Cape Peninsula: Southern-most tip of Africa, almost.

For our first day in Cape Town, we decided to do a daylong tour of the Cape Peninsula, which extends South from the City. Where else in the world can you see seals, baboons, penguins and whales all in the same place.

The day began with a boat ride out to Seal Island - basically a rock out in the Atlantic Ocean covered with hundreds of seals. There was quite a swell out on the sea, so we had the pleasure of one of our co-passengers heaving over the side along the way. A perfect way to calm our stomachs.

The swell did produce quite a surf spot on the reef (I think) near Seal Island, where several surfers jumped off the boat in full wetsuits (the water is about 45 degrees) and engaged in combat surfing. With a jetski around for towing into big waves, the surfing looked pretty extreme from my position.

Next it was off to the Cape of Good Hope. For years, we have been taught this is the Southern-most tip of the African continent. Not so. Somewhere to the East is actually further South, so the Cape of Good Hope has to settle for the "Southwestern-most part of Africa." Nonetheless, it was pretty impressive.

Along the way, we saw some baboons by the road. Our guide reinforced several times that these cute little simians have big fangs and a strong drive for human food. Feeding them can cause quite a ruckus, and while he did not elaborate, I envisioned ugly scenes of "primates gone wild." Needless to say, we kept the windows closed in the van.

After the Cape of Good Hope, we headed down to an area known as "Boulders," where we saw one of the few remaining African Penguin colonies. Yes, there are penguins in Africa, and they are cute suckers.