Penguins and Baboons, oh my!

Prior to leaving for Cape Town, Grandma and Grandpa Bowen mailed me a newspaper article about the overwhelming presence of baboons in Cape Town and the concern this presents for the upcoming FIFA World Cup. Apparently the baboons like to get into cars whose windows are left rolled down, especially if there is food inside. I have been in Cape Town for five weeks now, and up until today I hadn’t seen a single baboon. But today after our hike out to the Cape of Good Hope, we had a couple of visitors at our picnic lunch. As we were sitting outside under the shade tree eating our paper bag lunches, I spotted a mother baboon with her baby on her back about 100 yards away from where I was sitting. Then, within five seconds, the same baboon swooped down from behind us and took Tina’s bagged lunch right out of her hands. I don’t think I’ve ever seen 15 Americans scream and spring from their seats so quickly. I don’t know what made us think the baboon was satisfied with just one bagged lunch; just as soon as we returned to our seats and got comfortable again, she made a second appearance, at which point we decided (and were told by the security guard) to move our picnic inside of our vehicle.

That was one of the highlights of the day. Prior to the baboon incident we visited Boulders Beach, known for its penguins. African penguins seem to be much lazier than those in Antarctica, or maybe they are just more relaxed. I’ve always liked penguins, mainly because they’re just so darn cute. But more than that, penguins take care of one another. They are a most faithful species (they mate for life). Perhaps they also a sense of decency; today it seemed as though two penguins who were becoming intimate with one another quickly ceased all intimacy as soon as they realized they were drawing a crowd. Maybe we were the ones without decency, refusing to give them their privacy.

The final highlight of the day was hiking out to a mass of rock, surrounded on three sides by the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. I could see nothing around me except for a horizon line of ocean. There is something about the natural world that never fails to remind me how small I am. I stood near the edge of the rock watching the waves roll in. If the wave was just right, it would crash into the side of the rock on which I was standing, forcing the wave’s water upwards and arching over my head – thousands of tiny saltwater droplets raining down on me from below. The greatness of nature such as this cannot be adequately captured by even the most gifted writers.

This evening we also went to a rugby game between a South African and an Australian team at the stadium in Newlands. Without a doubt it was nice to experience the atmosphere of a rugby game in South Africa, but I don’t particularly enjoy sitting and spectating for so long. Or perhaps it’s just that I miss playing sports myself.
Until next time…