Friday March 18th 2011

For my last day in Cape Town I decided to visit Robben Island. This is the prison island where Nelson Mandela and many other of the political elite were imprisoned. I woke up early because my ferry to the island left at 8am. The ferry ride was really nice. I sat up on the top which was crazy windy but I got some amazing pictures of the coast and table mountain. We got to the island and you board a tour bus with a guide who takes you around to the different parts. We saw the workers village and various outbuildings and solitary confinement. We also visited the quarry where Mandela and others had broken rocks for hours upon hours. They white ground, the dust and the sun had given most of those imprisoned there permanent eye damage. The quarry was also where they would teach other prisoners. And the reason why the island was sometimes referred to as “The University” This island was incredibly hot and dry (there are no sources of water on the island. Back when it was in use they had to import all of the water.) I loved the bus tour guide. He was extremely knowledgeable and amusing and usually did the tours for dignitaries and heads of state. I think he said he had taken both Hilary Clinton and George W. Bush on private tours.

The bus then dropped us off at a cell block where one of the former prisoners would give us a tour of it. The man leading the tour was unfortunately pretty hard to understand and I don’t think I came away with as much info as I should have. We visited the group cell, the outdoor yard areas, and the personal cells. We all peeked into the tiny cell which housed Mandela for years and years. Afterwards I caught the ferry back (I sat inside this time which is not as much fun) I grabbed my final lunch of fried calamari and chips (aka French fries) which was stellar and then headed back to the hostel to catch my hostel approved cab.

So I collected my things and waited and waited and waited. The gate dude eventually took pity on me and went to go call the cab guy. Turns out he thought the appointment time was an hour later than I scheduled (which it wasn’t by the way casue I asked the front desk for confirmation that morning) The gate guy berated him on the phone for a while and then a little bit more when he got there. I expected the cab to either grab my bags and put them in the trunk or at least pop the trunk so I could put them in. The gate guy even asked him about it. But he sketchily avoided answering that. So me and the gate guy loaded my bags up in the back while I sat awkwardly in front. And then we took off. This guy is careening through the streets. We ran a couple of red lights and legit almost hit about 4 or 5 pedestrians who clearly had the rightaway. The cabbie is screaming into the phone half of the time we are driving. And then as I’m clutching the seat in terror, he goes, “I’m a good driver right?” (he had clearly been accused of being otherwise, and I’m gonna guess multiple times.) I wasn’t quite sure how to answer this since he was clearly a god-awful driver but as he had my life in his hands I couldn’t tell him that. So instead I told him he was a great driver and that sometimes you just have to drive aggressively to get where you are going….. We made it to the airport, where he felt it would be prudent to block the only lane to drop me off. At which point he got yelled at by airport staff. I apologized, grabbed, my bags and escaped with my life.

The flight was fairly uneventful and then Mom picked me up in Dulles. And that’s the end of my (first) African adventure.

Thursday March 17th 2011

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.

Wednesday March 16th 2011

I woke up, showered and decided that in order to get my bearings on the city, I was going to take the hop on hop off city sightseeing bus. (Emma’s flight left this morning so she was no longer at the hostel) I got on at a stop a few streets over from my hostel and stayed on until the bus got to the Table Mountain Cable Station. I bought a two way ticket because there was no way I would be hiking that mountain by myself. The cable cars themselves fit 65 people and the funny thing is people will all try to get the best place to stand, which is by the open window areas, but as soon as the cable car starts to go up, the floor starts to rotate so everyone gets all the views. The cool thing is that the cable car itself doesn’t rotate just the floor where the people stand.

Once at the top I basically wandered around. There are little trails all throughout the top. I stayed mainly on one trail but also went for a little while in the klipspringer trail which is longer and less domesticated. The views are amazing up at the top and there is a surprising amount of vegetation. Some of which that can only be found up there. I came back down and got back on the bus and ate my sandwich while riding. I was on the top at the very front but this bus didn’t have a covered top part so I was right in the sun. Hence the tan I’m going to come back with. I rode the bus around to Camps Bay, a beautiful beach area where sometimes celebrities can be spotted. We passed more beaches as we moved our way up the coast and I then got off at stop number one. The Two Oceans Aquarium stop. I liked this aquarium but it’s not the best I’ve ever been in. It did amuse me for a few hours though and I absolutely loved the giant spider crab exhibit (these things are huge!) the kelp forest exhibit (which is just plain beautiful) and of course the predator exhibit (with the ragged tooth sharks). I also loved that when they switch the rockhopper penguins between their outdoor and indoor habitats, they walk them straight through the aquarium. I was by the touch pool looking at the starfish when three little penguins quite happily waddled in front of me, following their keeper.

