"Make sure you get my good side!"

"Make sure you get my good side!", a photo by Megan Lorenz on Flickr.

When planning the South Africa trip, I had almost decided to skip Cape Town and the surrounding areas because I wanted to maximize my time in the bush. Thankfully I came to my senses and decided if I was going all the way to SA, then I had to experience the cape. I didn't want to cut out any of the time I'd planned to spend at Kruger and the Sabi Sands - so I just extended the trip ;-)

Seeing the penguins was really important to me and because of that...I didn't need to look around to see where I wanted to stay. I knew that I wouldn't get better opportunities than the ones at Boulder's Beach Lodge. I didn't even have to take the short walk to Boulder's or Foxy Beach for this one...it was taken right at the parking area of Boulder's Beach Lodge and shows the 540 million year old granite boulders that partially enclose the beach in the background.

Did you know:

•African Penguins have a black stripe and black spots on the chest, the pattern of spots being unique for every penguin, like human fingerprints.
•They have pink glands above their eyes, which are used for thermoregulation. The hotter the penguin gets, the more blood is sent to these glands so it may be cooled by the surrounding air, thus making the glands more pink.
•This species exhibits slight sexual dimorphism: the males are larger than the females and have larger beaks.
•Their distinctive black and white colouring is a vital form of camouflage – white for underwater predators looking upwards and black for predators looking down onto the dark water. This is called countershading.