Here Comes Treble: Of Rescue, And Colonies
...Penguins, as everyone knows, are flightless birds, who waddle in a very upright position when on land. When swimming, they use their flippers as if they were wings, and seem to ‘fly’ through the water. Their black and white feathers are in a pattern that looks rather like a business suit, and when walking, look rather like businessmen strutting around, their flippers held straight down at their sides...
Isabel Bradley shares the pleasure of a holiday visit to the Cape Town area.
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Leon, his sister Glo and I had just enjoyed a wonderful meal at The Brass Bell Restaurant in Kalk Bay. When we arrived in the lot where we’d parked against the fence, hours earlier, we realised that our car was blocked in by vehicles to left and right and three deep behind it. How were we to free it and how late would it be before we could return to our guest house?
Before panic set in, I became aware that somewhere in the parking lot, a man was singing a French song in a rich baritone. He ambled towards us, a dark shape in the badly-lit lot. When he was close enough, he asked, “W’ich car do you need?” in an accent from further north in ‘Francophone’ Africa. Leon pointed to our sleek red sports car, trapped at the fence.
‘No problem!’ he declared, and as if performing magic, produced several sets of keys from his pocket. He climbed into first one car, then another, moving them out of our way, like chess pieces by a master player. He offered to reverse our car out, but Leon declined the offer and freed our chariot himself. Glo and I climbed in, Leon rewarded the Frenchman, who ambled off, singing again, and we drove home to enjoy a couple of whiskies and a sherry, and a wonderful night’s sleep.
Next morning Leon drove us through Kalk Bay again, through Simons Town, where the South African Navy has a base, established by the Royal Navy in the days when South Africa was still a British Colony. We visited Boulders, part of the Table Mountain National Park, consisting of two large recreational areas and a Penguin Viewing Area, where boardwalks have been built leading to a large colony of African Penguins, called Foxy Beach.
We paid an entrance fee at the information kiosk, and walked onto the boardwalk, where the views of mountains and beaches had me taking my camera out and fitting its wonderful zoom lens. Enjoying the freedom of digital photography to snap away to my heart’s delight, I ambled down the boardwalk and stopped to watch a pair of penguins billing on a nearby rock. They definitely did not coo. The African Penguin’s vocal skills are limited to braying like a donkey, and the sound coming from Foxy Beach around the next bend was quite startling. There was a slight smell, but it wasn’t too unpleasant or overpowering. The two penguins near me seemed very much in love, ignoring all the ‘tall people’ who passed by.
Penguins, as everyone knows, are flightless birds, who waddle in a very upright position when on land. When swimming, they use their flippers as if they were wings, and seem to ‘fly’ through the water. Their black and white feathers are in a pattern that looks rather like a business suit, and when walking, look rather like businessmen strutting around, their flippers held straight down at their sides.
We ambled down to the viewing point overlooking Foxy Beach, which is studded with boulders, no doubt the origin of the park’s name. The massive rocks reached out into the bay, and continued in great humps along the beach as far as we could see.
The beach was filled with small penguin-people going about their business. The thoroughfares between boulders were thronged with waddling birds, calling to each other, passing or approaching each other, standing and seeming to converse, just like people in a busy city. In an open area to the right of the viewing platform, penguins were sitting on their nests, or displaying to each other, braying, fighting or mating.
My camera clicked and clicked, photographing the birds, my companions and a long line of Japanese tourists leaning on the railing of the boardwalk, all with cameras pointing in one direction.
We would have enjoyed spending a lot longer at Boulders, amazed at the wonders of 3,000 penguins oblivious of the accents and the marvelling of their much larger, human visitors.*
However, we had a lunch date at the gorgeous Vineyard Hotel, where we sat looking at Table Mountain through drapes of blazing bougainevillea, and so with one last click of the camera, we left.
A few days later, we witnessed another busy colony of birds, this time of weavers. We were at the home of Kitty and Guido, long-time friends who live in Langebaan on the cool and blustery Cape West Coast. While we sat at their dining-room table, enjoying their marvellous, Belgian cuisine, I became hypnotised by thirty or more swaying nests, like dried coconuts, that hung from the branches of a tree framed in the window of the large and airy room. Later, as we chatted and laughed over photo albums, the birds became very active, squeezing in and out of their nests, sitting on the branches of the tree and out-chattering us, chirping and flapping until we could barely hear ourselves above their noise.
Our drive back to Cape Town in the dusk was very peaceful. The sun spotlit golden grasses which glistened in the lovely light, while the rest of the world turned a soft, shadowy grey. Table Mountain eventually filled the horizon in our windscreen, soft clouds blowing across its landward face.
Cape Town is a glorious destination for a holiday. With so much beauty to see in our own country, we’re now determined to give as much attention to travelling in South Africa as we do internationally.
Until next time, here comes Treble!
* For more information on Boulders and the African Penguin, go to http://www.simonstown.com/tourism/penguins/penguins.htm
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