After the aquarium I bought some granadilla/mango ice cream (which for some reason had grenadilla seeds all throughout it; like watermelon seeds) It was still good though. I then wandered a little through the V&A Waterfront area, looking into the various shops before hopping back on the bus near the clock tower. It took me to greenmarket square, where all the craft vendors are. These were all things I had seen before though so I didn’t buy anything. At which point I headed back to my hostel. I hung around, cooked dinner, and headed off to bed at 10 again. (My poor body is so confused about the times because for a week and a half I was getiing up at 5:30 everyday and being in bed by 930 and then the last few days I was getting up around 7 and then not going to sleep until 1 or 2 in the morning.)

Tuesday March 15th 2011

Tuesday was pretty rough as it was my last day at White Shark Projects. I packed all my stuff up in the morning and then sat around the house with everyone looking sad. Emma and I were the only ones leaving that day so we shoved our stuff in the living room and waited for the van to arrive. While we were waiting, a group of new volunteers arrived. It was interesting to meet them all, but we didn’t get to chat much.

When the van arrived we all came outside and grouped hugged for a while. There was some crying and some trying not to cry (I’m sure the new volunteers thought we were loonies) I said goodbye to the little dog that we had made friends with (he was later adopted by the Marine Dynamics house; they named him Bobby). Earlier in the day I had told him that he could come back to the states with me and he obviously believed me because he hopped right in the car after me (but we had to shove him back out.)

The two hour ride back to Cape Town was a rather solemn one; I listened to my moody playlist on my ipod and that probably didn’t help. Emma and I were staying in the same hostel and so after we settled in, we went for a little walk. We had an early dinner at a rather good Thai place and then decided to go for a movie at the Labia, a movie theater. (Emma couldn’t even say the name without giggling. As it turns out this theater wasn’t named to shock people, it was actually named after an Italian ambassador to the city.) We saw The Concert. In the description the movie was called a musical comedy drama, which piqued our interest. I rather liked the movie, even if it was a little slow at times. We then came back to the hostel and basically crashed on the couches in the lounge. We were so exhausted that by 10pm we both decided to head off to bed.

Monday March 14th 2011

On Monday morning we woke up early because Andy got a bus to drive us into Cape Town for a few hours. I was exhausted and just about slept the whole way there. On the way we stopped on of the giant hills (mountains?) view areas right off the highway. It ended up being pretty interesting.

The view was gorgeous, of course, but there were also a group of men jumping off the cliff and hang gliding over the mountains. Their sail things were beautiful. We also stopped to buy a few souvenirs from a man selling them on a blanket near the little wall around the edge. I bought a beautiful little hippo carved out of some kind of dark green rock. As we were walking back to the van we noticed a wild baboon wandering around the parking area. It’s illegal to feed them because they can be quite dangerous and you don’t want to encourage them to approach humans. Anyway I was willing to give the creature a wide berth, but then it spotted one of the girls in our van eating an apple. She shrieked and chucked the apple out at in and while it was distracted the rest of us walked around it and quickly hopped in the car. We watched it for a few minutes before Andy decided to get out and get a try and get a few close pictures with it. He got really close and I was convinced it was going to jump up and rip his face off any second, but thank goodness it didn’t.

Once we got into town, we all split up. Andy, Jane and Jillian went to buy supplies for the Swop Shop. Emma went for a walk around Cape Town and me, Jo and Alex went shopping. We went out to lunch and then headed for the mall. It was Jo’s birthday so we all wanted to buy dresses to wear out that night. We all found (exorbitantly priced) dresses and then got a little lost in the mall before meeting up with the rest of the group and heading back to Kleinbaai.

