So today we all got up at around 6:50 since breakfast started at 7:30. We had the same cereal and peanut butter toast, but sometime last night we got it in our minds that we were getting picked up at 8:30. We actually got picked up at 9 which is exactly what our schedule says were doing so no one is really sure why we all woke up so early when we didn’t really need to. I actually was quite awake today and was in a good mood, probably because I knew we were going to go see penguins. I also had convinced myself the whole day before that I was going to wear my new blue shirts with my pink work out v neck shirt so that’s exactly what I wore today. It’s my favorite outfit I packed so I really wanted to wear it and Chelsey told me the day before that the high for today was 18C which is 68F. That is super warm compared to the weather I had been experiencing back home so this morning even though it was a bit chilly I wore it. I packed my raincoat and a pair of sweatpants in case if it was actually cold for the day. When I got in the van Allen was sort of calling me out and joking saying I was going to be freezing because the mountains were freezing, the beach was freezing and the water on the beach was freezing so I would freeze due to my lack of warm clothing. This made me quite self-conscious, but at the end of the day I was the one dressed best for the weather in my opinion.
The very first place we went to was Boulders Penguin Colony. It’s home to the South African Penguin and they were super cute. They also had some baby penguins still in their fluff and we saw one with its baby chillin in a whole in the sand. I took a picture of every penguin I saw pretty much, and some super fierce videos of them running in and out of the water. They were just to amazing and I’ve never seen a penguin in the wild before. I guess my whole life I always just associated penguins with Antarctica so I figured there was no other way I would ever see them in the wild. Seriously though I took to many pictures here. :D
I’m surprised that none of us took one considering how many of us wanted to. Shane, Nekey and I were paying attention when Alan and Jane wanted us to continue on and were issuing us to leave, but when we got to the parking lot it became clear that the rest of the group stayed behind. While Jane and Alan were trying to figure out how to get in contact with the rest of the group we looked at the stands with little trinkets for sale outside. Just like when I was in China you have to barter for everything. It was so funny because when Nekey saw the rest of the group coming up to us she said: “Oh good you guys are back because Shane’s about to buy a table.”
The next stop on our full day excursion was Cape Point or Cape of Good Hope. This is where the two oceans meet and it’s also a National Park so there was the possibility of seeing wild animals such as zebras. Sad face because we didn’t see any of those, but we did see baboons, springbucks, and a buck. The baboons are so smart that if they don’t hear the beep beep of your car locking they will get in and ransack it for food. They also will attack you if you have open food on your person. We only saw the baboons from our car as we were driving towards the beach so we didn’t really have that issue. Everyone was super excited to see them because Alan had been talking about them the whole day and the drive to the point was almost done so we all were just assuming we weren’t going to see one. They had signs everywhere too that said danger of baboons and do not feed signs everywhere so we got all hyped up like they were going to be everywhere. Alan told our car that we were lucky that they weren’t as bad as usual. They have these guys that stand around on the road and watch for the baboons to protect both them and the people that they try and attack or steal from. Our car renamed these watchmen baboon bouncers! Godfrey really enjoyed it! Also on our drive to Cape Point we stopped and a statue of a cross out in the distances was shown to us. We were informed that this is where the first person landed. Unfortunately I don’t remember the man’s full name his last was Dias, or all the details since our stop was short and brief but I’m always just blown away by the beauty here. No place so far in my life has been more beautiful then when we got to the point. There was an old light house on top of a hill (turned out to be a mountain) and before we started it didn’t look either that far away or that high up. I think we realized just what a work out this was when we were about ¾ of the way to the top. It was far more than worth it though. It’s at this spot where you are at the most southern tip of Africa, and also one of the few spots I’ve seen so far where you can take a picture and the mountains aren’t in your background, but that you can see endless sea. This picture hardly does it justice because my camera made the picture seem like I was there in the evening but we were there at high sun. That was perfect because the work out made me hot and sweaty so the wind we were getting at this spot felt super great. Also I was wearing shorts and was hot, some people were wearing jeans and jackets and were on fire. We meet a lot of Pablos (gopher/rodent thing we named) on the walk to this spot too which I found to be exhilarating because they frightened others. If there were any place in the world that I would want to be proposed to this would be the best spot given the weather was also good. Apart from Pablo we also saw some black lizards that may or may not have been poisonous, I don’t quite recall what Catherine was telling me about them since my mind was being blown by the view.
After we climbed back down the mountain and got back in the vans we drove around Chapman’s Peak. It’s on the Atlantic coast and it had some of the best views I’ve ever seen from a moving car! If you’ve ever seen one of those car commercials where the car is zooming by on a road that looks like squiggle with amazing views around it; that’s the best way I can describe this in words. Our little schedule book says it’s considered one of the world’s most scenic marine drives and I believe!!! It’s located between Noordhoek and Hout Bay. It also sort of reminded me of California driving because it had those giant metal nets or better consider rock catchers. As much of a downer as this may be our van was told that it had been closed for three years because once a giant boulder fell and flattened a car so they put up more nets and stuff for safety. When we were driving on the road there were signs every couple of yards saying drive at your own risk. When we got to Hout bay we went to a restaurant called Snookies (it’s a type of fish not jersey shore) and got fish and chips. There were seagulls everywhere and they were being just as vicious as we were told the baboons were going to be. I don’t much care for their seagull accents. It sounds somewhat like a crying child and quickly gets annoying for me. We ran through/around them and went down on to the beach where the majority of us put our feet in. It was cold but now I can tell people I’ve been in the ocean whilst in South Africa.
On the drive back to the lodge Simone and I practiced our accents, and then I made a quick trip the grocery store and bought some crisps and a chocolate chip muffin because I didn’t want to have peanut butter toast for breakfast. After dinner we had a women come in named Alison and she works with children who have been removed from their families because of abuse/abusive situations. She has her own home called the Rainbow House and she has up to 12 children at a time. Unlike in government institutions these children are given a counselor or therapist as soon as they arrive and are helped everyday individually. She sort of has a token economy (psych term) going on and she individualizes things to better suit the child. She also sends all of them to private school but receives no funding from the government. I was really amazed when she told me that all the councilors and therapists she has their working with the children are all volunteers. I found her story to be really inspiring and while listening to what she was telling us a lot of thoughts that weren’t occurring to me before came up. She used to live in the townships and would help the children there by always being available for them, but now the Rainbow House is located in a better location because she wants them to not feel like living in the townships is their legacy. After a few reflective questions with Aaron I was a bit surprised by the fact that 11 of us were sitting in our lounge area either reading the homework or blogging and not one of us was talking. We said when we all sat down we work better in silence, but I wasn’t sure silence was going to happen. Today was just simply amazing.
New word meanings:
Tomato Sauce = Ketchup
Chips = fries
Crisps = chip
Also I'm doing two posts now about a day if I can. *depends on availabilitiy of Internet. The first which will probably show up as the second is of what I did and the second is of how I felt doing it.
