Goodbye Namibia!!

Sunday July 24

It's been two weeks here and it's almost time to say goodbye to Namibia! It has definitely become more fun over time and I have some good friends here I will miss, but I don't count many animals among them and I'm ready for my next adventure! I'm really glad I chunked up these two months into such different things, because it feels like a whole bunch of different trips. I really can't believe I'm on the same vacation that took me on safari in Tanzania or to the beach in Kenya or hiking Table Mountain in Cape Town. Next up is the Sifundya (I think I spelled that correctly) bush experience. I just went over the paperwork I brought with me, and I'm still not sure what I am in for. The packing list did say to bring a towel (which I bought in Cape Town) so I'm thinking my slide down the hill of luxury will continue. But it's just a week, then I have two days in a beautiful hotel in Johannesburg before at last coming home!

There's not much to report from here; rather than chasing after an eland we watched a movie yesterday afternoon, which was just what I wanted to do, and this morning we built a larger cage for Godiva, one of the caracals who has a broken leg (because Yoda was a bit aggressive when trying to mate with her!!) and now we have the day to ourselves. Packing, showering (!!!), and reading are on the agenda. I hear we might also take on the Bush men in soccer.

Don't think I've included a picture of the caracals yet; here are a couple of Godiva. Caracals can jump well over two meters in the air, and they have fur sticking above their ears that allows them to measure the wind. They are related to cats but not super closely. Same as wild dogs are related to dogs but are actually really different.

Im leaving here tomorrow morning at 4 am and am Once again am unsure if I will have internet at the next place; we'll see how creative I have to be to get access!!

Bye for now!

Namibia Still

Friday July 22

Whoops looks like I was confused on Wednesday when I thought it was Sunday! Who knows what I was thinking!?! Today is definitely Friday and my last official day of activities. I'm ready for them to be done! On your last day you can decide to join any of the groups and do your favorite activity. I was lucky in that my group was on research so I just stayed with them. But it wasn't that great! First we had to go out in two trucks to chase a wild ostrich. That was pretty fun. We walked in a straight line with our arms out to make it run away from us and into the area it is supposed to live in. But then, we got dropped off far away from our camp and had to walk back through the bush and do a game count on foot. I got so many prickles in my shoes it was really annoying. And I had to go to the bathroom the whole time. And we had no idea how long it would take to get back. AND we didn't really see anything at all. Then when we got back we had to make the cheetahs Samera and Chiquita walk in a straight line for their food to practice for when they are going to photograph their footprints.

Lunch came next and they ran out of food, which is a common occurrence. I got some at least. They expect people to walk for hours in the morning, or work in the garden, or whatever, and the self portion out what one portion of stir fried veggies looks like. And then when it runs out they blame us for taking too much and the last people basically go without food. They won't even give them cereal! It is incredibly annoying and I'm looking forward to filling out a comment card. I will definitely be on time for lunch for the next two days until we leave!

Now it's the afternoon and I have opted to "be sick" and rest in my tent. I don't like any of the activities that go on in the afternoon so I'm going to just rest and read!!


Saturday July 23

Today we were on food preparation again, which is good because basically everyone else had to clean out the sheep and goat enclosure. A lot of shit. Shitty job. I fed the rabbits. Tried to feed the tortoise but couldn't find it. Really not that much to report! Here are some pictures from when we fed the carnivores. And also feeding the baby baboons their one o'clock bottles.

We are supposed to have a fun activity this afternoon but it sounds like Rudie wants to try to dart the eland again, so seems like we will just be going along with that. Ready to be moving onto my next place - will try to upload a goodbye message tomorrow before I leave!

Sleeping With Rudie, Walking With KiKi, and Other Stories From Namibia

Sunday July 20

Yesterday evening Rudie, the owner of the farm, took all of us volunteers out to watch him try to dart an eland with a broken horn. He is a human medical doctor who has now converted to wild animals and was going to show us the practical part of his immobilization presentation. We drove around in the backs of three trucks looking for the eland or for their runaway zebras which he also wanted to dart and bring back. It was a nice drive, like a sunset boat cruise at the cottage, and I enjoyed the view even though we didn't see anything, ie we didn't get to see him dart anything. Instead, we came back to the presentation room and he showed us three very technical powerpoints on concentrations, dosages, and volumes of sedatives, tranquilizers, and the drugs that reverse them. Detailed instructions on what to use for each type of carnivore. Stories galore. Demonstration of how to use the dart gun and load the dart. Interesting but way too long. Cut into dinner!!

And then it was a bit of a rush because I was sleeping with Rudie the adorable eight month old baboon last night. Around 7pm when the food preparation group was making his bottle I went and filled two containers with warm water. They lured him out of the little cage all the babies sleep in to stay warn and I gave him the bottle while he sat in the bath. He gets so tiny when he is wet! It was adorable. And he was so good, just sat there and let me put water and shampoo on him. It was really hard to get him rinsed but I tried my best. Then the girls that were helping me threw two towels on me and picked him up and put him on me. He was soaking! I had to make sure to dry his tail really well too. I couldn't really get the diaper on (you have to first poke a hole for the tail, then try to put it on him while he is clinging to you and balance his empty nighttime bottle between his face and your chest all the while) and he started to scream cause he was cold (let's face it I took him out of a bath, he was wet, and it's pretty much sub zero here) so Liz, a girl who knows him well quickly put on both diapers for me. Then he got zipped into my new fleece jacket and I was sent on my way to my tent. Of course he started screaming and trying to get out the top as soon as we were on our own. It was pitch dark and all I could feel were little baboon fingernails around my face so I made Liz come and calm him down. She said I just had to hug him and walk as fast as I could to my very far away tent. She was right - he quickly calmed down and became only cold and afraid and dependent on me instead of mad at me.