I once again passed out in my seat and was a little grumpy when Andy woke me up and shoved us all out the van. He had stopped at Cheetah Outreach, a cheetah conservation place. They raise cheetahs and you can get a really close look at them. The cheetahs were absolutely beautiful. There was one that was right up against the fence literally inches from us. I love the little squeaky sounds they make!

We hung out for a while before pilling in the van and heading home. After that we puttered around for a while before getting ready putting on our dresses and heading out. We had to go to a new place tonight because Ernie’s was officially closed. We went to some Seaman’s Tapas Bar but I didn’t find it too exciting. There was a jukebox but no real area to dance and the boys were playing darts. (Darts and dancing do not go together…) So we basically hung out and chatted, before heading home.

Sunday March 13th 2011

On Sunday we were able to go back to sea so we headed out with some tourists. I elected to do the chumming with Alex. In hindsight, bad idea. We opened the chum bucket to realize that the chum had been sitting in the sun for the past three days. It was RANK. Alex was ill almost immediately; I held on for a while but then got so nauseous that I had to switch to a different job. I hung out on the front of the boat with Jo and the wetsuits. I also managed to spill some of the chum on my pants which reeked. I was still feeling ill but decided to get in the cage because it was my last day to go out. The sharks were pretty good. Quite a few came up right against the cage. I got out after 20 minutes because I was still feeling a bit sick. I was so mad afterwards because as soon as I got out David, who had been next to me in the cage, was able to touch a shark which snagged the bait up against the cage.

We came back to the house and I felt so much better to get out of my chummy clothes. The pants were saturated with stink and I ended up throwing them out. We hung out and watched a movie for most of the afternoon before me, Dave, Alex, Jo, and Mikey grabbed our braai suff and headed over to the Marine Dynamics house to hang out.

Dave was convinced he knew the way to their house so we followed him up some roads and around some roads and back down some roads before we realized he didn’t really know. So we stopped on the side of the road and sent Mikey back to the house to get directions. Eventually we made it there (with some help) Alex and I brought our watermelon. Earlier we cut a hole in it and upended a vodka bottle in the hole. By the time of the braai, the whole bottled had emptied into the watermelon. We cut it up and shared with everyone. It was sooo good you could hardly taste the vodka. We also had some cheese bratwurst and a whole bunch of other meats (it was a potluck kinda deal) some vegetables (which Nick seasoned really good). After eating, we decided we should head out to Ernie’s one last time. It was Ernie’s last night; the lease had run out and the landlord had decided to put up condos in its place. Much to the chagrin of the locals including Gerald and Grant.

Ernie’s wa s soooo much fun. Jo and I practically ran the jukebox and created another dance party. Gerald and his son shocked all of us by breaking out some crazy amazing dance moves!

Saturday March 12th 2011

Saturday morning the boat was still broke so we just kinda puttered about. We headed to The Great White House for lunch. (The Great White House is just a few feet up the street and is owned by the Marine Dynamics shark diving company. They are the other company that uses volunteers)

After lunch we headed down to the field by the ocean to meet up with some of the Marine Dynamics volunteers and workers and Grant (one of our skippers) to play some British sports. When we got there the boys were playing cricket, but they ended up losing all the balls in the bushes so they had to pick a new game. They decided on rugby and Emma and I ended up joining in. We were a bit lost a first but we were playing a simplified touch version so after a while I kinda figured it out. It was crazy hot and I had to stop after a while.

We went back home and showered and then a group of us headed to Ernies to meet up with Gerald, Grant, Nick, Ruedi, and our boys who had gone to watch a rugby game there. (Before the game ended us girls and Ruedi sat outside and chatted. Ruedi was Austrian and therefore had no interest in rugby) We had sooo much fun. They had a little wall juke box that took 2 rand coins. Jo and I had a field day with the juke box and created a slightly drunken dance party. We danced until the bar closed, I have no clue what time that was. We then hopped back in a cab and headed home where we ate chili that Mikey had made earlier. It was a little spicy, but still good.

