Ailsa and Andy’s Travels: Day 54 The Impatient Ostrich

Today we went on a tour of the Cape of Good Hope. This lasted all day and our driver - Bogani - stopped at many places to tell us about them and point out things of interest. We decided we’d like to stop at an Ostrich farm which ended up being highly entertaining! There was a shop which had all sorts of bags, shoes, handbags, belts, purses etc all made of Ostrich leather (the second strongest leather in the world) - Andy had his eye on an Ostrich belt and may have bought one 😉. There were also many things carved from Ostrich eggs - which are huge and very strong.

After perusing the shop, we were given a little bowl of food pellets to feed the Ostrich. The farm had beautiful green fields and in one field were two ostriches called Bonnie and Clyde (we later found out their names were Bonnie and Clyde for good reason). We were instructed when feeding the Ostrich to just hold your hand out flat with your fingers together and offer the pellets on your palm. Andy went first and found that the male - Clyde - was quite gentle. Bonnie, however, was very impatient and not very gentle! It was my turn next, so I again opted to feed Clyde first. Unbeknown to me, Bonnie was savvy to this and so impatient that she decided she wasn’t going to wait and when I wasn’t looking she whipped the bowl of food right out my hand and downed the lot in a one-er like it was a pint of beer, then chucked the bowl away when she’d finished. We all fell around laughing when we realised what had happened. Luckily Andy was videoing the whole thing and it’s made entertaining watching!

Next up was a trip to the lighthouse on the most south westerly point of South Africa - Cape Point Lighthouse on the Cape of Good Hope. Built in 1859 it stands 238 metres above sea level and is now used as the centralised monitoring point for all the lighthouses on the coast of South Africa. The Flying Dutchman funicular railway whizzes you up to the lighthouse where there are stunning views out to golden beaches and the sea. Some years after the Cape Point lighthouse was built they discovered that due to the bad weather, it was often in the clouds and not visible to sailors so a second lighthouse was built at a lower level.

One thing on my bucket list to do on our trip to Capetown was to visit the penguins. Initially, Andy didn’t believe me when I told him there were penguins in South Africa, but he soon learned there are! We drove to an area called Boulders Beach where the Cape penguins live in the wild. A board walk has been built which is raised and runs along the beach so you can look down and see the penguins without disturbing them. Some areas of the board walk have bush growing right beside it and if you stop and look, you can see the penguins nesting a couple of feet away in amongst the bushes. When the boardwalk reached the beach area there were penguins everywhere and they didn’t disappoint. They were full of character and whilst some stood still watching the world go by, others waddled down to the sea, some were just having a good old tail waggle, wing stretch, flap and a bit of a scratch. I could have watched them all day.

Lunch was in a scenic little fishing village called Kalk Bay. We ate in a restaurant called the Harbour House which had floor to ceiling windows and views out to the pier and sea. The pier was a hive of activity with people fishing and although it was a Sunday, the fish market was bustling.

Andy thought it would be rude to come all the way to South Africa and not visit a vineyard so the final stop on the way home was to one of South Africa’s oldest vineyards. To make it fair, as I don’t like wine, he opted for the Chocolate and Wine tasting experience…he tasted the wine and I tasted the chocolate. My chocolates were all delicious I’m glad to report!

Whilst driving all the different places through the countryside we saw several wild animals: ostriches, baboons, Rock hyraxes (also known as rock rabbits) and penguins.

The beaches are all golden and seem to be endless. It was the most wonderful day, topped off with me losing 2 crib games this evening, then winning 2 to pull it back to remaining 2 games behind, with 2 days left to even the scores.🤞