Unzipping and rezipping a tent with a shivering 8 pound baboon in your shirt is pretty tough! But we made it and made it into my sleeping bag. He crawled around for a bit checking things out. He kind of play bit me once which of course put me on edge for the entire night. (I was totally fine.) Then I smelled the baboon poo. We hadn't been there more than 20 minutes when he had not only shit, but also managed to get his tail out of both diapers, pretty much guaranteeing it was about to fall off. Fantastic! So our next adventure was to get his diaper changed. I picked him up, held him with one hand and threaded his tail through the hole with the other. I should have paid better attention in babysitting class because I had no idea how the diaper flaps worked. By the time I figured it out the rascal had pulled his tail out. A few tries later we had success, and the second diaper (you have to put two on because he can take it off if there is just one) was even easier. Niki came back around then and helped us get tucked into bed. Rudie was such a sweetheart then, he went down to the bottom of my sleeping bag where it was warmest and curled up around my feet. He stayed there quite a while and then spent some time along my back, and some sitting by my stomach. He moved every 20 minutes or so so I didn't get much sleep, but it was pretty precious. At one point he had his little feet hooked into the waistband of my jeans (I wanted as much as possible between us in case he caused trouble) and his hands down on the bottom part of my legs. Every once in a while, just as I was drifting off to sleep, he'd shift a bit and tickle me and wake me up. Once he crawled out and sat by my head. I had to sit up then because any size baboon sitting on my pillow over my head is not okay with me! But he was half asleep so I just pushed him back into the sleeping bag. There is really no better way to describe him than as a little monkey!He sucked on his bottle the whole time - never lost it. He woke up at 5:30 and I likely could have got him to go back to sleep but I was a bit tired of it all by then and I didn't want him to jump on Niki so I took him back to the cage with the other babies. That was an experience in itself since it was still dark out, I couldn't wear my glasses in case he grabbed them, I couldn't move anywhere without him clinging to my front (he was cold and is scared of the dark) so putting in contacts was out of the question and getting my shoes on was a struggle. I wrapped him in a towel and off we went on the 7 minute walk. We made it, got inside, I got his diapers off, and I put him on the ground in front of the babies. As soon as I opened their door a crack he slithered under and into the arms of Rafiki, another baby. Very cute. I didn't worry about him being cold anymore! I wanted to get lots of pictures of this but the whole thing was so chaotic that I just got a couple of the bath time.

This morning all of the volunteers went out in trucks to watch them release the newest family member - a young cheetah - into her new enclosure. They pick her up from a farmer yesterday. There really wasn't much to see but it was a big production and a lot of song and dance. After, my team was on enclosure patrol again....and the electric fence wasn't working for the lions! So I had to call back to camp using the emergency cell phone and get the hell away. Luckily all of the lions were still inside. (let's face it, they have a pretty good life there, why would they leave?!)

After muffin break we got to go on a cheetah walk with Kiki. A Bushman named Johannes took us and unfortunately he didn't speak a ton of English. First we had to go drive inside her enclosure and convince her to hop into a cage in the back of the truck. Not easy, but okay we (he) did it. Then we drove to the area we walk in and all looked around to make sure there were no other animals there because we didn't want her to run away and chase them. So far so good. Then we had to convince her to get out of her cage. Didn't think that was going to happen but eventually she started walking. Then we just walked along with her. It was so beautiful. She is tame, you can pet her when she is just sitting still, and we got some good pictures of us with her just in the wild. She didn't really want to walk where Johannes wanted her to go, but I figured that was okay because she is a cheetah after all.

Then all hell broke loose. Two ostriches appeared (we later learnt they were hand raised on the farm) and of course Kiki saw them. Johannes started running full tilt to try to scare the ostriches away. I don't think he really did anything but luckily they saw Kiki in time and ran away flapping their useless wings. By this time we were running super late and now that she was distracted by Kobe beef she wasn't going to settle for the shitty frozen month old chicken nugget she gets every day that Johannes was using to try to get her to go back to the car. He told Matt to go get the car and drive it around to us (this is when we were doing the photoshoot). Kiki was walking again by the time the car got there so Johannes told us to get in and he kept walking with her. All of a sudden Sable starts banging on the roof of the cab which is usually the signal to stop, and I was in the passenger seat. Sable shouts down that Kiki is going after another ostrich and to pass her camera up. And sure enough a few seconds later Kiki bolts after the ostrich (unclear if this is the same one or a new one) and they run for at least 20 seconds and according to Sable's pictures got less than a meter away! It was pretty spectacular. But luckily the ostrich escaped. We figured after all of that Kiki would be tired and ready to go home, but no. She still refused to go. We lifted the crate out of the car. No. Then she walked away so had to lift it back in the car (very heavy) and drive to her. Then back out of the car, with string attached and Matt holding it from a distance so she wouldn't know we were going to trap her. Nothing worked. Finally Johannes called Cila who is like the manager here who came with a longer rope and more fresher meat. Finally worked. Then we had to drive her back inside her enclosure and convince her to get out. Would you believe after all that she wanted to stay in her cage and we had to coax her out yet again? Insane! Cila has now grounded her indefinitely and says there will never be another cheetah walk again. Apparently she is always hard to get to come back....

