South for the Winter

Hey everyone, I leave today so I’m afraid this will be my final post on here. I’ve really had fun with the blog, so I think I’ll have to find some other crazy project to do so I can set up another one. But yeah, seeing as this is my last post, I thought I’d try and make it a bit special. So here we go!

5 Things that would have been good to know before I came to South Africa:

1. When driving in South Africa, “Stop” actually means “Keep Going. If you’re going to hit somebody - pedestrian or otherwise - swerve, beep the horn, shout something rude out the window, whatever floats your boat... just keep going.”

2. A five-seater car can be a 7 or 8-seater car if you use your imagination.

3. In the UK it tends to only be used sarcastically, but when a South African says “Shame!” they actually mean it. So if anything bad happens here, the standard response is “Ach shame!” and you leave it at that.

4. South African tenses are messed up. Here, “just now” is used like, “I’m GOING to do it just now,” not like we Brits would say “I DID it just now”. So if someone offers to give you a lift to the shopping centre “just now,” I’m afraid you won’t be meeting Matt Smith. 

5. And “now now” means later....... yeah, we had trouble with that one too...

So that’s a few of the things I’ve learnt here, my advice to travellers is as follows:

1. If you’re meeting a South African anywhere and they say “now” AT ANY POINT in the conversation, make sure you get a specific time from them. It saves a lot of time, effort and sunburn as you wait outside Mugg and Bean, thinking they’re going to show up in the next five minutes. You’ll thank me an hour or two later.

2. Before you go anywhere in a large group, assess who are the smallest/most flexible members of the group and make sure you call shotgun before they do. It’s ok, they’ll be fine in the boot, so long as you remember they’re there.

3. Look both ways before crossing the road. Then again...again... and probably again. And just before you cross, you might want to take a minute to invent a third or fourth way to look and double-check there too. Remember, “Stop = Keep Going."

4. And don’t bring socks. You won’t use them.

As far as my final week in SA has gone, it has been so hectic that I’ve barely had time to feel sad that I’m leaving. Good old Cubañas threw an indoor beach party, so we dressed up for that. I don’t think we were quite expecting the sheer amount of sand that we found on arrival. There was a good 2-3 inches of sand covering the entire bar! Annoyingly I didn’t take my camera with me, but some of my friends took some good photos; I’ll try to get hold of a few of them instead. Savannah cider was holding a scratch card competition to win Savannah beach hats, so we ended up getting a lot of Savannah. Nobody won a hat, but we ended up with Savannah flip-flops, a Savannah beach ball, a towel, and even a Savannah stress ball (which was affectionately given to me... not sure what they meant by that?).

My other roommate, Natalie, left for Switzerland on Friday. I was working on Friday so she came into SANCCOB for a tearful (and slightly fishy-smelling) goodbye hug. When I went home to my now empty room, I found that she had decorated my bed with sweets and one of those Hawaiian flower-necklaces, as well as a short note that made me cry a little. I am going to miss Natalie a lot; she is such a fun person and was my first friend in SA. I miss coming home to French music playing on her iPod, especially French versions of Disney songs. We had fun singing them in two different languages at the same time at the dinner table. I hope you had a safe journey home Natalie! Have an awesome Christmas and I can’t wait to see you again! Je t’aime aussi!

I also did the final dive of my scuba diving course; we went diving in False Bay (Indian Ocean side, infinitely warmer than diving in the Atlantic side) and went inside a wreck. Very cool indeed! Some of the other divers saw an octopus and a cuttlefish – I must have been too busy trying to blow bubble rings or something. But yeah, got my qualification now and super happy!

I worked my last day at SANCCOB on Saturday, I got to be the supervisor on Pen 2! It was nice to be trusted with supervising a pen, but it was a little scary knowing that I was going to responsible for anything that went wrong. But other than some minor drama with the nebuliser early on, the day went relatively smoothly. I’m going to miss SANCCOB so much. I would recommend working with them to everyone! The staff are so nice to you, you get to meet and work with other volunteers from all over the world, and after each day I have worked there I went home filled with a huge sense of achievement – you get so much done in just one day and I always feel that I have made a difference. The African Penguin is now officially classed as “endangered” so the work SANCCOB does is really important to the survival of the species. Anybody out there looking to take a gap year? Spend some time working at SANCCOB. It is one of the best things you’ll ever do with your life.

