Reptiles and Kommetjie

For the second day of our vacation, we visited Imhoff Farm and Kommetjie.

Imhoff Farm was founded in 1743 to supply ships that docked in Simon's Town. Today, the farm has several tenants who sell real estate, curios, food, etc. Other tenants include a reptile rescue operation and a petting zoo. There is a wide range of potential activities: everyone is sure to find something to like. Mark and Catherine were very interested in the reptiles (although Catherine was frightened by the ferocity of tussling crocodiles). 

After lunch at the farm, we traveled down the road to Kommetjie (pronounced coma-key). Catherine napped in the car while Mark and Tracy walked on the beach and rocks near the ocean. They came back to car earlier than expected, because Tracy was soaked by a huge wave.

Later, we visited the Kommetjie lighthouse. The official name of the lighthouse is Slangkop, meaning "snake head". The name is taken from the nearby mountain which is so named because of all the indigenous snakes in the area. (We saw a dead cobra on the road.) It is a working lighthouse, and the lightkeeper (Russell) gave us a brief tour of the place. He then opened the lighthouse to us, and we walked to the top on the internal staircase. There are 4 or 5 levels which wind around the outside skin of the structure. At the top, one can see all the way to Table Mountain (north) and Cape Point (south). 

You can see a ton of pictures below.

--Matt