So that is the excitement of the hour! This afternoon we had to clean the chicken and bunny enclosures but that was easy. Then I thought I had an hour to myself but turns out there was a 5pm presentation on NamibRand, a private reserve that we partner with, as well as one on snakes, because Cila likes them and it was her turn for the presentation. This was a bit delayed considering we were sprinting through open plains just a few hours earlier in pursuit of a cheetah!

Now it's very late - almost 9 (!!!) - so time for bed, sans monkey! Will post this tomorrow!

Here are a couple of pictures I snapped on the enclosure walk. Obviously none of the lions! (Cheetahs and leopards only!)

Namibia Again

Tuesday July 19
Sunday in town was okay. The mall we went to wasn't anything special...didn't find anything to buy. After a couple of hours we got back in the minibus and went to a really neat restaurant called Joes Brewhouse. Or Beerhouse. They had a big buffet with eland and zebra on it. I tried both (sorry ae) and they were both very good. The eland was very tender. We had lots of fun hanging out in a more normal place than the farm. We didn't see anything else of the city, but it sounds like there really isn't much at all and that it isn't the safest city. Sunday night they had crappy sandwiches for dinner so I'm glad I pigged out at the buffet all afternoon.

Monday we were back to work as usual. The groups got reshuffled a bit so we were on food prep again but it was better this time since we more knew what we were doing. I made a ton of baby bottles up. The baby baboons get three each throughout the day, so that's 15 bottles, and the baby sheep gets one twice. It's very fun to give them the bottles because they are so desperate for them. Have to force them to breathe. Also learnt how to feed the horses - one is called ice cream - but they were a bit aggressive towards each other so I was a bit nervous. After muffin break we went on carnivore feeding. This was great because we just had to hang out in the back of the truck and hop in and out at different enclosures and throw meat over the fences and take pictures. We went to the two tame wild dogs again, but also to the 13 wild dog pups which are super cute and according to volunteers here the only hope for wild dogs to continue existing in Namibia. They are going to start a breeding program but it will be expensive and a lot of work. We also visited two cheetah enclosures and two leopard enclosures. I prefer the leopards - they are more dangerous but much prettier. Finally we hit up one of the lion enclosures and saw the two that keep us up at night with their roaring. Turns out they sound like they are right outside your tent because they basically are. They were huge and very beautiful. Unfortunately I didn't have my iPad with me so no pictures.

Lunch was horrid. There is way too much British influence here. We had toast with baked beans (tasted like fish to me) and a really greasy sausage. I ate a couple of apples too because I could hardly swallow lunch. After lunch we had to feed lots of the animals again and then got to go on a baby baboon walk. It was tons of fun. They are such devils. They want you to carry them and they sit on your shoulders or lie around your neck or sit right on your head. Then they get bored and jump off or swing down your arm or jump onto someone else. Then they wrestle and play with each other and sometimes give each other a hug. We stopped and sat under a tree which they had fun climbing in, and then they would come running around us and over us and coming for hugs. One took out my hair elastic so she could groom my hair. On the way back we basically all got peed on. Pretty gross but worth it for the amount of fun we had. My baboon peed from my shoulder down the whole front of my shirt and in my hair. And, we have a water shortage right now so weren't supposed to be showering. Sable and I decided we had to rinse off anyways and had a super speedy cold shower. But I have a bunch of stuff to take to the laundry! I have Rudie tonight in my bed and I have a feeling I will get covered in pee again tonight....but everyone says it is worth doing...once.

This morning we went on a caracal walk which was super relaxing and fun. I got to carry one out (Medusa, the other was called Cleo) and put her in a crate so we could drive them to the plain where we walk them. She was so soft and nice and warm, like a blanket. Caracals are really neat - they are in the cat family but are quite different actually. Long and thin and can jump so high that their front paws clear well over three meters. We strolled around to a tree that they scratched and climbed, pet them a bit, and walked back to the car. Our coordinator demonstrated their jumping abilities by throwing them pieces of meat. Impressive! I think I got it on film.

After muffin break we took the junior baboons for a walk. I found that mentally exhausting because you never know what they are going to do, when they are going to run up behind and grab their way up your back, or jump from someone else. And they are about 30 pounds! And there are eleven of them! We took them to a tree that they can play in, with nets and stuff set up, but they had a bit of a squabble and forgot who were they were mad at, and decided it was me (I didn't move or do anything to deserve this!) so the two staff had to come protect me with sticks. Nothing happened to me at all. They like to come stick their fingers in your mouth to see if you have gum. They also enjoyed licking my knee. Good times, but not desperate to do it again super soon!

