Middle bits with whales

Cape Town was the trip that just kept getting better. Saturday (I think it was Saturday) we headed off to Hermanus to watch some whales.



Even without the whales there's plenty to see.

I mentioned before that we flipped out seeing a whale from really far away. Turns out in Hermanus, if you go at the right time you can see lots of whales really close up.

That's the boss man trying to catch a whale with an iPhone. Pretty sure iHarpoon isn't in the app store yet.



I had a blast photographing whales for hours on end, but I also had some fun photographing the whale watchers as well.




Even The Stig got in on the action, apparently.
After a hard day spent with the whales we continued along the coast while the sun set.
Eventually we found a beach and planted ourselves. The place was really nice, with some mist rolling in from off the water.




Eventually, the sky set on fire, and we made the drive back home.

Middle bit with plants

All rested from the day before, we decided to head up Table Mountain. We took the easy route.
I didn't manage to get many pictures that would be of general interest to anyone while I was up there, but the view was spectacular, and I wish I'd had more time to explore, but because of schedules and plane flights, the trip up was a quick one. I never made it to this beach either.

After we rode back down to the parking lot, we headed towards Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens. People talk about the botanical gardens in New York, and impressive as they may be, I've never been to a botanical garden like this one. The setting alone raises it to a whole other level. The gardens nestled right up against Table Mountain, and with you back to what bit of the city you can see there is no reason to believe you aren't in Eden. We arrived in the late afternoon and stayed until they practically kicked us out. I suppose that's what happens when you get 3 biologists on a field trip to see plants. I don't know many of the names of what I photographed, but I will fill in what I do know. No idea what this is.
But this is a Fire Lily.
And I think we all know what this is.


Don't be fooled. These are ducks.

See what I mean about being Edenic?



I'm pretty sure these next three are Proteas, which are the national flower.




Smutspad: Less racy than you'd think.
After exhausting ourselves at the gardens, we headed back to our crash pad, the Daddy Longlegs, which is a pretty cool place to stay, considering that each room is done up by a different local artist.

And I slept and dreamed of being in a peaceful field somewhere.

Whales tomorrow folks, so stay tuned.

Early bits with zebras

The first few days of Africa were spent in a conference, so not much to report there, unless of course you want to hear the story about the tribal leader that interrupted our meetings making claims that we could have cured HIV/AIDS a long time ago and that we were trying to keep his people down and steal their riches. There you go. Non boring highlight of the week. One of the nights of the conference is always a fancy dinner, so this year it was off to Stellenbosch for dinner in a tent.
Dinner consisted of the craziest buffet I've ever taken part in, with all kinds of tagine dishes and crazy vegetables. Good stuff really, but too dark to photograph, so you'll just have to trust me. Following dinner we were treated to a traditional dance-off, proving that movies like "You Got Served" are nothing short of culturally accurate.




Everybody wins! Time to gather round the fire barrel.
One of the main features of Cape Town is Table Mountain. It's basically a big mesa, with a flat top you can walk around on. Because of it's proximity to the ocean, clouds gather at the top of it quite a lot. The guidebooks led us to believe that the locals call this the "tablecloth" of the mountain, but empirical studies proved inconclusive on the matter. Seeing the cloud cover spill off the top and evaporate is a cool effect, especially considering how low the mountain is and how close to the clouds you get.
After the conference was over, we had about 5 hours with some of our colleagues to explore Cape Point. The drive down was fantastic, and we freaked out when we saw a whale as we were driving along. Turns out we shouldn't have freaked so much, since whales are about as abundant as rats in Cape Town at this time of the year. More on that later.
Arriving at Cape Point.
Cape town has some of the most amazing flora. Much much more on that later.

This is Cape Point, which is one of the southernmost points in Africa. To the left of here is the Cape of Good Hope, which I'm sure we all learned about in school. Couldn't find a good pic, though, so you'll just have to use your imagination or come to my apartment some time.
One of the professors I traveled with convinced us all to take a hike out to the farthest point they will let regular people go. It was seriously windy, to the point of feeling about a gust away from ending up in the drink. It's an amazing feeling once you are there. I almost felt like I was at the tip of the world. All I could see was ocean and cloud and this golden haze caused by the lowering sun hitting the mist. I've rarely been to a place where I've felt the grandeur of nature more than I have there. If you've got $2,500 or so laying around, there's no reason why you shouldn't go to Cape town.

Looking back up towards Simon's Town.


Remember those Zebras I saw before? Here's a few more.
OK, enough of that. Amazing plants tomorrow, I think.