Friday March 11th 2011

On Friday we got to sleep in (felt so good) and then piled into the car around 9:30 to go on a trip to Cape Aghulhas, the Southern-most point of Africa. It takes a little over an hour to drive there, and the majority of the hour was uneventful up until we blew a tire on the highway. I was on the side as the tire and actually saw the puff of air as it blew. So then we tried to change the tire (the boys tried but then Emma took over and got it done) but as it turns out the spare tire was worse than the blown tire. It was crazy flat and dry rotted. So then we hung out on the side of the highway and waited for the garage guys to pump the tire. We amused ourselves by photographing the wildlife, a caterpillar and grasshopper and some far off sheep. The tire guys arrived and then we followed them back to their garage to buy a real tire. And then they put a tire on and we started to drive away when we got some phone calls. So then we went back to the garage and they took the tire off, and we talked on the phone some more and then the tire might have gone back on….I’m not sure, there were so many decisions going on… We amused ourselves by being silly.

We finally got back on the road and reached the tip of Africa. We got out near a lighthouse and walked all the way to the point. They have a marker where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet and we took a whole bunch of picture on and around it. We also explored all the little tide pools in the area. On the rocks by the marker people had stacked piles of rounded rocks. I looooved them so I made a few.

By this time we were starving so we hopped back in the van and headed to a fish and chips place by the harbor where the giant sting rays hang out. The food was fabulous. I had a calamari burger sandwich. This was the best calamari I have ever eaten; It was amazing. After lunch we waded into the harbor and threw out our bag of bait (some fish and anchovy oil) We didn’t have to wait long. The sting rays appeared almost instantly. Andy was really excited because the water was the clearest he’d ever seen.

These sting rays were huuuuge; at least six feet across. They would come right up to you and even at times bump into your legs with a surprising amount of force. At one point one bumped into me and I went to step back only to realize that another one was directly behind me. I then had to literally jump over the entire sting ray in order to keep from stepping on it. These rays are calm and not really dangerous but they do have poisonous barbs and can hurt you if they feel threatened. We were out in the harbor for at least an hour luring the rays over and petting and even feeding them.

Andy had us all get back in the van before it got dark for the drive home. We stopped by the grocery store to grab a few things. (Side note: Magnum is a huge ice cream brand over here; which makes me laugh because it’s a condom brand in the US.)

Thursday, March 10th 2011

The next morning we all got up and loaded up the boat. They only had space for one, so Mikey volunteered to go (even though he had been drinking with us the night before) The rest of us were a little hung over so we crashed back in bed until the afternoon. When the boat came back we ran out to meet it at the harbor and were greeted with a very ill looking Mikey. Apparently just about all the guests had puked and poor Mikey did too. Julia was having a field day teasing him about it.

Afterwards me and Alex set up the lecture room as our own movie theater. We rolled down the projection screen (which covers the boys room door) hooked up Alex’s computer, and then pulled all of the couch and futon cushions and laid them out on the floor. We popped some popcorn and then everyone piled into the lecture room. (The projector covers the guys bedroom door so they had to crawl to get in and out.) We first watched scary movie called The Univited. It was a decent movie even though it was really hard to actually see the movie because the sun was shining in the windows. Next we watched Splice. That was the most f’d up movie I have ever seen. Most of it was pretty disturbing but then there were parts of the movie where we were literally screaming in disgust. Then we wanted to watch something happy so we put in Up, but half of us fell asleep before it was over. I ended up waking up around one am all by myself in the lecture room. I hauled my shivering self back to my room and slept the rest of the night.

Wednesday, March 9th 2011

Wednesday morning we all got up at our normal time and put together the boat for the day. Because of all the engine troubles, they wanted to lighten the load on the boat so only one of the volunteers could go. David really wanted to go so we let him. I was fine with it because I didn’t really want to be the only volunteer on the boat (then you don’t really have anyone to joke around with.) We hung out around the house; my stupid internet refused to work again (I don’t know what the issue is but its bothering me)