Here is a picture of us at Joe's Beerhouse

More Namibia

Sunday, July 17

Well, it's been a busy few days, interspersed with 11 hours of sleep a night. On Friday I learnt about food preparation which was actually really fun. We cut up veggies for the steenbok, Lily (a very small deer), as well as Sylvie, which is a larger variety of deer. We prepared and fed the baby baboons bottles, which is fun because they are greedy and you need three people to do it so you can feed all five at the same time. Otherwise whoever finishes first will fight the others for their bottles. We were a bit new at this and accidentally let them steal the nipples off the bottles. Unsure if they got them back yet. We also had to prepare meal pap for the baboons, big and small, which was kind of like playing with play dough. The Bush Men actually make the meal pap and we have to chop up and mix in vegetables and fruit as well as compost and then shape it into balls so the staff can throw it over the fence for them. Taking food into the junior or senior camps would be a bad idea. But Miguel and I took it into the baby camp, and I ended up with a baboon (Shauna I think) eating a carrot on my head and getting me quite dirty! But they are very cute. A girl from Texas, Sable, and I also threw meat to the two semi-tame cheetahs, Samera and Chiquita. They were both raised as pets and Chiquita only has four teeth because she was raised on cat food. So it takes a while to feed them. After that we were supposed to go feed all the other carnivores, but because yesterday was a big open house day and they were going to be eating a lot, they had to fast. Instead we prepared all the food for Saturday. In the afternoon we were supposed to take the baby baboons on a walk, but there were too many last minute things to do to get ready for open day. So Sable and I made ourselves as scare as possible to avoid having to rake. We did meet the horses who came out to get groomed for giving kids rides.

Open Day (Saturday) was not particularly fun, but was very important for raising awareness amongst Namibians as well as some money. It was really well organized and the food the had looked amazing. I was in charge of selling t-shirts, posters, and DVDs. Very boring because no one wanted them. And nowhere to sit down all day. But I think 500 people came in, and enjoyed themselves, so it was fine. I did not pick the best week to come though! But now that that is over next week should be good! Lst night was someone's birthday so we had a bit of a party and a huge cake....but even the birthday girl went to bed at 9pm!

Today I'm going into town for the day. It's a beautiful day so I am regretting it a bit, but it will be nice to get out of farmland for a few hours! Those that are staying behind will play soccer against the bushmen and enjoy dessert with lunch. But I will do that next Sunday!

Here is a picture of Sylvie as I am writing this:

These are the senior baboons

Here is the chicken and turkey enclosure

And the goats and sheep (they will be let out soon)

And the bunnies

Will get pictures of the lions and leopards and cheetahs for next time!

Namibia!!

Tuesday, July 12

Well, here I am on a farm / wildlife sanctuary in what feels like the middle of nowhere, Namibia, but is actually only a 40 minute drive from the airport. I have no idea when I will be able to upload this, or how good the connection will be then, so will just stick to text for now. Today is Tuesday, and I have 45 minutes until dinner at 6pm. Let me start at the beginning.

I arrived very smoothly last night. From the air it looks like Namibia is solid hard mud, but as you get closer you can see there are trees, but they are mud colored too, and the ground is mostly covered in grass, but it is also mud colored. But there are little mountains and dunes everywhere and it's actually very beautiful. A guy was there to meet me, but he didn't speak much English so we listened to the radio in Afrikaans for the drive in. Then they showed me to my bed.

It is a tent. Not what I was expecting, but the tents are actually as nice as the rooms, more private, and a lot more quite. I have a proper bed, great bedding (but it's still super freezing and my sleeping bag was a great purchase), and a really nice roommate from Ireland named Nikki. She has six tattoos and about twice that many piercings.

Most people here have a tattoo or two and I think collectively we average three piercings in addition to normal pierced ears. Most people are 18-20, but a few are my age or older. It was a bit of a shock last night, but I'm over it and enjoying most everyone's company. Many from Europe, one from Canada, and a few from the US.

Arriving was a bit of a shock, and I must admit I wasn't sure what I'd gotten myself into last night. After getting to my room, the lady told me the lantern was broken so I just dropped my bag and followed her back to the food area. It was like arriving at camp. And I hated camp. No real introductions, no information on where to get a mug for tea, etc etc. But a few people took pity on the new girl and showed me the basics. The food was very basic but good. It immediately got freezing cold. Freezing. Literally I think. We huddled around the Bon fire and I watched some of the others roast marshmallows that they bought the last time they went into town. If you want anything other than the meals, water, and tea, you have to buy it from a store here open twice a week, or from town on Sunday. It's pretty rough watching everyone else drink beer and coke and eat chocolate for dessert when you have nothing! I made sure to get my name down on the list for next Sunday (a whole week!!).

Sleeping last night was also pretty tough....I think I have the world's narrowest sleeping bag. Can hardly move in it! And so cold I bad to keep my head in it all night too. But we go to bed between 7:30 and 8:30, and I stayed in there until 6, so I imagine I must have slept quite a bit! We go to bed so early because it gets so cold and because there isn't much else to do. And as I learnt today because we work pretty hard all day.

Today I was put into my group, joining three other girls. Our first activity was enclosure patrols which was a great first thing to do because we basically walked around a chunk of the property checking the lion, cheetah, and leopard enclosures to make sure there are no holes and that the electricity is working. We also spotted giraffes and zebra which was a big deal to the others, but I've kind of seen a lot already! 10:00 is muffin break which is apparently the highlight of the day. They were pretty good I guess. Next we had to carry rocks out of the junior baboon camp. The baboons were supposed to be out for a walk but they escaped and came back early so we had to book it out of their cage because they were over excited. It was pretty tiring though. After an hour and a half for lunch we were onto wild dog time which was pretty cool. We drove water and food (raw meat) to their camp and threw the food to them. Wild dogs are super endangered so it was cool to see. Then we threw whole chickens to some of the cheetahs. After that we had to clean the rabbit and chicken enclosures. You're getting the idea that it's quite a bit of work here and also quite a few animals! I just had a shower and now it's time for dinner!