I have had real fun here. I know I’ll find some time to come back again, but I’m sad to be leaving. On the other hand, I’ve run out of money, so I think going home is a good idea. But if anyone is expecting me to come home with a tan, I’m afraid you will be sorely disappointed. I’m British remember? I get sunburnt and then go pasty white again.

It’ll be really good to spend Christmas with my family and see my wife and friends again. I can’t wait for Christmas dinner, Christmas carols and Christmas weather (sorry South Africa, but 30-something degrees is not normal for Christmas. You’re doing it wrong). I’m almost looking forward to be woken up at 3am on Christmas morning by my little sister, asking me if I’ve got any scissors.

Sorry this post has been so long, I promise I won’t do it again. Thank you all for reading! See you soon guys x

And Then There Were Two

Hi again! This looks like it will be my penultimate post on here, I hope to get at least one more post in before I leave. I start home for sunny England on Monday, but I’m honestly not sure my body will be able to cope with the temperature difference. I’m going to miss the sun... and the sea... and being able to wear flip-flops to work...

The week has been relatively uneventful, but that’s mainly because I’ve gotten lazy with my “outside-work” activities. For example, there is the small matter of a mountain that I still haven’t climbed. I’m going to try and do that on Monday before I leave; if not it just gives me an excuse to come back here another time. That said, I have been out quite a lot in the evenings with my housemates. We’ve made friends with the bar staff and bouncers at Cubanas, so we’ve been getting drinks there more and more and paying for less and less. All in the spirit of Christmas though right?

SANCCOB has had a recent influx of new volunteers, and it was nice to realise how much I have learnt in the time I’ve been here. Only six short weeks ago, I too was freaking out because I found a fish scale stuck to my face.

Today we went to Canal Walk, possibly the largest shopping centre I have ever seen. Three floors the size of a football stadium of pure retail paradise! Stuff is expensive so you have to shop around, but only if you have the fitness and provisions for it. I’m surprised the centre wasn’t riddled with the skeletons of shoppers who misjudged the sheer enormity of the task ahead of them and simply expired mid-browse.

Also today was Reagan’s last day in South Africa. We are all going to miss her so much! But I wrote this post in our room while she was packing, and it was once of the funniest things I have ever seen. You know the feeling of utter bewilderment when you realise how much stuff you have managed to accumulate over six weeks? To quote her exact words, “it looked like the South African tourism industry blew up in our room.” It’s a real shame that she couldn’t fit that six-pack of Savannah cider in her bag. A real shame I tell you. I mean, she’ll have to leave it here. In our room. With me. Shame.

But seriously, I am going to miss Reagan. I’ve never known someone with as much of a get-up-and-go attitude and she really is just such an inspiring personality. It's just me and Natalie in our room now and it feels so empty! I really hope to see her again soon. I want to visit her and her aquarium sometime; I still have most of my gap year ahead of me, I could easily find the time for it.

And so I sit here, shamelessly drinking Savannah at 4pm, writing about a wonderful person who I will never forget. This one’s for you Reagan! Have a safe journey home!

Talk soon guys x

Dreaming of a White (hot) Christmas

Hello everyone!  I hope you’ve all been keeping well. The weather here is absolutely ridiculous! It’s December, yet it’s been thirty-something degrees with clear skies for the last week and my poor British eyes can’t deal with how bright it is any more. Sunglasses have become a standard item of clothing, without them your endless squinting identifies you as the clueless tourist you truly are.

The Christmas decorations are out here in storm. We saw the Christmas lights in Adderley Street being switched on last night (a week later than first anticipated, we got the dates wrong) and it was utterly amazing. Where we go for angels, snowmen, winter scenes etc, Cape Town’s centre for shopping is decked in angels, flowers, and exotic animals, all in the form of huge lighting arrangements that stretch the entire length of the street. The switching on of the lights is a really big family day here. Celebrations started at 3.30 in the afternoon and continued on until late. There was a huge concert, a parade, even fire dancers! South Africa really knows how to party.

Of course there are hints of the classic western winter Christmas too. A lot of their wrapping paper is decorated with snowflakes, and I have wondered why people would bother decorating their windows with Snow-in-a-can when the tarmac is melting outside. I guess irony is to South Africa what sarcasm is to the UK – foreigners won’t ever fully understand it.