Dave came back saying the sea was kinda rough. We packed up the boat and headed out for the second trip and realized the sea was VERRRRY wavy. The boat was rocking like crazy. We only had 4 clients on this trip, which was nice because we could sit inside the cabin area and we had a lot more room to move around. So we got out to the anchor site and the waves were insane. We had only been there 10 minutes but I was really starting to feel seasick. I had decided to do data that day but then Julia offered to let me in the cage. I headed to the front of the boat to put on my wetsuit. They are always hard to squeeze into but that day I could barely stand up while trying to put on one which made it even harder. And to complicate things I was starting to feel a lot seasick. Related to that, as soon as I got my wetsuit on my body was crazy overheating and I had to keep one hand in the bucket of seawater we keep to rinse off diving masks in. Finally I was situated and was able to hop into the cage. The water felt absolutely amazing and really helped to cool me back down to a normal temperature. Also, as soon as I hit the water my seasickness vanished. That was really nice. We waited for a few minutes before the sharks all came. It was crazy, we ended up seeing 11 different sharks and at one point there were four around the boat all taking turns with the bait. The waves were big enough that sometimes half the cage would be out of the water and at other times all of the cage would be under the water.

It was very exciting to be in the cage. The sharks there were all very comfortable getting close. We had two that ran directly into the bars; one near my hand and then one that came directly at Emma and Mike and actually bonked his nose into the cage. He swam back and shook his head like he was confused. When I developed my cheapy underwater camera I had some fabulous pictures!

Later that night we all went to Joys, a restaurant. We ended up meeting up with the Marine Dynamics group for a fabulous dinner. Afterwards, most everyone went home but me, Emma, Josephine, and the boys stayed for a few drinks. We came back to the house and chatted for a while (apparently loudly because the neighbor across the street said we kept her with Emma’s laugh. Whoops.) And headed off to bed.

Tuesday, March 8th 2011

We woke up in the morning to the word that the boat’s engines had been fixed. We hopped out of bed at around 5:55 and then checked the phone which said “Please meet at 5:45 to put the cage back onto the boat. We hurry down there to the news that they actually don’t want to start until daytime so we head back up the road. In the meantime no one can find the keys that turn the alarm off and one of the crew opens the garage door, which sets off the alarm. All the volunteers are in the house for the next 30 minutes eating breakfast with the stupid alarm blaring. As it turns out Grant, one of the skippers, had accidentally taken the key fob with the garage alarm on it home the night before. So he had to, literally, run home and get it before we could turn it off. And to make things more interesting; the sewage tanks for the house were full or clogged or something so the plumbers had been in and out pumping them which left the house smelling rough. Finally we are able to get in the garage and pack up the buckey to take stuff to the boat.

They decided to test the fixed engine on us that morning. We get into the harbor and take off but it was clear right away that something was amiss. So Grant and Gerald turn the boat around and take us back to shore. Julia decided that since we couldn’t go to sea that we’d do lectures instead. All of these lectures are actually very interesting and we really wanted to have them. The first one was on shark biology. We learned about the different parts of the shark; the different senses they have (they have more than we do) etc.

Then the people that didn’t want to go to the swop shop this afternoon (Alex, Mikey, and David) went out with a different shark diving boat, Apex Predator. Our clients went with them. The rest of us stayed for Julia to give us another lecture; this time on shark behavior. I really enjoyed this one because white sharks have a lot of really interesting and unique behaviors. Sometimes they do whats called spyhopping, where they want to see something above the level of the water so they stick their heads out of the water and basically look around. They do this sometimes to see seals on rocks or people on boats. We’ve seen them do this a few times at the back of the boat right where the chumming platform is. Its really cool because they basically stop swimming and look right at you. Also, sharks use body language to communicate to each other as well as the things like the boat, the cage and even on occasion Julia's underwater camera. If they are uncomfortable they will point their pectoral fins straight down and arch their backs in the water. If they want to assert dominance to something unfamiliar they will gape at it. (Open and shut their mouth slowly at something to show how big their teeth are). One of their most interesting behaviors is when a shark comes out of the water, and you touch their nose (this overwhelms their electrosensors in their nose giving them a sensory high) they will almost go in a trance and open their mouth really wide before sliding straight back into the water. Often after this they will swim off upside down before coming back for more. (Sharks like being high).