Wednesday, July 13

I slept soooo well last night. I got an extra sleeping bag so with all the different covers I was able to open my sleeping bag and stretch out more. Today I'm more settled in, but still I don't think I would recommend this to anyone I know. It's just a bit roughing it and a bit too much work! But everyone says their first few days were not great and now they love it. We will see. This morning my group was on "project work" which is code name for "hell". Right now there is more project work than normal for two reasons. They have too many volunteers, and not enough normal activities, and this weekend is Open House which is a big fundraising day and they are expecting over 700 visitors and so there is lots to do. Most of the projects seem to involve fixing the roads by shoveling sand. It wasn't as bad as it sounded, but it wasn't quite a party! Lunch was good - burgers - but all the food is rationed out which I find quite strange.

After lunch I had my "induction." I'm not sure if that is a mistranslation of "introduction" because that's basically what it was. A lot of the history of the place, information on the animals and releases, some safety guidelines, an overview of the activities we do, and advice to check our sleeping bags for scorpions. That one would have been good to know on day one! They also told us that if we had any special skills to let them know....so thinking of how pointless my efforts seemed at road work, I told them about my abilities on the business end, and it seems I will be helping the marketing manager whenever I don't want to do any activity. So perhaps that means no more road work or enclosure cleaning. I really do think it would be a better use of my volunteer time here anyways. It also sounds like this work will have the added benefit of getting onto the Internet here and learning the closely guarded wireless password...which means I could upload blogs waaaaaay sooner than I thought! Fingers crossed! (I will still get to do the food preparation, baboon walks, cheetah walks, game counts, etc though, of course!)

Thursday, July 14

Success! I have weaseled my way into the wireless password by researching email newsletter marketing providers for the marketing director. After doing a break even price analysis on all the different options she concluded I am the perfect person for the job so I guess I can continue to get out of project work (today I got to skip two hours of raking). Thought I had uploaded this, but guess it didn't go through.

Today was a fantastic day. This morning our group was doing research which is definitely my favorite activity so far. First we helped train one of the cheetahs to walk in a straight line over wet sand, because on Monday they need to get 25 photographs of her back left foot for a software project that lets them identify cheetahs by their prints....kind of like fingerprinting. Flo, the biologist in charge of research projects, is great - super enthusiastic and explains everything. After that we went out in the truck on a game count - we have to spot animals and record what we saw, where, and when. Then we arrived at the next farm over and went to check on four of the cameras they have set up there, which have a motion sensor and take pictures hopefully of cheetahs and leopards, but sometimes birds and porcupines. We didn't get any good pictures on that trip, but we had to change some cards out anyways.

During lunch break our team leader Miguel took me to meet the baby baboons so maybe I would stop being afraid of them. I'm still wary, but they are tons of fun. They come up to you and put their arms up and you can pick them up, or just give them your hands and they will swing onto your shoulder, or they will come hug your leg...or they will jump onto you from someone else's shoulder....there is quite a bit of hair pulling because they see it as another way to get to the ground. It's amazing to see how comfortable the more experienced people are with them. Looks like tons of fun! I will keep practicing, and signed up to sleep with Rudie, the baby, on Monday. I hope I don't chicken out!

By 7:30 tonight everyone was headed to bed....warmest place on the farm! Time to power through a few more pages of Mandela's memories. That book was a great deal....occupying lots of reading time!

Here are a couple of pics of the babies. The guy with them is my team leader Miguel.

Windhoek, Namibia Bound!

This will be the last you hear of me for some time....I'm flying to Windhoek, Namibia today to start my two week program with the N/a'an ku se Conservation, working on their wildlife orphanage project. I'm not expecting to have any Internet for two weeks, but will try to get into town next weekend to let you all know I haven't been mauled by a lion. (really, don't worry. I will continue to be fine.)

I don't have a ton of details on what I will be doing, but I was told my daily activities will include food preparation, hand feeding the Meerkats and baboons, cleaning animal enclosures (yuck), walking the Caracals (don't even know what those are), taking the baboons on forest walks so they can practice foraging and get exercise, and sleeping overnight with the five baby baboons who are too small to stay alone. I'll also help build new enclosures for any new animals we get, and I think possibly educating school kids and farmers on the importance of conservation.

The types of animals they have varies, but I'm expecting caracals, cheetahs, baboons, lions, wild dogs, leopards, meerkats, and farm animals! I'll likely be sharing a room with two other women, so I guess I will make friends very quickly, haha!

That's all I've got for you for now! Psyching myself up for the drive-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-road to the airport!

Here's the link to the sanctuary!

Franschhoek: Wine, Wine, and More Wine!!!

Before I get into today, I must tell you about dinner last night. I was trying to go to a place I saw with a set menu with springbok on it, but accidentally ended up at French Connection, and by the time I made it inside I was hooked. It was so cute and made you feel like you were somewhere in the country in France. It was one of the rare places where you can have a really enjoyable dinner on your own. I ordered the mussels and fries, and I cannot explain how amazing they were. I had no idea the Cape was known for their mussels, but it was incredibly good luck I ordered them. They were at least three times as big as we get at home, and so flavorful and juicy. I could go on and on!! I finished by sampling two local cheeses - their cheddar was good, but not as good as in Canada!

