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