After our second lecture I grabbed a quick shower (cause I was lookin grungy) and then we all hopped in the van and headed to the Swop Shop. Swop Shop is located in a nearby township. This is where the poorer people live. Often their houses are made of one room or pieced together from random chunks of wood or other materials. The swop shop is made up of a bright orange shipping container that is tucked away in a little corner. Inside is a bunch of shelves with little toys, clothes, school supplies and other random bits on it. (Pens and pencils are a hot item as are blank notebooks, also has things like erasers, toothbrushes, deodorant, hair clips, bracelets, marbles, balloons, dolls) In order to get these things the kids pick up recyclables (plastic and glass bottles, tin cans) and bring them. They got points based on how much they bring. The kids are so cute. They love it when you take pictures of them and all want to the see the screen of your camera afterwards. I was trying to get a picture of myself with the kids but whenever I help out the camera to get a myspace pic of us they would all run out from behind me to where I was holding the camera. Effectively leaving me alone in the picture. Eventually I wizened up and called them over to look at a pic then really quickly holding up the camera and taking a pic before they could move.

There were a few little kids I was especially fond of. One of the little girls, whenever I smiled at her, would break into giggles. She also liked to help us sort through the bags they brought. Another little boy, who showed up with his brother, started crying as soon as he saw me, but then he also cried when one of the girls inside tried to help him pick a toy and again when a lady offered him soup. So I guess its not just me.

Once we had a huge amount of recyclables, Andy threw everything, including that big bag, into the back of the truck and took it the recycling center. They do this every Tuesday and by the end of the month they usually make about 200 Rand from all the things they recycle. This money goes back into swop shop to buy soup or toys. He ended up making this trip three or four times before all the kids had finished. We then closed up the shipping container, hopped back in the bus and headed back to the house.

The other group had come home by this time, and so Andy decided to take us to get fish and chips and watch the sunset out by some big rocks. We went to this little hole in the wall called the The Fish Lady and most of us got the Stovkis and Chips which is some kind of white fish that’s been breaded and served with French fries. We grabbed our food and Andy drove us out to this real rocky area right on the shoreline. (Apparently in the winter it’s a good place to look at the whales) We sat on some rocks and ate our fish and chips and had a few beers. The temperature was great and its wasn;t too chilly even after the sun went down. We were there a few hours before heading back home to have (strange I know) tea and apple pancakes. I actually went to bed early that night at around 9pm.

Monday, March 7th 2011

So this morning we got up as usual. Loaded up the boat with the clients and headed out to sea, before being brought to a standstill by a broken motor. Apparently one of the spark plugs had exploded wreaking havoc inside the engine. Because we can’t disappoint the tourists we sidled up to another boat tied the two together and loaded all of our tourists on their boat. Alex, me and Jillian went along too. Turns out they had no need for volunteers so we ended up hanging out on the front of the boat and watching the sharks. It was awesome. After a few hours we headed back into shore.

We got home and as it turns out, because the motor was broken we couldn’t go on the boat in the afternoon, so Andy decided to take us to see the penguin colony at Betty’s Bay. He drove us an hour to the bay and then we each paid R10 or a dollar and fifty cents to get onto the boardwalk through the penguin colony. The penguins were so cute! A few were very bold and would walk right up to the boardwalk but a few were shy and hid underneath of it when we came near. We spotted penguins sitting on their nests and even a few penguin eggs.

I was really excited when we saw the rock hyrax or rock dassies. They are basically Africa’s version of the guinea pig and they live in the rocky areas like the coastlines and mountains. I don’t know how they get up there, but they often hang out way high in the rocks. We had a great time and I took wayyy too many pictures. Then we drove the hour back to Gansbaai.

We didn’t really feel like cooking, so we headed up to the Great White House for dinner. Me, Dave, Jo, and Tina all split a massive seafood platter. It had line fish (like cod), Hake (another type of fish) crab chowder, calamari, abalone, cheesy mussels and possibly something else I can’t remember. But it was good…And then to finish off the meal a few of us ordered desserts. I got the death by chocolate (chocolate muffin drizzled in hot fudge with a dollop of ice cream) and Jo and Tina each got a slice of the chocolate cake. Needless to say, we were stuffed.