Farewell SANCCOB

Yesterday was my final day at SANCCOB. As per my special request, I was assigned to Pen 3. The morning started off with 17 penguins, mostly blues which I adore, but the vet was able to upgrade a bunch of the penguins from Pen 2 so in the afternoon they moved over. All of the penguins in Pen 3 are one hour swimmers and none require fluids therefore they only need to be fed twice a day. When I wasn't busy feeding my penguins, I was busy helping others around the centre with other tasks, mostly cleaning and hanging laundry on the line since it was such a beautiful day! The day went very well and I managed to finish my day without any more cuts or bruises. I was sad to say goodbye to all the new friends I had made and of course the beautiful African penguins

Today was my final day in Cape Town, as I head off on my tour tomorrow. Luckily the weather was great so I was finally able to go to Robben Island, something I've been wanting to do since I arrived. I went with Rachel, one of the other volunteers from the house. Robben Island was originally used as a leper colony. A long time ago it was a law that anyone with leprosy be sent to the island. This remained in effect until a cure for leprosy was found at which time the lepers were sent to various hospitals for treatment. From 1964 until 1991 the island was used as a prison for political prisoners, the most famous of them being former president Nelson Mandela. The tour started off with a 25 minute boat ride out to the island which is 12km from the shore. Next we hopped onto a bus where we were given a tour of the island. Different historic landmarks were pointed out including the leper graveyard and the lime quarry where political prisoners were forced to work. The island is currently home to approximately 100 people which are employees of Robben Island and their families. To accommodate these people there is a community hall, elementary school, medical centre and grocery store. Along the bus tour we stopped to take some stunning photos of Table Mountain. After the bus tour we went inside the prison where we were given a tour by an ex-political prisoner. We were shown cells where up to 40 men at a time were kept, given a history of the prison and also shown the cell where Nelson Mandela stayed. After the tour finished we got the boat back to the waterfront where we wandered around the markets for a little while, before catching a taxi home.

Tomorrow I am heading out on my week long Cape to Addo tour. My bags are packed and I'm ready to go! As I will most likely not have access to the internet this week, I will not being posting any updates until I return from my tour. Next weekend I will be starting my trip back to Canada - home sweet home.

Lunch with Pat

It's a beautiful sunny day in Cape Town so I'm writing this from my laptop in our backyard. It's been quite windy and a little chilly the last little while so I'm soaking up every bit of sunshine that I can.

Another five days have passed since my last entry. I've been busy, hard at work and have come down with a cold so it's been early to bed for with me this past week. I worked all weekend in Pen 2 with the penguins, along with Chris, an international volunteer from England. We had almost 30 penguins, many of whom were on fluids. Most of the penguins we had were blues (the juveniles) which most people don't like feeding because they tend to wiggle a lot while you're holding them, but they are my favourite!! We have one blue in right now, penguin 263 who is so comical and actually really sweet. Anytime you're doing something in the pen he wants to be around you and be close to the action. When it comes to feeding time he always needs to be the first one fed otherwise you'll find yourself short on fish because he steals them from the bowl when you're not looking!! He's also a free feeder which is nice because instead of having to hold him and force feed him, you just need to hand him a fish and he'll it eat himself. Monday was much the same except I was assigned to Pen 3, most of whom were adults and only needed to be fed twice a day, so the rest of time I spent helping with general duties around the centre. Yesterday all of the penguins in Pen 3, except for one, were released back into the wild. It was a big release of 22 penguins!

On Tuesday I had the privilege of going for lunch with the Ed, the director of AVIVA and three other volunteers to the home of Pat Cavendish O'Neill. Pat was born into a rich family, her mother was married four times, twice to millionaires and twice to men with titles. All men died early and left their fortunes to Pat's mother Enid. Enid was good friends with many well known people of the twentieth century - Princess Grace, Winston Churchill and Coco Chanel just to name a few. From a young age Pat had a love for animals, always bringing home stray dogs and cats. Pat was also married four times, twice to the same man who she is still with today. Once while on a trip to Kenya, one of her boyfriends gave her a lion cub whose mother had been killed by poachers. Pat knew the cub couldn't just be put back into the wild so she decided to move to Kenya and raise the cub who she called Tana. Over the years and still to this day Pat takes in many stray and orphaned animals including baboons, chimps, vervet monkeys, goats and of course dogs and cats. When we went for lunch on Tuesday we were given a tour of her property and shown many of the animals, including Baloo the baboon and Kalu the chimp. She also has many many dogs and cats and a goat who thinks it's a dog. We had a lovely lunch outside followed by dessert and coffee. After coffee, Pat signed my copy of her book 'A Lion in the Bedroom' which covers the first 50 or so years of her life. Pat was a very nice, down-to-earth woman with many incredible stories to share. I only wished I'd had more time to stay and chat, but I'm sure it would take weeks or months to hear about all her adventures. After lunch, Ed took us to a beautiful winery close by, overlooking the area of Somerset West, called Waterkloof where we did some wine tasting. We were told we would have a chance to try six wines, but because it wasn't very busy at the time, we ended up trying all nine wines they had available. Waterkloof carried some of the higher end wines that you will find in South Africa - up to R140 (about $18 a bottle!) If only our expensive wines were that price!! Cheaper wines here range between R20-R60 per bottle ($3-$9). For any wine lovers out there, Cape Town is the place to be!

