Tuesday time crunch

Our last day in Cape Town was packed full.  We woke in the morning and hopped straight on the buses towards Cape Point the most south-western point of Africa.  We took a scenic route to an AWESOME bakery, hotel, café and plaze of little shops called The Foodbarn at Noordhoek Farm Village in the Cape of Good Hope (en route to Cape Point).  It was like the Elegant Farmer (Mukwonago, WI) with even MORE charm.  I had a fabulous carrot pecan muffin with REAL cream cheese frosting.  There is carrot cake all over South Africa, but I had not encountered real cream cheese frosting until that muffin. 

Chapman's Peak photos

All of the CSB ladies, and even Norma on the far right of the screen (our co-director)

The view from Chapman's Peak

A view on the road between Chapman's Peak and Cape Point

From there we continued on to Cape Point.  We stopped at Chapman’s Peak to take pictures as a group at the beautiful look-out.  It was SO windy!  We reached Cape Point via a scenic road which was carved into the mountain almost like a tunnel without a wall on the ocean side.  It was bizarre comprehending a mountain sitting on top of the car, protected only by pillars holding the “roof” up.

Cape Point was beautiful.  It is where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet.

The view from Cape Point- looking at the Indian and Atlantic Oceans

Taylor and me- check out the hair flying in the wind =D

Laura and Taylor battling with Taylor's crutches.  She rolled her ankle while taking a picture walking on a slight downhill slope on the descent from Table Mountain.  She visited a doctor in Cape Town, and now (5/5/11) she is walking without crutches but still has limited range of motion.  Thank goodness she didn't break anything!  It was sooooo swollen!  But, it's obvious how much the stubborn woman actually used the crutches from this picture. 

Next we went to observe empire penguins that are native to South Africa.  I wasn’t that interested in the penguins as we had seen them at Robben Island, but there were lots of Asian tourists with huge visors on to keep the sun’s rays from reaching their skin.  The women also had white powder make-up on.  I couldn’t help but think that Mom would be really comfortable in South Korea.  I almost wanted to ask the women where they got such big sun visors.  Some of the visors came down so low on their faces that it was more like a tinted shield.  I thought, “no wind shield needed.”  In all seriousness though, it is very normal in East  Asian cultures to value very white skin, and as odd as their methods seemed to me and as contrary the idea it is just a difference in taste which most likely puts them at much less risk for skin cancer.

Awwwe cute kissy penguins

baby and parent

cuddling? idk

I have enlarged this photo to attempt to make up for my poor angle.  The visor is huge.  If you can't tell, just please believe me.  It goes down past her nose.

baboon butt

Lining the road doing their thing

Munching on some berries

After the penguins we went to a wine tasting at one of the oldest wine estates in South Africa.  We tasted Pinot Noir (good), Blank Noir (white wine from black grapes), Cabernet Sauvignon (puurty good), Shiraz (peppery), and Port (so sweet).  The vineyard was beautiful, but I was disappointed that our overloaded schedule caused us to miss the cellar tour.  We were also just given the wines without any explanation.  The host claimed, “You all don’t really want that song and dance any way.”  We were very rushed through the process, but I imagine with a more mature crowd the ability to treat the tasting as a learning experience, I would enjoy it very much.  After the wine tasting, which gave considerably larger portions that I would have imagined (1/2 glass per taste).  Many people were jolly and ready to go out before dinner.  I was still not feeling well and went to rest before our last dinner with our tour guides and the whole group. Toilet paper roll in hand (for my nose), I got a butternut squash, Roquefort, and spinach pizza at DaVinci’s Pizzeria for dinner.  Then I went home to pack and rest before the 6:30 flight to Durban. 

The view from the front of the wine tasting building

Photo through some flowers adds a natural border, framing the pic.  Those are the grapes.

Don't pick them! (For some people I know--ahem corn stealers- I imagine this sign would just be a challenge to egg you on.