Peninsula Tour

As part of our orientation to University of Cape Town, they take the international students on a peninsula tour. The peninsula is part of cape town, and the tour included Camps Bay, Simon’s Town, Ocean View, Cape Point, and Cape of Good Hope. Just when I thought it couldn’t get more beautiful, I was proved wrong.

    Camps Bay was the first stop, and although I had already gone to that beach, we got to view from above and it was gorgeous to see the contrast of the white sand against the light blue ocean. We didn’t stay there long, and moved on the Simon’s Town, which has a beach reserved for African Penguins. The penguins are really cute and small, about the size of a seagull. The beach was full of them standing there sunbathing. I would like to go back another time when it was less crowded. There are about 450 international students and so it was quite the group. I did enjoy it though, and driving through the town it looked really nice so I would definitely like to return. We then drove to Ocean View, which was where many Black’s we moved to during apartheid. They talked about their town, the history and what they hoped for the future. We had a nice buffet lunch and then the young people in the town put on a show. It was spectacular and I was really impressed by all the performances. One girl, I believe her name was Lucille, was an incredible singer and was about 14 and sang solo infront of all of us, and had such a strong and mature voice. It was so incredible that it gave me goose bumps. Then many boys put on these hilarious dances/skits and were really talented. I got some of it on video, and I’m sure if they were in America they would be on So You Think You Can Dance or something of the sort. The performance was really creative, they put together a bunch of clips from different songs and noises and danced and acted for us. They were called the Unknown Crew and they wore masks, they didn’t even look like they were in high school. They were flipping and break dancing and moving in incredible ways. The superintendent then came and did ballroom dancing with his wife, which was spectacular, as he is the coach of the South African Ballroom Dancing team, which is 7th in the world. I got most of it on video. There was a guy who looked a little older who sang two original songs, and some more impressive break dancing, and the best was a Michael Jackson impression. The kid couldn’t have been that old, and he moved just like MJ. He compiled a bunch of different MJ songs and danced for a few minutes to each one. Everyone was cheering and clapping the whole time, it was fantastic, these kids really had talent.
    After some pictures with the groups we left and headed for Cape Point. It is a lighthouse on top a hill or small mountain, and we walked to the top and then walked along the coast to Cape of Good Hope, where I saw the Indian Ocean for the first time. The walk was unbelievabley beautiful. We were right on the edge of the cliff with a steep drop to a beach, and we saw these cute little groundhog type animals. I actually got pretty close to a few, and saw a larger animal in the distance but I wasn’t sure what it was. I got a picture, and tomorrow hopefully I’ll get to the coffee shop to upload pictures. The walk took a little while but was definitely worth it. Cape of Good Hope is the southern most point in South Africa and divides the Indian and Atlantic ocean. It was so beautiful, and was a cliff straight out of the water. The walk down was pretty treacherous but it was so worth seeing such a beautiful view. On the way back we saw baboons! They were just casually walking through the road. Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture with all the excitement but my friends did so I will have them send it. I preceded to sleep on the ride home after such a long day. It was so beautiful and impressive that I would recommend to tour to anyone who comes to visit Cape Town, (and I strongly encourage visiting).