Northern Province

From Cape Town we wanted to head north to Namibia, through some of the most incredible landscape in the world

Overlooking some of the farmland north of the Cape.

I found these glasses in a hostel in Cape Town. They were a killer find 

These flowers coated the landscape where sheep grazed, everywhere you looked the ground would be orange, white, and purple.

We camped out in Springbok South Africa, just below the Namibian border. We pitched our tent below a tree that was full of these little hanging nests. At about 5am this little bird went back and forth between all of his nests singing the loudest most obnoxious little song, inside all the nests were all sorts of baby birds nagging in a high pitched tome for more food. We got up just after five without an alarm...

Out little tent. South Africans are serious campers, they have all sorts of gear and pack a full car with a trailer for every two people. Suffice it to say, when we put up our little tent, everybody seemed to watch in horror, wondering if we would make it through the night. We were offered food and blankets that night by several people. 

Cape town 2

We drove around Cape Town a lot, just enjoying the scenery. It is so beautiful

I thought this little lizard was pretty interesting with its green head and red body.

Camps bay on the east side of Cape Town proper. Supposedly there are supposed to be a lot of whales in  the area. We didn't see any after a while of watching. The road snaked back and forth along shear cliff faces. Truly epic views.

We stopped by an ostrich farm on a whim and got to feed some ostriches. 

Chelsea fed this Ostrich with her eyes closed and was apparently trying to pet it at the same time

In the first picture you can see the Ostrich is also trying to eat her finger. Her gentle pet turned into a defensive slap on the back of its neck. If you look closely you can see the ostrich is quite stunned and its neck it bent over the wire fence in an odd way.

Chelsea and the Ostrich both stunned. Epic photography!

Ostrich

These baboons where just sitting on the road. The small one is grooming the large one 

More beautiful coastline

We went to a monkey sanctuary and took a tour. The sanctuary had an interesting setup where the monkeys were held in a giant communal enclosure and we were allowed to walk through it in a caged pathway. So we were in the cages really while the monkeys were free to roam about. We put an almond beside the fence, out of reach from the monkeys, and one of the monkeys grabbed a small stick and fished the almond for himself.

A squirrel monkey eating an orange

This spider monkey followed us around the whole time we were there. She would just sit and watch us with as much interest as we were watching her.

A cool set of statues of all of the South African Nobel prize winners. After we took this picture a man walked out of the dark and gave the statue of Desmond Tutu a  hug. He remained hanging on the statue for a long time whispering sweet nothings into his ear.

Robben Island and Simons Town

Cape Town, the jewel of South Africa. We spent several days in the quasi-capital city and wish we had more time. The city is situated on a large peninsula that jets out into the Atlantic ocean with table mountain gracing its background in picture book form. 

We rode the ferry out to Robben Island where Nelson Mandela and many apartheid era activists were held prisoner. The ride was a bit foggy and cold but we enjoyed the views of Cape Town.

Epic view of Cape Town with Table mountain

Entrance to Robben Island. 

This was our guide through the prison. He was held there as a political prisoner for 7 years during the late 80's.

This is the menu the prisoners were held to. The prison was exclusively for black people, coloured people (mixed race), and Indians. The black people were given the poorest treatment of all. 

This is Nelson Mandela's cell that he was held in for 17 years. It was very small.

There was this really weird looking guy walking by and I had to take a picture of him.

Table mountain from the waterfront

The seagulls in Cape Town were quite brave and would eat straight from our hands 

We went to Simon's town, a suburb of Cape Town, where there are penguins. We arrived at sunset, right when they are returning from fishing to feed their families. I huge group arrived right where we were standing and sat near the shore, scouting the area for danger.

We sat and watched the penguins for quite some time and followed them back to their nests where we watched them feed their young. 

I took this picture randomly and it turned out quite interesting.

The Jewel of Africa

Cape Town

This city sits itself on the beautiful west coast tip of South Africa. With the coast on one side and table mountain on the other, this thriving city definitely lives up to its name. The coastline is breathtaking and the people of this city greet us with open arms- literally. Whenever i met a woman she would greet me with a hug, it was wonderful.  

This sculpture was downtown, i not sure what to make of it.....

This is a dagwood, a Cape town must. it weighs as much as a small child, but it sure was tasty.
Contents: egg, polony, cheese, fries, lettuce, tomato, onion and chutney.

While we were eating our Dagwood....

guy: take a picture of me

us: why?

Guy: I need to be in your camera

us: um, ok

This is how he posed, we had a pretty good laugh afterwards.

Meet the Endley's ,This is the family that rusty baptized when he was a missionary here. They are a wonderful family and I really connected with them in my short time with them.

I bought a dress from this guy at a flea market, and we got him down to a pretty low price and he wasn't too happy about it, so i said i would tell all of my friends to buy dresses from him when they come here.

Meet Russell, He is named after Rusty. Rusty had such an impact on them that they named their child after him. pretty cool eh?

The tip of Africa

From Port Elizabeth we made our way along the famous garden route to the lowest point in Africa, Cape Agulhas. Some of the most beautiful landscape in the world, green forests, epic farmland, and pristine coastlines. 

Beautiful golden flowers of a mustard farm outside of Mossel bay

The point of Africa. This is the lowest point in all of Africa  and the point where the Indian and Atlantic Ocean meet. You can almost see in the water where the two oceans converge with deep blue hues marking the Atlantic and Greens marking the Indian. Although not visible from the shore, there are numerous shipwrecks all around dating from the 1500's until recently.

Epic view of the cape

I climbed out on some rocks in an effort to go to the furthest possible point on the African continent. And out on a group of rocks a few hundred feet from shore I found this carving, which I am sure was made by some bushman thousands of years ago, or maybe a mermaid.

The lighthouse at Cape Agulhus

Some cape aloe and a lighthouse

Part of a maidenhead recovered from a shipwreck circa 1700

We have had the best fish and chips in the world in South Africa. This was Snoek an African fish that is delectable. The chips in South Africa are the best in the world in our opinion.

J-Bay, A surfers Paradise

This is Jeffrey's bay, one of the top surf spots in the world. The wave goes on forever, thus giving the surfer a long ride. Rusty was still getting over being sick so he was bummed that he didn't get to surf,and i wasn't about to dip into shark infested waters by myself...