Today was an absolutely splendid day. I am spoiling myself in anticipation of things being rather basic for the next (and last! Yes mom, I know you're happy about that!) three weeks of my wonderful trip. My guesthouse put on a fantastic breakfast (homemade granola is being added to the list of things I want to make when I'm home) and then arranged a guide to take me on a half day wine tour. Franschhoek has 47 wineries in town - and a population of only 16,000. Stellenbosch is a slightly larger town next door and has over 150 wineries. A lot of these are small and produce only 30,000 bottles a year.

Before I go any further, let me give you a map to make sure we are all (ahem, mom) clear on where I am:

Above is a map of all of southern Africa. Obviously South Africa is the most south. Tomorrow I am going to Namibia (Windhoek) which is just to the north.

Below is a map of just South Africa. I am in the Western Cape province, and was in Cape Town and now am nearby in the winelands (near Stellenbosch).

Okay, now that we are hopefully clear on that....today I visited FIVE wineries in about four hours. They were all very beautiful and had excellent wine (to my very untrained pallet at least). Unfortunately because it is winter here it is very off season so they weren't doing any estate or cellar tours, and also there was nothing on the vines, but it was still very lovely. Also, in their summer you can do the tour on horseback, which would be really lovely (ae). My guide, Bradley, told me a lot about the different estates and owners and made for good company while I tasted TWENTY FIVE different wines today.

The first stop was at Moreson, which means "tomorrow's sun" because it gets the first sun in the valley. There I tried my first pinotage which is a type of hybrid red that only grows in South Africa. They had to create it because the Pinot noir grape won't grow here. I really liked the pinotage I tried, and this was the beginning of my day-long conversion from white to red wine (!!!!)

This is the view from the tasting area!

Next stop was Solms Delta, named because it is in the delta of two small rivers. It is also just around the corner of where Mandela spent his last few years in prison. The best wine here was a Shiraz bubbly...I could have drunk the whole bottle. The conversion to red wine continued! They also had a lovely museum about the history of the estate and all of the people who worked there. Their restaurant looked amazing and I was hoping to make it back for lunch tomorrow, but I think I will have to leave too early for the airport. The guide really likes taking people here because they treat their staff really well, using 1/3 of their profits to their benefit...housing, education, health care, etc.

The third stop was the Cellar Door. I should mention that these places are all within minutes of each other. Quite incredible. But the soil here is like a micro climate, so all of their wines are very different (apparently). Again my two favorite wines here were red! They also had a huge art display of several South African artists which was fun to walk around, but not to my tastes.

The fourth stop was my favorite because we did a wine and cheese pairing. Very, very good. Bradley and I also had a long chat here about what is going on in South Africa today. He's the first person I have spent time with who is old enough to remember the apartheid and so this was very interesting. He said as a kid they had no idea anything unusual was going on. He has never been friends with a black person, because they were always so segregated. They would never even think to question why they didn't see them; that's just the way it was. The first time he even understood the implications was when he was in the navy and doing training on the beach and the police came to arrest the Indian members of his group for being in an area where they weren't allowed to be. And they were employed by the government! There is definitely no overt racism that I've seen on the part of the whites, but I'm sure it exists. Everyone is still "classified" by their race; it's very strange for it to be accepted by everyone to talk about where the blacks live and what the coloreds eat. And it sounds like in some cities (like Durban) there is reverse racism where the black police officers really don't care about crimes committed against whites. Anyways, it was a long and very interesting conversation. I can't believe we don't learn about this in school.

The final stop was at the Rickety Bridge, which was initially owned by a woman, unusual in those days. It was also very lovely. Their dessert wine was my favorite but they also had a pinotage that was lovely.

After all of that wine I recovered on my balcony for a bit before strolling around the small main street. I found a shoe store called Tsonga which sells leather shoes handmade by Zulu women in South Africa. I tried on a couple pairs of sandals and loved them both. They are incredibly comfortable. So I bought them both. Apparently there is a store in Vancouver, but nothing close to home, so I figured I should stock up if I loved them that much!

I'm now deciding where to have dinner...the Cape Malay place I wanted to try is closed on Sunday nights, so I'm still asking around for recommedations!

Franschhoek (Still South Africa)

My last night in Cape Town was a blast. Met up with Shannon and a bunch of her friends from their GAP trip. They are such a riot. I think it would have been a fantastic trip, despite the over landing (long bus rides and camping). We checked The Waiting Room (a bar) while waiting (haha) for our table at Royale Burgers. Fantastic burgers. Then we headed to the Dubliner for the rest of the evening.

This morning I had a mini fiasco getting to Franschhoek....I went to pick up my rental car (a 20 min walk from my hotel) and went through a very slow and detailed paperwork process....only to hear the guy say "Now with the Yaris make sure you press the clutch all the way when you start it." I was like "whaaaaaaaaat!?! Are you kidding?!? I need a manual car!" and of course they had none in the dealership. And because I booked through a travel agent there was a whole song and dance on how they couldn't change it without talking to the agent. And then they didn't know how to dial a UK number. Finally some other lady who works there came im and cleared it all up....but I had to wait two hours for them to bring in a car from the airport. Precious minutes in the vineyards ticking away!!

