The Cape of Good Hope

The Cape of Good Hope

The Cape of Good Hope is part of the Table Mountain National Park which includes 7,750 hectares of many different kinds of flora and fauna and has 40 kilometers of coastline. The coastline consists of three different capes: Cape of Good Hope, Cape Maclear, and Cape Point.

The first spot that we visited inside the park was the Cape of Good Hope.


After the taking some pictures and enjoying the scenic coastline in this area of the park we headed over to Cape Point. 


At Cape Point there is a small train called the Flying Dutchman funicular which takes visitors up to a lighthouse that has amazing views of the coastline below. Visitors can also hike the trails that go up to the lighthouse. 



One other thing to note about Cape Point is that the chacma baboons are protected in the park and are seen running along the paths and along the tops of the buildings. There are specific signs that tell visitors to "keep a safe distance from baboons" and "do not feed baboons". This was really fun for all of us to see, and really interesting that the baboons are able to live in the park alongside all the visitors. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

School Visit in Cape Town

Image
School visit in Cape Town We visited a secondary school when we were in Cape Town called Cosat. It is a high school that has grades 9-12, and its primary focuses are Mathematics, Science and Technology.   We were told it is the only school in South Africa with a focus on Information Technology. Students are either selected because of high achievement to attend the school or take a placement test to get in.   There are about 560 students that are currently attending the school. The school was founded in 1999, and by 2013, 100% of the students passed the Metric test for university.   The last few school years their highest score has been 96%.   They are classified as a Model school by the South African government and because of this all the students will be receiving tablets next year to help with their access to technology.   Only the Model schools receive this advantage. When we arrived at Cosat the Principal, Mrs. Cooper, greeted us.   She gave us an introduction
Read more

Visit to the Village

Image
Visit to the Village After our second day on safari we visited the village that is across the street from the Timbavati Safari Lodge. Our guide was from the village himself as well as many other employees at Timbavati. We learned from him that the South African government owns the land of the village and the elder’s jobs are to distribute it to the people of the village without charge. The people then are responsible for building their own homes. They cannot sell these homes, instead they are passed down through the family. We met the village witch doctor who treats everyone in the village if they have a medical issue or to help them with social and emotional issues as well. Villagers get free water from the government, but pay for electricity on pre-paid cards. The children of the village walked along with us as we got a tour of some of their homes and neighborhoods. There were many houses that had goats and cows living in small-fenced areas in the families’ plots of land
Read more

Safari Day Two

Image
Safari Day Two Our first day on safari was an incredible experience and we were lucky to have seen so many animals.   It was hard to imagine that our second day could equal or top the first. Our goal was to see those final two members of the “big 5”. Day two felt different than day one. We were able to enjoy and watch the animals more without feeling the pressure to move on and see what else was out there. Some of us were talking afterwards about different patterns and concepts we picked up on. Carolyn Shield was able to summarize them in a list of three: 1)    Helping each other We were able to see that animals, like humans, help each other by offering support. This was especially shown when we would see Zebras, Impalas, and Wildebeasts, for example, all eating together in the same area. Our guides explained that they do this because they are all prey and the Impala has the best vision and hearing of the three, so when an Impala calls out to the herd that there is a
Read more