Day 7

8:50 PM
Cape Town, ZA

Our morning started out bright and early heading up through the mountains to go whale watching. The drive was beautiful, but scary at the same time! The view was amazing (again, sorry you all have to wait to see the pictures!). At one point in the drive, we were stopped due to "monkey crossing" when a family of about 15 baboons crossed the road in front of us. It was definetly a first time experience for Katie and me! The male baboons were huge, and the female had a baby on her back, and about 10 other little ones playing and running behind. It was awesome! We drove to the ocean to go whale watching, and stopped at several places on the way. It was freezing, but we managed to see a lot more whales than are usually present! At one point there were about 10 whales in the bay. July and August are the months when the female whales try to find a spot near the bay to give birth (a process which takes 2 weeks, ouch...). August is usually the month when the birthing process actually takes place, so we got really lucky! After stopping for a hot chocolate, which turned out to be just hot milk, but all the same with freezing hands (yes, it was this cold), we stopped at another favorite point of Andrew's. We had to hike up some large rocks to get closer, but we saw many whales very very close to the shore here and also a new baby whale. They would blow their spouts and roll over! It was incredible to sit and watch these massive creatures. Right before we were about to leave, a huge wave came and engulfed us from the rock we were sitting on. Luckily by this time it was much warmer, but we were drenched in saltwater. It was quite the experience!
We continued driving through the mountains down into 'Wine Country' where we visited two wineries that were fabulous. I bought a bottle of my favorite, so if anyone would like to try some, let me know when I get home! The views from both wineries were amazing.
From the wineries, we drove to a small local deli for a cheese tasting. Katie and I had hinted that we both love cheese and both had really enjoyed what South African cheese we'd tasted so far. We tasted 4 delicious cheeses, most of which I wish would survive a 37 hour trip home Thursday and Friday! Wish I could bring these back for everyone to taste as well!

This place is incredibly beautiful, and I wish you all were here to enjoy it with us.

Missing everyone, and see you soon!
K