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