simon's town • 32 comments • Forty kilometers south of Cape Town lies the village of Simon's Town. When we read that Boulders Beach (located just outside Simon's Town) was renowned for it's African penguin colony, we knew we had to make the trip out. After a short train ride, we were making our way through Simon's Town, in search of Boulders Beach. Although you can spot penguins on surrounding beaches, it's best to pay the entry fee for the beach (which is maintained by Table Mountain National Parks). We went down walkway that was built for penguin viewing and saw one or two of them hiding in the bushes. Suddenly, a few steps later, we were surrounded by hundreds of them ... ...waddling, lying around, swimming, squawking - in addition to some seagulls that were eyeing the penguin eggs. Penguins look ridiculous when they move around and we couldn't stop laughing at them. As we walked away, we saw a seagull steal a penguin egg: We felt kind of sad - but c'est la vie, right? After monopolizing the best photo spots, we finally left and headed down the coast to the sheltered swimming beach. The beach is still part of the national park, but it gives you the chance to actually swim alongside the penguins (watch out, they bite). In reality the penguins and humans tend to leave each other alone - the beach was filled with families who seemed oblivious to the penguins sunning themselves on the rocks nearby. Although there weren't hundreds of penguins at the beach, there were a handful - swimming around and hanging out on rocks, but they weren't actively encouraging human interaction. It was quite nice to see the families enjoying themselves and the penguins being left to their own devices.
