African Tour:Cape Town part 3

We all took a sundowner cruise one evening. A sundowner is not some South African slang to describe the sunset, though it does take place at sunset. Instead, it is a social ritual where people drink alcohol and maybe have some light snacks while watching the sun go down. I heard the word in Durban, though rarely. Since Durban is on the east coast, sunsets are not nearly as popular as they are in Cape Town, which has countless scenic spots to watch the sun disappear behind the ocean or mountains. On this night, we were on the deck of a boat in Table Bay.

The sunset cruise was pretty short, but we had champagne, cheese, and the sunset. As a bonus, a few people got seasick. The water was calm. The boat barely moved at all while we were anchored in the bay, and every single one of us lives on an island. Even so, some of my colleagues had a hard time adjusting to the lack of solid ground. It was definitely not too much champagne. We were only given one glass each.

We saw none of these.
On a different day, a few of us were on a different boat in a different bay. The sunset cruises mostly left from the V&A Waterfront because that is at Table Bay Harbour, where most of Cape Town's boat traffic parks. If you want to watch whales, you go to False Bay. Even though the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet at Cape Agulhas, the warm Indian currents mix with the colder Atlantic in False Bay. That makes it an ideal breeding ground for all sorts of sea creatures. Whales go to False Bay to breed and eat tiny fish. Dolphins go to False Bay to frolic and catch fish. Seals just live there and lie out on rocks. Great white sharks go to False Bay to eat everybody.

Normally, our house in Simon's Town was far from whatever we wanted to do. Table Bay Harbour was more than an hour away without traffic. Sea Point and Table Mountain were barely closer, though a more scenic drive. On this day it was terribly convenient. We boarded a tiny boat at the Simon's Town Pier less than two kilometers from the house. We mostly sailed around the Cape Peninsula in the Table Mountain National Park Marine Protected Area. There was a marine biologist on the boat who told us far more about all the animals we wanted to see than we could ever remember. She made it clear that winter was the best time to see southern right whales, but that a few liked to linger around at the beginning of spring. Humpback whales mostly came out during the summer, but some showed up early. She told us that we might be able to see both if we were lucky. We were not.

Humpback whales are slightly smaller than southern right whales, but more people want to see the humpbacks because they are more flamboyant. Both like to poke out of the water from time to time, but humpbacks jump out with a flourish and crash onto their backs. Southern right whales mostly just stick their tails out. We only saw some Bryde's whales, which are much smaller. They breach like humpbacks, but since they weigh far less, their crashing down is far less dramatic. After seeing one up close, I had my doubts if that was the type of whale I saw from the house balcony. I assume it was an early humpback since I saw so much of it so far away.

We saw a few of these.
The dolphins were more abundant and not nearly as shy as the whales. According to the marine biologist, we saw Heaviside's dolphins and dusky dolphins. I could not tell the difference to save my life. Apparently, the dusky dolphins were the more acrobatic cousins. They did all kinds of circus tricks for us without any humans blowing a whistle or offering fish. Obviously, they did it for themselves and did not care about our amusement, but they were curious about our boat.

And a lot of these.
Outside of the Table Mountain National Park Marine Protected Area, we went to Seal Island. In the water, most of the animals wisely stayed away from us. On Seal Island, we saw thousands of brown fur seals just lying out on the rocks as if a boat full of humans was not something they should fear. Their biggest predator is the great white shark, who likes to fly out of the water at 40 km/h while grabbing seals from below. Fortunately for the seals, we did not see any sharks that day.

On the way to and from the Simon's Town Pier, we passed the penguin colony at Foxy Beach and saw absolutely no penguins either time. Though thousands of penguins live at the beach year round, none were out and about at the time. The marine biologist told us they were probably out fishing. That was the sort of thing that disappointed most people on the whale watching tour, but my friends and I never worried about it. Our house was a ten minute walk to the beach. The first time we went by land, we saw dozens of penguins. The second time, we saw hundreds. From the boat, we would have seen penguins at a distance. On the beach, they were up close and personal.

There was a time when you could swim with the penguins. Today, people are prohibited on Foxy Beach, which is where most of the penguins nest and waddle. Instead, there is a raised walkway to let visitors walk around the beach without actually touching the sand. The penguins are free to walk around without interference. People can go to Boulders Beach, which is separated from Foxy Beach by large boulders. Every once in a while, a penguin or two will climb or swim from one beach to the other, so it is physically possible to chill on the beach with penguins, but the vast majority of them stay on the protected Foxy side.