Shark!!!!

I dedicate this entry to my good friend Wendy, whose biggest fear growing up was sharks (even though we grew up in Ontario, far far away from any sharks!)

Before leaving for South Africa I had told many friends and family that I was interested in going shark cage diving during my trip. I was told over and over to be careful and my dear brother Brandon even thought it was a good idea to show me videos of shark cage diving gone wrong. I figured if I could jump out of a plane and survive I could surely jump into a cage in shark invested waters. Since I am here typing this entry, I'm sure you've all figured out that I survived and did not lose any limbs or digits.

The day started off with a 7:30 pick-up at the AVIVA house, along with two other volunteers, Luc and Charlotte. Traffic was really heavy so it took a while to get into Cape Town to pick up four others who would be joining us on the boat. The drive to our diving spot took another two hours after we had finished picking everyone up. When we arrived there was a table with fruit, toast and muffins for breakfast as well as juice, tea and coffee. I had heard from other volunteers who had already gone shark cage diving that almost everyone on the boat had gotten sick because of the ocean swells so I was afraid to eat too much just in case. After a quick briefing about what to expect from our day and how to use our life vests we headed out to the boat. This time of year the sharks stay fairly close to shore so it only took about 10-15 minutes to get to our diving location. Within minutes of the boat stopping the first shark appeared beside the boat. The first group that was going in the cage quickly got into their wetsuits and jumped in for about 20 minutes. I was part of the second group to go in along with Luc and Charlotte. The cages are large enough to hold up to five people at a time. Along with our wetsuits we were also given a mask to wear so we could see underwater and a weight belt to stop us from floating around. The water was absolutely freezing, but the wetsuits were 7mm thick so they really helped to keep us warm. Whenever a shark started approaching the cage we would be told to go down and which direction to look. To go underwater you have to push yourself down, grab onto a bar inside the cage and hook your feet under a bar on the bottom of the cage. The first few times I tried to push myself under I was unsuccessful because I couldn't get my feet under the bar so my legs were dangling about. I kept feeling like my legs were going to float right out of the cage and into the sharks mouth!! After a while I figured out the technique and was able to enjoy the experience a lot more. It was so incredible to see the sharks so close up. There were many times where they would within inches of the cage. To attract the sharks a tuna fish is thrown into the water attached to a large rope. As the shark approaches the tuna, it's yanked away so it can't grab on, but instead is lured close to the cage. There were however a couple times where the shark was able to grab onto the tuna and bite it right off the rope. Each group of divers were given two turns in the cage, for about 20-30 minutes each turn. We were the last group in the water and I think it was the most exciting of them all. While we were still in the cage one of the sharks came right towards us and as it turned away the tail smashed right into the cage. I loved every moment of the experience. We were very lucky to have a fairly calm sea, beautiful weather and lots of shark sightings. Unfortunately great white sharks are in the top 10 list of endangered species due to poaching and they figure they will be extinct within the next 10-15 years. Sharks have always been given a bad reputation, but after seeing them first hand I can say they are a truly remarkable species.

After returning from shark diving this evening, four volunteers and myself joined Ursula (one of the AVIVA tour guides) on a street feeding program that she does on a weekly basis. We bought 50 hotdogs and buns and took them to homeless people living under the bridges in Cape Town. The people we fed were so grateful to receive the food and also to have someone to speak to. Many of the people did not speak English, so Ursula would translate for us. We fed people as young as five and as old as 60. Tonight was fairly warm compared to what the nights have been, but generally they are quite cold so I gave one of the women my sweater. She seemed very grateful and put it on right away. We were only able to stop at a few places before we ran out of food. As soon as we would stop to feed a group, more and more people would show up. Luckily just as we were giving out the last of our hotdogs, a young couple pulled up who were also giving out food so they continued on where we left off. Even though we were only gone for about an hour, it was a night I will never forget.