I have been diving twice this week. Up until now we had been diving on the Indian Ocean side of the cape, but this week we ventured into the Atlantic side. I had to be resized for a thicker wetsuit because most of the Atlantic currents come from Antarctica. I don’t recall ever being in colder water in my life. I did my first deep and wreck dives, and it was 7°C at the bottom. Some of the divers broke an egg at 30 metres below the surface, and the pressure meant the yolk stayed in a perfect sphere – that was a teeny bit awesome. The approaching swarm of box jellyfish? Not so awesome. Luckily they weren’t interested in us or our egg, apparently jellyfish do not care for diver’s humour.

Work has been going really well. I love SANCCOB so much! I managed to get some pictures of a few SANCCOB duties, like setting up pens and tube-feeding birds. Getting bitten has also become the norm. Some penguins don’t need to be force fed, they can just take the fish from your hands – they’re known as “free-feeders”. It’s better for penguins to be able to free-feed as it means we don’t have to handle them as much. Unfortunately in Pen 2 there are an awful lot of free-feeders, so feeding time now bears uncanny resemblance to the January sales. And there are always some penguins who think they’re free-feeders, but they’re really not. They take the fish from you, and then don’t know what to do with it. A few seconds later they’ve thrown it on the floor and are back at your feet asking for another one - so occasionally you have to help them.

I still haven’t climbed Table Mountain, that’s something I really want to do before I leave. I hope to do that sometime in the next week and take lots of pictures. And Wednesday is night-diving day, so that should be fun. Take care and talk soon guys x

C'est bon ça!!

Afternoon everyone! I can't believe it's been over a week since my last post. The week has been quite busy, but nothing too eventful (yet...) so I think we'll try to keep this one short and sweet.

Somehow I was chosen to go on another release with SANCCOB, which was nice. Unfortunately the weather is unbelievably fickle in Cape Town; if you only experience four seasons in one day, you're doing well. The release was cancelled twice because the sea was mental, so we went to Boulder's Beach in Simon's Town for a land release instead. The poor penguins literally had no idea what to do with the sea when they saw it, it was so funny! I'll upload the video when I get home.

Natalie has introduced our room to French dance music. It's irritatingly catchy... we danced all the way home from the Bayside shopping centre and got some very strange looks indeed! And now we greet each other by shouting "Mitraillette a Natalie!!" and pretending to shoot each other. Standard.

I've started my Advanced Open Water scuba diving course now too, so on Monday I went diving in a kelp forest. I'm really happy because it's something I've always wanted to do (well... since the aquarium trip anyway....) and I can't wait to go again! Antony, the instuctor, got stung in the face by a jellyfish (again)... I probably shouldn't laugh. We also went diving near a golf course so we were told to keep an eye out for the rare, lesser-spotted golfballfish, which can only be found in certain areas around the world.

Reagan and I went on a bit of a pub-crawl last night, we started off in the "Purple Turtle" which, other than the five-legged, half dead cockroach in the bathroom, appeared to be a very respectable establishment. We drank some Savannah and made some friends at the bar. Unfortunately, all of the partying had taken place the previous night and it was a bit dull, so we moved on to "The Dubliner", an Irish pub (what gave it away?).

What a difference! A live band, a cocktail balcony, and hundreds of drunk students made for an interesting night. And alcohol is cheap here, so you have to watch you don't get carried away. For example, I vaguely remember getting up and playing the piano at some point last night...

And tonight we're planning to go to Adderley Street and see the switching on of the Christmas lights! I'll try to take some pictures. Wow... this post turned out a lot longer than first anticipated. Sorry about that! Talk soon guys x

Noel’s Are You Smarter Than a... Penguin?

Hey Everyone! It’s been such an eventful week that I couldn't possibly wait until Monday to post again, so here I am.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I went on a boat release on Tuesday. It was basically a day off work with a free boat tour of Robben Island (where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned). Awesome stuff. We were releasing five penguins and a Petrel, a very prehistoric-looking bird with a temper to match. They were packed into carrying boxes and put in the back of the pick up truck. Laurie was quick off the mark and called “shotgun”, so the other four volunteers (myself included) climbed into the back of the truck.

On the way down to the waterfront, the Petrel must have decided that the decor of his box was not to his liking, so he attempted to work his way out of the handle hole to freedom – at one point his whole neck was out of the box. We were all so scared that nobody thought to tell Anna (who had been looking out of the window) that an angry Petrel was mere inches away from her face.