I tried to make the most of it though, and walked down to the District Six museum, one of the areas of Cape Town where 60,000 blacks were forcefully removed from their homes and basically put in slums so that it could be a white area. Rather depressing, but very impressively curated. Really hard to imagine this sort of thing was going on in the 1960s-1980s.

That filled in the two hours nicely, and I picked up my car and began the adventure of driving on the left side of the road. Luckily everyone is a bad driver here so I fit in fine. No one signals, which is good because every time I tried to I turned on the windshield wipers. Everyone drives 20km under the speed limit, which is fine because the speed limits are 20km faster than at home, and I didn't have to make many turns or go through any roundabouts. The strangest thing was the angle of the rearview mirror - looked like you shouldn't be able to see anything out of it!

Anyways, I made it to my guesthouse, which is the perfect word to describe it. It is positively delightful, with a large balcony and a common sitting area which seems to be all mine this weekend.

Franschhoek means "French Corner" and was actually settled by the French...the Protestants left France for Holland and then the Dutch sent them to be settlers here. It is exactly like a little French town, tons of cafes and shops on the one small main road, and surrounded by vineyards. French flags are flying, the names are mostly French, with some Dutch, and it is known as the gastronomical capital of South Africa. When I got my camembert, proscuito, and onion jam sandwich for lunch I knew this was a place I would be happy!

To recover from my stressful drive on the wrong side of the road I walked uphill for about 20 minutes to a winery called Chamoix. I just missed the last tasting, but enjoyed a glass of their 2009 Chardonnay and the view. It was lovely, and the most aggressive glass I have ever seen.

I'm now enjoying the sunset from my balcony and waiting to get hungry again for dinner. I checked out some of the menus on the way home and am hoping to have either ostrich or springbok, which is like a small deer, tonight.

Cape Town: The Last Day

Today was the last of four jam-packed days in Cape Town. I started with the Sex and Slaves in the City tour, put on by Cape Town Walks. It was a riot! The two guides are actors and they take you on a two hour historic walk and explain the sites and the history through songs, dance, and funny poems, acting it out all the while. We learnt how slavery started here (lots of Malay slaves, which is a big influence in their food), how slaves could be free (become Christian - a Christian wouldn't keep another Christian enslaved - or marry a settler or escape), how slavery ended (after it ended in Europe....Europeans would bring their now illegal slaves here to be sold), and about the neighborhoods the freed slaves lived in and the missions that supported a lot of them. Super entertaining and very interesting. We stopped at the Bo Kaap neighborhood with very colorful houses, St Stevens Church which was the church for ex slaves and coloured people after the end of slavery and named for St Steven because the whites were so unhappy with the slaves getting it they stoned it like St Steven was stoned, Heritage Square, the Slave Church which was the church that supported different missions before slavery ended, the Castle of Good Hope which was really pretty but I forget what it was for, and the Slave Lodge where lots of slaves lived....in addition to tons of little stops like the flower market.

The next activity was my hike up Table Mountain. By the end of it I wished I hadn't just walked for two hours before! I met my guide Gavin and we drove to the bottom of the mountain, starting at 400m above sea level. We then embarked on a very steep climb for two hours, basically solid stairs made out of rocks. Very little flat places. We ultimately reached the top, which is 1060m I believe. I have no idea if this is at all a big climb or not, but I assure you my legs think it is quite impressive. I was so glad Gavin brought me an extra Powerade - my bottle of water was definitely not enough! The climb was very beautiful as was the view from the top. You can actually walk across the whole top of the "table" and see views on both sides. The whole way up you have a view of the city if you look back, which made rest breaks very pretty. After the hellish 1am climb up Adam's Peak in Sri Lanka I knew I could do almost anything, but this was a close second in terms of big vertical steps. Totally worth it and felt great at the top, but the last 15 minutes were pretty rough!! We took the cable car down...which was very cool because it has a rotating floor so you get 360 views on the way down. It was a lot faster than the hike up! The weather was just perfect, and the views were spectacular, but the iPad didn't make the trip, so photos will have to wait. Nothing I could find online does it justice!

Everyone should be happy to know that I bought myself a sleeping bag today, so won't freeze to death in Namibia. The girl I met from Calgary said she was freezing there, and I will take her as the authority on cold! Meeting her (Shannon) and her co-travelers tonight for the best burgers in Cape Town (giving up my mission of more Cape Malay food for friends) and a fun last night in Cape Town!

Cape Town: Cape Peninsula Tour

Today has been busy - took a 9+ hour tour of the entire Cape Peninsula. Was joined by six others who have been traveling together for five weeks, randomly on a camping trip from zanzibar to here. So they were happy for someone new to talk to! Here's a map of the Peninsula, so you have an idea of what I am talking about.

We started in Cape Town around 8 this morning and drove up Signal Hill to get a lookout over the city and the waterfront, as well as table mountain. This picture doesn't capture how beautiful it was.

The we drove along the Atlantic Seaboard and stopped at Camps Bay, vacation spot of the rich and famous. It is quite pretty. Everything slows down in the winter (now) though, but I can just picture it packed in the summer.

You can see a bunch of mountain peaks in the background - these are called the 12 Apostles....yes, there are 12 of them. Table Mountain is off to the left, and this is all part of the same range.

