Thursday morning I let myself sleep in until I couldn’t handle the heat any longer and then got up to shower and start the day. I decided to get on the hop on hop off bus again and hit some of the stops that I didn’t get to on Wednesday. I headed out and snagged a bus; this time getting on the blue line that heads a little bit out of town. The ride was beautiful. We went around Table Mountain and travelled down some fabulous twisty roads shadowed by huge old trees. It was all very picturesque. I debated getting off at the Kirstenbosch Gardens (I loved touring the gardens in Berlin) but I ended up deciding that I might not have time for World of Birds which was what I really wanted to do.
World of Birds is this ramshackle zoo-like kinda place mostly made of 2x4’s and chicken wire. Despite its appearance, It was extremely interesting. They have all kinds of birds as well as a whole bunch of other creatures. I first went to see the kookaburras because they’re my favorite.
These didn’t talk to me like the ones in Berlin did though. The set up of most of the zoo is that you walk into these enclosures through the doors hung with plastic and then you are in the birds enclosure and they can come right up to you. (This wasn’t true for the kookaburra, or the hawks and most other dangerous birds but the owls were a different story as you will see later)
I visited a whole bunch of various birds like flamingoes, parrots, toucans, some random local birds, carrion birds etc. They also had a whole bunch of monkeys ranging from the teeny tiny ones to the big baboons. (The females have really gross butts, by the way) So then I go by the owl enclosure. On the door there is a sign, “Enter at Your Own Risk: Owl Breeding Season” And I’m thinking Ok how dangerous could a bunch of owls be? So I enter this series of enclosures; the first two were either empty of the owls were hiding, so I confidently open the next door to a massive owl perched on a waist high fence a foot from the door. He turns his head to look at me and I’m not entirely sure what to do; he is fairly large and I’m sure could have done some damage if he felt like it. So I try to talk in a comforting tone as I squeeze myself through the door in slow motion and slide my body along the far wall in order to give him as much room as possible. Luckily, he was fairly calm and I was able to even take a few pictures with him. I moved on to the next enclosure, uneventful, until I open the next dooe and hear this awful, menacing hiss sound. I poke my head into the enclosure to see another massive, blatantly pissed off owl perched on top of the exit door jam. I couldn’t back up, so I started creeping forward. With everystep I took he hissed louder and fluffed himself up. I ended up asking a German couple who was in the next enclosure how they made it past him. Their advice: just be quick. So I shield my face with my arm and sprint through the door meanwhile the owl is pitching a fit above me. Thankfully the last few owl enclosures were filled with shy, docile owls and nothing else threatened to eat me.
The best part of World of Birds was the spider monkey enclosure. It is made up of a large fenced in area full of trees and benches where they have a whole bunch of spider monkeys frolicking around. I spent over an hour playing with them. They were very curious and loved to jump on me and yank on my water bottle and one even managed to unzip my backpack and half jump inside before I caught him. They also loved tangling themselves up in my camera strap. They were so adorable!
Eventually I had to tear myself away from the monkeys to catch the next bus back into town. I rode it around back to the coast before getting off at Mariner’s Wharf to have lunch. I ate calamari and chips. Yumm! (Cape Town has the best calamari I have ever tasted. I am literally obsessed with it!) While waiting for the next bus I wandered through a few of the shops there. One was filled with old antique ship stuff and was really interesting.
After catching the bus, I spent the rest of the day just walking around Cape Town, mostly in the V&A Waterfront area, cause I knew that area the best. I love listening to street performers and there are always a bunch of them in that area.
Then I headed back to my hostel to get ready for Robben Island the next morning and then my flight home.
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