The boat trip itself was great. We saw the World Cup 2010 stadium from the water and we got an amazing seascape view of Table Mountain. The water outside of the harbour was quite choppy. I frequently sat down on the back rail of the boat so I could enjoy the whole “sea-breeze-in-my-face” thing, but me being me I got a bit cocky and started swinging on the rails. My reward? I nearly fell in. So that put an end to that.

The penguins were released just off the coast of Robben Island. They will hopefully go to join the penguin colony resident on the island. They seemed quite bewildered when they first splashed into the sea, but if you’re used to the small pool in SANCCOB, I guess the endless sea was always going to be a bit scary. 

On the way back we were lucky enough to see seals and seabirds diving into the ocean for fish.

Wednesday was my day off, so Reagan (one of my roommates, from the US) and I went to sort out some touristy things and go to the shopping centre. I introduced her to Mugg and Bean *dramatic music* and then showed her how the buses work. We had a lot of fun shouting “Scandalous!” whenever a mildly attractive man got on. Maturity is taking its own sweet time getting here, but we can wait.

Now Thursday was interesting. I was on Pen 2, so I got to p-p-p-pick up a penguin for the first time. I also got bitten for the first time. Some of the penguins have been at SANCCOB for a while and so they’ve worked out how we pick them up. They know that we distract them with our gloved hand, and then catch them with our ungloved hand. So one of the adults turned around as I was reaching to catch him and bit my finger. Well played, you sneaky creature.

SANCCOB apparently gets a lot of visiting television crews, they do a lot of groundbreaking stuff so the media often show up to make documentaries and so on. But on thursday, we were told that some people from BBC were coming. A little boy had done an amazing amount of fundraising for charity and his dream was to meet some of the penguins, so he was taken to SANCCOB and they were filming him. Can you tell what it is yet?

So we were in the general area, when Noel Edmonds walks past. My first reaction was, “OH MY GOD! IT’S RICHARD BRANSON!!” Then I realised that wasn’t right. Afterwards I ran into the kitchen going “Guys! Noel Edmonds is here at SANCCOB!” but in a room full of people from the US and Denmark, nobody had any idea why that was a big deal. It was a nice surprise though. Unfortunately, I had to get back to work, but a couple of the other vollies got their photo taken with him. So yeah, expect an episode of Noel’s Christmas Presents to feature a penguin sanctuary in South Africa.

I hope you’re all well at home, and I’d love to hear what’s shaking back in the UK so send me a message if someone eggs Clegg or something. Talk soon guys x

A Slow and Delicious Death

Are you sitting comfortably? This is going to be a long one...

On Tuesday I had my first day at SANCCOB, and either because I was nervous or because I had 5 other volunteers to fight over one bathroom with, I got up at 6.30am. Cheryl and her mother had laid out all the breakfast things and we are supposed to just help ourselves. Needless to say, unhealthy amounts of peanut butter were consumed. I think most of my baggage allowance on the way home is going to be assigned to South African peanut butter, regardless of my two siblings with severe nut allergies. But when stuff tastes this good, you have to take some risks.

We arrived at SANCCOB at 7.45am, for a staff meeting at 8am. I was put on “General” with Laura, who is from New Zealand and very fun. But before we started work, we were given a tour of the sanctuary and met Rocky, their resident Rockhopper Penguin. She loves to me cuddled and I have been told on numerous occasions that she is the REAL owner of SANCCOB. Rocky followed us around for the whole tour and took great pleasure in being both cute and distracting.

Tour over, and it was time to get to work! If you’re on General, you spend most of your time in the General Area (go figure) and are in charge of laundry, cleaning, getting fish out of the freezer and making up formula/darrows. Darrows are electrolyte solutions for keeping the birds hydrated; it’s basically Powerade for penguins. Formula is usually fed to the babies and is made of a mixture of cat food, vitamin supplements and liquidised fish. Delia Smith, eat your heart out.

Also, I was lucky enough to be on kitchen duty, so I got to clean two bathrooms and a kitchen. Mum, if you’re reading this, don’t get any ideas.

We went home shortly after 5pm. I was much too tired for anything other than a much needed shower, dinner and bed.

Wednesday was a bit more relaxed. I was put on Pen 1 and the Aviary with Laila, who is from very northern Norway. We finished our duties quite early, so we were sent to storage to find some nice towels for use in the new Hatchery. A lot of towels had large holes in, so before throwing them away we decided to have some fun. A few clothes pegs later and we both have very fetching towel vests, and we spent a large amount of time asking each other to cut down the mightiest tree in the forest with a herring. That’s right people, the most remote part of Norway hasn’t seen the sun for years, but they really know their Monty Python.

