Penguins Day 1 - Monday 6th May

Had the best 8 hours sleep last night, and after breakfast at the hotel I had a wander around the V&A waterfront which is literally on the doorstep.  It was still coming to life, but looks like a cool place to be.  I am going to head back down there in a few minutes once I have checked out.  I am meeting the rest of the group at the clocktower at 1pm to start our adventure!

This morning I visited the Two Oceans Aquarium, which had lots of different creatures on display. Some of them I have never seen before, as they are indigenous this area.  I found the massive spider crabs especially unnerving, and there were lots of poisonous creatures ... along with the great white sharks, the waters around South Africa are not somewhere you want to be swimming!

Of course, I had to go and visit the penguin pool, and check them out.  No doubt I will get chance to get up close to them in the next few weeks. Hopefully they don't bite too hard!

Met the group at 1pm at the clocktower and we had lunch at the adjacent café.  The ferry to the island is broken, and there is only a smaller replacement service, meaning we had to wait until 5:30pm for the next boat.  We spent a few hours slowly browsing some of the African craft markets for presents and souvenirs.

When we got to the ferry terminal, we eventually loaded all our stuff up (reminiscent of Shuna trips!), but we had to wait for someone before we finally set off around 6.15pm just as it was starting to get dark.  The crossing took around an hour, and it was fairly calm but quite cool as we were sitting up top in the top. There were great views as Cape Town disappeared in the distance.

There was a 4x4 pickup waiting, but not enough room for us and all the luggage, so we loaded the luggage and set off walking. By now it was pretty much pitch black so we didn’t see much of the island. The pickup came back for us and carried us the last half mile or so up to the house.

The house is bigger and more comfortable than I imagined, with separate living area, dining room, kitchen and bathroom. I am sharing a room with Kelly, and there is plenty of space to organise our stuff.  We had a light dinner and a briefing in the evening, then retired to bed, anticipating our first proper day.