Five of one, half dozen of another

Day 4 in Cape Town, I led an SAS tour to the southern tip of Africa, the Cape of Good Hope.  It's not quite the farthest south you can go, but it’s where you go from the Indian Ocean into the Atlantic, an area of tumultuous weather and treacherous terrain.  Our guide for the day was a biologist, so we got a minicourse in the flora and fauna along the way.

Cape of Good Hope in the distance, where two oceans meet.

And history and culture.  My older son gave me a blank notebook for the trip, and I am filling it with jerky, bumpy bus writing on every trip.  Our guides are full of fascinating information.

The ride down the coast is very like the Pacific coast of the US, steep and rocky and dry.  But I don’t recall any warnings about not feeding the baboons in the US.  (I did see coyotes in yards outside of Yosemite…)  Baboons are a particular menace.  They have learned how to break into locked cars and houses, and they will completely trash the place looking for food.  Houses in the coastal areas have elaborate security systems, and all the garbage containers have to be baboon proof.  Our guide also told us that the baboons of this area are the only primates (besides humans) who go into the water in search of food. 

So, high on my agenda for the day was seeing baboons.  Our bus driver spotted these eland (see?  It’s not just a crossword puzzle word) and ostrich while speeding along, which was remarkable, since I couldn’t see the eland even when told where to look.  After the bus stopped. 

The eland were taking it easy at the moment, but they have a kick that can kill a lion.  In the savannah, eland have straight horns, with a span up to 12 feet, but here in the scrub, their horns are curled.  Similarly, the ostriches are at a real disadvantage in this habitat, and they are not native to this area.  We passed an ostrich farm, but these ostrich were wild, brought to the area for visual interest.  The ostrich eggs are also huge.  One ostrich egg is the equivalent of 2 dozen hen eggs.  (Three dozen eggs’ worth of cholesterol.) 

The ostriches, we were told, eat anything.  Including your earrings, if you are foolish enough to wear any near them.  They can see 3 km away, and they are territorial, so you can be in real trouble if the males interpret you as a threat.  You can’t outrun them, of course.  And they are huge!  Much taller than you’d think. 

At Cape Point, I climbed to the lighthouse and was rewarded with the view of two oceans.

This furry creature, it turns out, is a hyrax (17 points in Scrabble, more depending on how you can place it).  Smaller than a groundhog, its nearest relative is an elephant! 

They have identical digestive systems and very similar hands and feet.  Also, the incisors of the hyrax are ivory, curved inward instead of outward like the elephant’s tusks.  They are herbivores, but the land is slim pickings, so they have to reduce their body temperature considerably at night to survive (slow down the metabolism to make the most of the food).  One hyrax stands sentry and whistles to wake up the others if an eagle approaches.  And they’ve developed a third eyelid that acts as sunglasses so they can look into the sun to see the eagles.  Factoids you can surely use at your next cocktail party.

On to Boulders Beach to see the African Black Footed Penguin colony.  It started with two pairs of penguins and now has thousands and is one of only three penguin breeding grounds colonies not on islands.  They just swam up and started laying eggs in a suburban neighborhood, which had some people trying to get rid of them and others trying to make a buck.  The entrepreneurs won.  Formerly called jackass penguins because of their call, they now sport a G-rated name.

I was hoping to see them all waddling in a row, but these penguins are more individual and we saw several loners all by themselves.  I’m not sure whether that’s developed because of the protected habitat or whether it’s characteristic of the species.

At the penguin colony, we also saw a mongoose.  Good for us, not so good for the penguins, as they steal the eggs. 

We finally saw our baboons, just lolling by the side of the road.  These are all female.  On another trip, however, a shipboard friend saw a pair copulating just off the road. 

Whatever it takes to keep them from a life of crime…

On safari, you are hoping to see “The Big Five” (lion, buffalo, elephant, rhino, leopard).  These are my little six.