After driving by several other nice beaches as well as little towns called Conservation Areas because they commit to things like organic wine and recycling we got to Hout Bay where almost all of us turned down an optional boat ride to see 20 000 cape fur seals (can't beat the Galapagos) in favor of coffee and exploring the harbor. Very pretty.

We kept driving along the mountains, a route called Chapman's Peak. We stopped and got out at Chapman's peak, and our guide (Fredl, which I though was a Von Tromp family member but apparently am wrong) told us that the man being interviewed there is a famous Springbok rugby player - the ex captain in fact - Bobby Skinstad. Kind of like seeing Mario Lemieux or something I guess. I found out he wasn't single so didn't bother saying hi. Haha.

We made it to the Cape of Good Hope national park after stopping to see an ostrich farm and an alpaca farm. The Cape of Good Hope is, of course, also very beautiful but quite windy. This is the point where the iPad began to act like a flag and I really had to hang onto it while taking pictures!

A very short drive took us near Cape Point which is the most south westerly point in Africa, and where the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet. We had a nice lunch there then did the 20 minute climb to the lighthouse to look out over the actual point.

On the way back we drove past a wild ostrich eating about 5 meters from the beach. One of the only places in the world you can get an ostrich and the ocean in the same shot. Pretty cool!

Our next stop was Boulders Beach in Simon Town, home to 5000 African penguins. Very cute!

Then....we were tired but the day wasn't yet over! We drove back to the outskirts of Cape Town, past other interesting things like the largest hospital in the southern hemisphere, and to the Kristenbosh Botanical Gardens. Nice place to walk around and lots of interesting plants. (dad I took pics just for you. I'm not really into plants.) The girl from calgary livened this up with stories of people who call the suicide hotline she volunteers at...was cherrier than it sounds. The gardens, city, and mountains are in this picture but it didn't really turn out.

We finally made it back around 5:30!! On Fredl's advice I checked out Van Hunks for dinner, just up the street from me. It's a Cape Malay restaurant which describes the food that evolved from South East Asians brought to Cape Town by the Dutch East India Company. I had bobatie, which is curried mince meat with an egg based topping, baked. It was amazing. Spicy and sweet. Will definitely be trying to make it at home. (Get ready M&D&Mitch) Was served with bananas dusted in coconut and rice. The house wine was great, and only 2 dollars a glass! A great end to the day!

Cape Town: Diving With Great White Sharks

So, today I was picked up at 5:40am and joined a van of people going shark diving! Cape Town is one of the only places you can do this, and the place where you have the best chance of seeing the sharks - especially this time of year. Everyone on this tour was between 22 and 30 so we had no trouble passing out for the 2 hour ride in the dark to Gansbaai. After a quick breakfast and briefing we headed to the harbor where we climbed into our boat, which a tractor then pushed into the water. A zippy 15 minute ride and we dropped anchor to wait for the sharks. The boats usually hang out around Dyer Island and Geyser Rock (home to 40,000 Cape Fur Seals, which attract the sharks) but in the last couple weeks they haven't been seeing them there...so we hung out in the middle of the sea.

The put some fish heads in the water to attract the sharks (sharks don't stay in the area more than a couple days so they don't get used to the trick) and we all squished into wet suits in preparation for a sighting and the mid-60 degree water. I was in the second group of five to head into the cage. The cage is attached to one side of the boat and has steel bars which kind of interfere with the shark's ability to sense we are there. Something about electro-magnetism. You just wear a mask - scuba gear tends to scare them off - and a weight belt and when the people above see the shark coming for the bait or just to check the cage out they tell you to go under....so you do, and you see a 3 meter great white shark swimming right at you! The view from the boat is even better because often you can see them coming a bit out of the water. Visibility was less than average today which I think impacted my impression...it was cool to see, but not life changing. Maybe I've just seen too many cool things lately! You stay in the cage in the water for 10 or 15 minutes and then they change it up, and you can go back again if you want. I found the cage crowded, bumpy, wavy, and that the sharks were only there for like 2 seconds so by the time you saw them they were gone. This could be due to the visibility issue.

Even though they said the sea was the calmest they had seen it in years the waves were still two meters and lots of the guys were hurling overboard. I met 5 cool guys who just finished engineering at the University of Calgary, so hung out with them most of the day. I can do a pretty good job passing for a 22 year old guy. I wasn't feeling great either by the end of this, so was happy when the guy in charge said something weird happened with the tides and the harbor was draining of water so we had to book it back. Made it with just minutes to spare - in the 2.5 hours we were gone the harbor went down 2 meters of water! They had to get a second tractor to pull us in!

After feeding us we drove back to Cape Town, this time in daylight. What a beautiful country. We paused in Hermanus which is often called the whale watching capital of South Africa and has some of the best land-based sightings. The season doesn't really start until August and we didn't see much - a few spouts from blowholes in the distance. Also drove by some of the townships - really quite wretched, even today, as well as some of the new housing the government is putting up for the residents...not much better. Insanely close together.

Round the day out with a Thai massage because I saw a place, and haven't seen one since I was in Thailand last summer. It was lovely. Also bought a fleece hat in preparation for Namibia next week!

Of course did not have the iPad in the water with me, but here are a couple pics from the Internet for what it was like. Hope I got some good underwater video on my camera!!