And we cut up fish for penguins with scissors here. None of that fancy filleting nonsense.

Thursday I was on Mats and Crates, and got a bit too liberal with the pressure washer. “That mat needs pressure washing. That crate needs pressure washing. That penguin over there? Definitely needs pressure washing.” And in the evening, my housemates and I went to Cubanas and got experimental with cocktails. We crawled home about 2am and, apparently, nearly got shot by one of the neighbours because we were making so much noise. Seems a bit extreme, but what’s life without a little unnecessary aggression?

I was supposed to be working Friday as well but with so many volunteers and not that many penguins (before the huge baby penguin influx on Saturday) I was given the day off. I went to the aquarium with the Plymouth girls. South African buses are great! And their aquariums make ours look rubbish. Their Predator Exhibit was absolutely amazing. We hurried on down to watch scuba divers in the exhibit, hand-feeding the rays and turtles - I think I may have discovered the coolest job ever.

For dinner we found a steakhouse that served all kinds of African meats, so Kudu and Springbok made an appearance at the table. We didn’t bother with dessert, but we were on our way back when we saw Mugg and Bean, the Krispy Kreme/Millie’s Cookies of South Africa. You know that thought that always crosses your mind? “I guess I have room for some pudding...” Not if you go to Mugg and Bean, you don’t. We were so naive. I have never seen bigger portions of lemon meringue pie or cheesecake in my life! They were literally about the size of your head. I won’t be going there again for a long time, no matter how delicious the cake in the window looks. I’m honestly not sure my heart could take another onslaught like that. Enter the “Slow and Delicious Death”.

On Saturday my mum’s schoolfriend Ann and her family picked me up from Cheryl’s and took me on a road trip around the Cape. We went to Rhodes memorial, and showed up at a beach just as the Shark Alarm was being sounded (exciting stuff), they lowered the danger rating after we saw aforementioned shark devour a seal. I guess they figured the shark would be full and not have room for a swimmer dessert... definitely not if it was swimmer from Mugg and Bean.

Lunch was in a hillside rose garden cafe overlooking the mountains. I love Ann.

Yesterday I sorted myself out with a South African mobile number, so if anyone wants it I can message them via Facebook. I also watched Happy Feet with Natalie in the evening... we felt it was an appropriate film choice.

And tomorrow I will be going on a boat release! I’ll take lots of pictures. Talk soon guys x

The Long-haul Experience

Airports are not my friends. Period. Admittedly, the overall experience wouldn't have been nearly as stressful if I wasn't such a moron. For example, a "normal" person probably wouldn't lose their passport and boarding pass within the amount of time it takes to walk through a metal detector. Yes, you should always put your passport and boarding pass in a safe, easily accessible place. But here's the completely mind-blowing part, make an effort to remember where the safe place is. Idiot.

And no Boots, I will not pay 25 quid for sunglasses.

But I did have the pleasure of looking out over London and seeing firework displays from the sky! Very nice pre-dinner entertainment. And airline food has gotten a lot better, I had coq-au-vin (so they said, I have no idea if it actually was or not...) with the cutest tiny onions! I think the cabin pressure may have been a bit iffy - I don't normally find small vegetables cute, or indeed any more notable than regular vegetables.

I watched Green Lantern and The Hangover: Part 2 on the plane and tried desperately not to wake everyone else up by laughing, and then attempted to fall asleep. When we landed, I got scared by an angry customs lady (airports again!? grrr) and then got picked up and taken to where I will be staying for the next 6 weeks.

Cheryl's house is also an animal sanctuary so they have about 70 cats, 6 kittens, 4 dogs and 5 penguins in residence. One cat, "squirrel", keeps climbing up my back when I get too close to the table. I don't imagine I will get used to that. I share my room with 3 other volunteers, who I have yet to meet, and I can't wait!

It's really nice here! The people are lovely, the weather is amazing and I'm allowed to eat peanut butter at all hours. 'Tis a good life.

I start work at 8am at SANCCOB tomorrow, so I hope to have some pictures up very soon. Inevitably they will just be of me covered with penguin mess, but at least you guys at home will have something to laugh at. Talk soon guys x