Handle With Care

Spring has sprung in Cape Town and the weather has been very up and down this week. On Monday I was back to work at SANCCOB, assigned to Pen 2 with another volunteer, which only had seven penguins and even though they were on two-hourly fluids it didn't take long to get each of the tasks done. I was also asked to help out in Pen 3 throughout the day because there were still 36 penguins. Tuesday was my day off, but SANCCOB had a penguin release scheduled so I went in only to find out it was cancelled due to bad weather. Probably a good thing because the wind was very strong so I would have been quite sick on the boat. While I was there I got to see the newest bird, a beautiful juvenile pelican. He is huge, hard to believe he's not even full grown yet. After I left SANCCOB I ended up relaxing for most of the day, other than a quick trip to the mall to buy a book. Yesterday I was supervisor of Pen 1 and Aviary. I was training one of the new volunteers how to clean the pens and care for the birds in them. The weather was still bad yesterday so the release was delayed once again.

Third times a charm! Today the weather was beautiful and the sea was fairly calm so the release got a definite go ahead! To get the penguins ready for release, their tags are removed and they get a bright pink spray painted dot on their belly. This way conservation officers will know that they are newly released penguins from SANCCOB. Afterwards they were put in a box and loaded into the truck for the trip to the waterfront. Myself and three other volunteers went along for the release. We were aboard a whale watching boat, but no other customers joined so it ended up being just us. We went out towards Robben Island where the boat was stopped and we each took turns doing the release. It was such an exciting, proud moment to see them jump into the water. Some of them waited around the boat for a few moments, not quite sure what to do, while others happily swam about. Because there were no whale watching customers, after the release we headed straight back to the harbor and then caught a taxi home.

I just finished dinner and am waiting to start a game of cards with some of the volunteers at the AVIVA house. It has been really quite around here the last few days. Just a couple weeks ago there were close to 20 volunteers in the house and now there are only seven of us. Every week people are coming and going. There are volunteers from three programs that stay here - SANCCOB, Home of Hope orphanage and African School Children Feeding. Of all the volunteers at the house, I have now been here the longest of anyone, everyone else who was here when I arrived have completed their programs and gone home. I have just a week and a half left at the AVIVA house before I leave for my tour then I will return for one night before I head for home on September 19th!

Cape Peninsula Tour

Yesterday I finished a four day work streak at SANCCOB. On Wednesday I worked with the oily penguins in Pen C with another volunteer which was fairly easy because there were only seven penguins and it was wash day which meant we weren't able to give fluids or feed them for a few hours while they were being washed. It's always nice to see the difference it makes after the penguins have the oil washed off. Thursday I worked in Pen 3 which started off as a relatively easy day because there were two volunteers and 17 penguins. On Thursday they were checking the status of the penguins and upgrading the ones that were healthy and strong to 20 minute swimmers. By the end of the day we had 38 penguins!! That meant lots more penguins to feed and give fluids and formula to. Friday I was assigned to general duty which involved doing multiple loads of laundry, preparing hundreds of syringes, washing buckets and other random tasks that needed to be done around the centre. Yesterday I was once again assigned to Pen 3 with the 38 penguins, many of whom are very strong, fast and not so friendly. This week at work I played around with my waterproof camera and got some great shots of the penguins enjoying their swims in the pool. Some of the penguins were quite curious and were getting a little too close to the camera - maybe they thought it was a fish!

Today I went on a tour of the cape peninsula with AVIVA with our wonderful tour guide Ursula. We left early this morning with our first stop being Hout Bay where we boarded a boat to have a look at seal island. The small island is home to over 1500 cape fur seals. Many of them looked comfortable laying on the rocks, soaking up the sun, while others enjoyed playing around in the ocean.

After returning from our quick boat ride, we drove along the mountainside of Chapman's Peak where we stopped for some photos and to take in the view of the ocean and Hout Bay. We continued on to Simon's Town which is where the South African navy is based. We stopped in Simon's Town for lunch at a beautiful restaurant on the waterfront. After we finished eating we walked to Boulders Beach which is home to an African penguin colony. There were not as many penguins as I had expected, but with the species now being endangered it makes sense that the population has decreased. I was however able to spot a penguin with a pink dot which had been released from SANCCOB so it made me feel proud of the hard work I have been putting in at SANCCOB.

On our way to our next stop we passed by a bunch of cars that were stopped because people wanted to see the baboons that were wandering around. We were warned ahead of time by Ursula to close our windows and lock the doors because baboons are very clever and will open your doors and jump in. Many of the cars that were stopped had baboons walking all over them and some had stolen food and clothing from some of the people. They obviously didn't read warning signs posted everywhere in the area.

After taking some photos of the baboons we continued our drive to Cape Point where if you look in the far distance you can see where the Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean meet. After a 15 minute hike we reached the top where we had a stunning view of the ocean and the surrounding area. On the walk down we were encountered by more baboons, this time a family of four. The babies were quite curious and were grabbing onto people's pants and shoes. One man made the mistake of walking past with a bag of chips and had the baboons follow him up the path. The last stop of the tour was to the Cape of Good Hope, the most South-Western point of Africa. After a quick photo opportunity we got back in the van for the drive back to Cape Town.

Whales and Penguins and Dassies, Oh My!!

