porter botanical garden. It was a very nice garden, and connected to a few hiking trails. Unfortunately, one of the trails was closed due to flood damage, but another (Leopards Kloof) was open. We walked for a while on that trail, but turned back when the terrain got a little rough for Adam's flop flops. While sitting in the garden cafe, a mother bacon and her baby sauntered onto the patio and stole a bunch of sugar packets from a table. Apparently, baboons are the raccoons of South Africa.
Last night, we had our last nice dinner of the trip in a small wine town called Franschoek. The drive into the valley was worth the price of admission. Adam could not truly appreciate the view for fear of driving off a cliff, but Emily took a few pictures. The rolling mountainside and steep kloofs were stunning. The dinner itself was really nice as well. We did a five course tasting menu with a bottle of wine. After dinner, we took the flat route home for safety's sake.
Today, we visited Cape Point. This is the southwesternmost pint in Africa, and home of the famous Cape of Good Hope. The landscape was a native dry fynbos ecosystem, with a lot of succulents and resilient bushes. While there, we saw some kind of antelope, ostriches, seals, and baboons.
Tomorrow we fly home. We've had a great time, but we are ready to be home as well.
We've included some pictures below, many of which show some of the interesting animals we've seen in the last two days.
A colorful bird
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