Add another to the pool list....

I finished my tour of the Stellenbosch wine area about 40 miles north of Cape Town and drove to Simons Town on the east side of the Cape of Good Hope which is south of CT.  Walked briefly along some nice beaches along the way.-

When I got to my b&b- a great place with a view over the bay and ocean- my host told me that there had been a number of murders on some beaches near there recently. and I should avoid walking on these beaches, particularly the one I had evidently just walked on......Good to know. 

My host at the b&b was, in fact, very nice and extremely chatty.  More so, I thought, than the average So. African I have met, who are very friendly but not so loquacious as the Aussies, who I  found last year could definitely carry a conversation.  At one point in our (one sided) conversation, she volunteered that she found Cape Town much like her own native Sydney.  Ah.

Anyway, I set out to the Cape of Good Hope - the most southwesterly point in Africa (but not, as you know, the most southerly point of Africa or the meeting of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans- that would be Cape Agulhas).  Whereupon I came upon a new threat-

I don't remember B. Diaz, when he was rounding the Cape in 1492 for the first time, mentioning anything about baboons! What the heck?   I cannot imagine Diaz reported back to the King of Portugal-

"Well, you know sire, we would have rounded the Cape and discovered the fabulous east with exotic spices and all, and we braved contrary winds, scurvy, stormy seas, hostile natives, lack of food and water, but that pack of crazy baboons after our hard biscuits was just too much!"

So another entry in the pool if you have so far missed out.  Being killed by a lion or leopard or even  a charging rhino might be grisly, but would be a respectable, but being killed by an angry baboon while engaged in a tug of war over a power bar?  An ignominious end to be sure.

The Cape has some interesting scenery  and here is the famous Cape of Good Hope-

A look back to the northeast along the way-

There are a lot of 'Capes' down here, including Cape Point, which is adjacent to Cape of Good of Hope-

And one of the world's great seaside drives known as Chapman's Peak Drive, which is cut into a cliff high above the bay presents some spectacular views of Cape Town and the northwest-

The last time I saw penguins was in the Straights of Magellan.  I was hoping word had come from them to their African kindred on the Cape that I was a 'friend of penguins' world wide.  Perhaps one of the So American penguins had made the Shackleton- like voyage and spread the word amongst the African breed of my visit-