I got my wish to get back to nature – both its wrath and its glory. We woke to pounding rain this morning, and considered having our tour of the Cape Peninsula postponed. I am so glad that we didn’t! The rain (which is to be expected at this time of year, we’ve just been lucky up until now) let up a bit and turned to a fine mist as we approached Hout Bay. From there we took a boat out into the Atlantic to see Duiker Island, area where fur seals hang out. Although the seals were many and cute, the rolling sea and spray were more of the story. Being dizziness-prone as I am I chose to stay on deck and get soaked, along with Ben (wisely wearing full rain gear down to his toes), Marc (unwisely wearing jeans and rain coat we learned was no longer waterproof), some Chinese guys wearing bags over their suits, and the totally unfazed crew of the ship. We all laughed about it, nobody puked (I took my Dramamine, Mom!) and the Chinese guys joined us for a few pictures.
Next we were on to see the African penguins at Boulder’s Beach – one of the things I was most excited about. They do not disappoint!! They hang out on a beach were we could walk down on the boardwalk to see where they nest, swim and hang out. We got many great snaps and all did our best to imitate their walk. We also dried out here in the sun and the wind, and had a beautiful lunch at Seaforth, overlooking the beach. Ingrid and Sophia would have wanted to spend the whole day there: we missed them terribly at this point!
On to Cape Point, where the most southwestern point of the continent is marked. As our guide said, if you swim straight south you’ll get to Antarctic. If you swim due west you’ll get to South America. But don’t swim, it’s way too cold! The drive out to this point is through a national park, where zebra, eland (a type of antelope), baboons and ostriches roam. We drove right up alongside some ostriches (they are big and I worried about the revenge the might take on me over last night’s dinner choice). We also saw three eland at a distance , 
and only the droppings of baboons, and no trace of zebra. The view from the lighthouse and the walk up to it was spectacular as we could see all the way across False Bay, and watched clouds roll in to soak us just as we were about to get back on the bus. Lots of pictures taken here!We drove on to Kirstenbosch botanical gardens, where they have every type of flora known to South Africa (and that’s not a general statement, but a true one). Lots of interesting succulents, flowers, even a baobob tree (I learned my rainforest knowledge from the first graders at Oakwood!). Marc got this fantastic picture of a hummingbird.
Throughout the day part of the joy of being outside was seeing how much the students enjoyed it. They took tons of pictures, laughed a lot, never complained about the long rides, etc. They had been up very late the night before, some of which we continued at lunch, and back “home” at dinner. They are a sharp bunch who represent the University of Minnesota in a manner that should make all you Minnesotans proud. Tomorrow morning we have a lot of time for discussion of our first days here, and we’ll begin our mental preparations for staying in the township for five days. I am so looking forward to this!A little of Developing Country frustration to share: no internet service tonight because my guesthouse ran out of megabites tonight. Yes you buy them and have to “top off” to get more time when your service gets low, and they neglected to do that. I am afraid I am big part of the problem here in having used most of them up, but I know there are at least five others who were looking for service tonight in this 15-room guesthouse. Another difference that visitors might get frustrated with: service (like in restaurants) is slow. I am incredibly inpatient with this normally but am finding the 2-hour lunches are inviting more conversation. On the plus side of the slowness however, is that the food is piping hot! Burning hot!
We also have a funny heating-pad attached to the wall that you switch on when you need more heat, and we also have a roll-away space heater.
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