Snapshot … Boulders Beach

Following on from my recent travel snapshots on Namibia and South Africa, I thought I’d look at place I visited there that didn’t revolve around safaris or landscapes. So today, I’m talking about Boulders Beach. Boulders Beach is located south of Cape Town, right down near the Cape Peninsula. It’s situated just near the seaside village of Simon’s Town. Now despite three trips to Cape Town in the last couple of years, it wasn’t until my most recent trip in August/September 2015 that I finally ventured out to explore the peninsula itself. And what a day of exploration it was!

Getting my penguins in a row … or so the saying kind of goes!

More penguins … again in a row. What’s that about?!

Little African penguins!

We had booked ourselves on a full day photographic tour with Cape Photographic Company and our incredible guide and professional photographer for the day was Peter Haarhoff. This was an invaluable trip for me. Having only just purchased my first DSLR camera a couple of weeks prior to my trip, I was sorely in need of some (okay, a lot) of instruction on how to use it! It was a full day – Peter picked us up at 6am and 13 hours later he returned us to our hotel on the V&A Waterfront. During that time we visited many beautiful places including Kalk Bay, Simon’s Town, Boulders Beach, Cape Point, Camps Bay, Chapman Peak Drive and Hout Bay to name but a few. The pace of learning was perfect. Learning little steps throughout the day. By the end of the afternoon, I was shooting in manual mode!

Just a lonely little guy

Such a spectacularly beautiful location

A curious little Dassie (or Rock Hyrax) … related to the Elephant!

So back to Boulders Beach. It’s a beautiful spot, lovely white sand, clear blue ocean, and the beach is dotted with large granite boulders (hence the name). I was in landscape heaven! But the main reason for visiting Boulders Beach is to see the colony of African penguins who call it home. And boy are there a lot of them! The wooden boardwalks allow you to stroll around the area, taking in all the little hiding spots and favourite hang outs for these little guys. At one point, further down the beach, you can actually access the sand and after climbing over and under some of the boulders you can stand and watch in awe as the little penguins walk so close to you! It’s a must see destination!

The boulders of Boulders Beach

This inquisitive guy came right up and walked between us!

 

This post makes up part of my contribution to the A to Z Challenge for April 2016

Click Here for a link to all my challenge posts!