A New Vegetable

We recently discovered a new food called "waterblommetjie", which means "water flowers" and is pronounced roughly VAHT-er-BLUM-ik-kee. They grow wild in fresh water on the Cape penninsula. These waterblommetjie fell into a pot of soup shortly after this picture was taken.

Melissa

In Good Company

This garden has been a garden since 1652, when employess of the Dutch East India Company planted it to help resupply passing ships. It is still known as the Company's Gardens.




This is the biggest aloe tree we've seen yet.

Melissa

Up the Table

It was a clear day in Cape Town.


But it was cloudy on top of Table Mountain.



Which is where we went.



From the top, we could still see the city. Sort of.



The landscape was beautiful.



The plants were strange.


The cliffs were invisible.


The sun was occasional.



Melissa and Andy

Aloes & Stuff

Aloes and iceplants are native to this area and have been imported to the US for landscaping, erosion control, and whatnot. Here you can see them as part of an ecosystem (though not in this picure where they are definitely landscaping on the grounds of the cape point light house) and you often see a little iceplant between some shrubs or a dense stand of aloe just like you'd see a patch of prickley-pear in the hills outside Tucson. I catch myself thinking I'm walking in a garden when in fact I'm in a wilderness.

Andy

Penguin Tracks

The penguins leave scrapey claw, wing, and tail tracks in the sand. The shoes are for scale.

Andy

The Cape Point

Andy does the penguin walk at Boulders Beach.



The horizon beyond the Cape of Good Hope is not actually slanted. Next time we drive down there, I'll try to hold the camera straight.

Melissa

Jackass Penguins, Mom!

A jackass penguin, unfortunately renamed as an African penguin. Long live the ouzel!

The penguins were on a white sugar beach. Really warm. Not what you'd expect from a penguin breeding colony. We plan to return next summer to snorkel with them.

Andy and Melissa