Another 4 busy and exciting have passed here in Cape Town, I am constantly amazed by how fast the time is passing - tomorrow will mark the halfway point of my journey!

Saturday and Sunday were what have become normal workdays for me, except that on weekends there is only one staff member working so you are given more responsibility and less supervision. After just a few weeks at SANCCOB I have pretty much figured out the routine of what needs to be done and when. Both days I was assigned to work with penguins which was quite a task because most of the penguins were on two-hourly fluids meaning we had to give them water and darrows five times during the day as well as two fish feedings and some even needed formula twice a day. The reason for this is that many of the penguins had been oiled so they were very dehydrated. Luckily they are doing better now and will soon require less fluids by tubes and hopefully in a short time they will be ready to be released.

Yesterday didn't turn out as planned, but we adapted for the weather. Two other volunteers and myself were booked to go shark cage diving, but found out at the last minute that it was canceled due to the large swells on the ocean. We called Robben Island to see if their boats were still able to go out and told yes, the tours were still available so we caught a taxi into Cape Town. When we arrived at the ticket office we were told that the Robben Island tours were canceled for the day, once again because of the swells, so needless to say we were all disappointed. Luckily we were already at the beautiful V&A waterfront so we decided to take advantage of our time there. Our first stop was to the Two Oceans Aquarium which has hundreds of species of wildlife from the Atlantic and Indian oceans. It was amazing to see such unusual species of fish that we would never see back home and by the size and looks of some of them - ones I would not want to see in our waters!! After visiting the aquarium we walked around a few different markets to do a bit of shopping and pick up some souvenirs.

Today was one of the most exciting days in South Africa so far. A few of the volunteers rented a car for the day to go whale watching in Hermanus, which is about a two hour drive from Cape Town. Originally I hadn't planned on going because it is part of the tour I'll be doing in a couple weeks, but decided I would rather go whale watching twice than to sit around the house on my day off and am I ever glad I did! The drive to get to Hermanus was absolutely stunning, driving up and around mountain ranges, unlike anything I have ever seen. We arrived at the whale watching location just in time for our briefing before heading onto the boat. For the first half hour or so there were no sightings, but we were all excited just to be out on the ocean. Half an hour into the trip we spotted two southern right whales quite close to the boat. It was so exciting as this was my first time ever seeing whales and the fact that they were so close to us made it even more special. One of the whales was an albino which we were told is quite rare, only about 4% of the population are albino. We stayed and watched these whales for about 20 minutes before heading off to find some more. Within 10-15 minutes we spotted another eight whales, most of whom were busy mating. It was an amazing sight to see!! I was busy taking a video of some of the whales when all of a sudden one came right up beside the boat, I almost felt like I could reach down and touch it!! We ended up being out on the boat for 2.5 hours which I think was a little too long for a lot of people who had trouble dealing with the huge swells, luckily I wasn't one of them.

After whale watching we drove along the coast up to Betty's Bay where there is an African penguin colony. This was a very special moment for me because it is proof of the important work that is done at SANCCOB, rehabilitating penguins and releasing them back into the wild. We spotted some penguins with tags on which means they had once been at SANCCOB. We walked around taking pictures for about half an hour, but I could easily have spent much much longer there. The rest of the drive back was gorgeous and we had an amazing view of the ocean. We arrived back in Cape Town just before sunset so we decided to drive up Signal Hill to watch it because we heard it was the best place to see the sunset here, which I would have to agree. We got to the top of the hill just in time and although it was very cold outside, the view was perfect. A lovely way to finish off a perfect day.

Lovely View From Up Here

Yes, that's right, I jumped out of a perfectly good plane yesterday...and it was absolutely amazing!! For anyone who has ever thought about skydiving, just do it, you won't regret it. When I first arrived in Cape Town everyone kept talking about skydiving and asking me if I was going to do it, but I figured it was something I could just do at home sometime. Well after watching videos from many of the other volunteers, they had me convinced. Sure it's something I can do back home, but the view here was incredible - the city of Cape Town, Table Mountain and of course the Atlantic Ocean. The jump got me hooked and now I am in love with skydiving!! I said to my instructor before we were even on the ground that I was ready to go up again. AMAZING - that pretty much says it all.

After my awesome day of skydiving it was back to work today. I was placed in ICU again and was responsible for caring for the oily penguins which we only had two of. Even with just two birds to care for it was still a very busy day. Because the birds are weak and dehydrated they need to receive fluids every two hours which is either plain water or darrows which is basically like powerade for penguins and smells like Kool-aid. Some of the penguins also receive formula (the blended fish and canned dog food mixture) and all the birds also get fish twice a day. In between feeding and giving fluids there is plenty of cleaning to be done so there is never a dull moment. It's unbelievable how quickly the days go. As of today I only have 3 weeks left at SANCCOB and yet it feels like just yesterday that I started!