Week 18 - The end of the holiday

Good evening from what has been a very warm South Africa! Monday (when we were still in Cape Town) seems like ages ago now that we're back at base in Sedgefield. Here's what we've been up to in the past week...

On Monday we hopped on a train (we were told it's best to get first class) to Simonstown on the Cape peninsula. Here it was a ten minute drive to Boulders Beach - home of the African penguin! African penguins are native to the West coast of South Africa and Namibia and Boulders Beach is definitely one of the best places to see them. The colony here is massive and along this stretch of coastline there's a few smaller groups dotted alongside the main colony. There was also a fantastic part of the beach to swim and after crossing over and under some boulders and dodging round some penguins we found a great spot. A penguin even decided to get in with me and Talitha and swam round our and other people's feet. It was incredible.

Our plans for Tuesday were to climb Lions Head (a mountain that over looks Cape Town and Table Mountain) but when me and Scott arrived we had to turn back around as the path had shut a day before for maintenance. Next time I find myself in Cape Town I'm definitely climbing it! Wednesday morning saw us get up early and head to the bus station to get our bus back home at 6am. However, as this is South Africa, our bus was fashionably late. Over two hours later we finally got on the bus, but it was definitely worth the wait - we got our pick of seats (that were very comfy) and the bus was basically empty for the whole drive back. At least the bus company sent us a text to say that our bus was running late... After we had got off it in Sedgefield, had dinner and went to Pick n Pay before waiting to be picked up to go to base.

The last three days have been spent swimming and kayaking here. I've definitely missed the warm water here and being back in a kayak was great too. We got a lift into Sedgefield today where we had lunch (and I stocked up on suncream) before walking back and getting back in the water for an afternoon swim.

The pictures this week are all from our visit to Boulders Beach. There's also one at the end, of the view from the bottom of lions head. 

It's back to normal tomorrow morning with work starting again at OB but what an incredible past month I've had in South Africa!

Rachel :)

Diving deep and flying high

Good afternoon and a happy new year from a 24°C and 'mostly sunny' South Africa! Today marks four months since I left on my gap year to volunteer for Project Trust at OB so here is what I've been up to the past seven days...

This week has been our last full week in Cape Town so we've been making the most of it. On Monday we went to the Two Oceans Aquarium here in Cape Town, with two of the Zambia volunteers. It was a really cool aquarium to visit not only because of the variety of aquatic animals and the absolutely massive tanks some are in, but also because it was very educational. The aquarium has a huge array of research programmes that they are involved in along with doing a lot of conservation work. They're main conservation work focuses on seals, turtles and ragged-tooth sharks. The aquarium is also one in only a few in the world that also release some of their fish and sharks back into the wild. One statistic that's been stuck in my head since visiting is that each year around 700 people are killed by toasters whereas only around 5 are killed by sharks.

New years eve saw all the volunteers head to Kirstenbosch gardens to go see Jeremy Loops - a famous South African singer - perform. It was an amazing concert! We've also been to the Castle of Good Hope, South Africa's oldest surviving building. From 1679 onwards it has been involved in political, civilian and military life around Cape Town and has numerous artefacts to show for this. On the doors in the prison there's words and sentences carved into the wood by prisoners before they were sent out to Robben Island.

Another AMAZING thing we've done this week is a skydive!! We weren't planning on doing this when we arrived here in Cape Town but some of the Zambia volunteers were going to do it and asked if we wanted to join them. It was an incredible thing to do and I absolutely loved it. The views from over 10,000ft up in the sky were amazing and jumping out the plane and free falling was so incredible.

Friday saw us take a trip to Camps Bay. Don't be fooled at how inviting the water looks though - it was freezing!! I'm definitely missing the warm Indian ocean. Yesterday me and Talitha took a walk to Bo-Kaap, a former township and now one of the most photographed areas of Cape Town due to its colourful houses. We also did an escape room yesterday! It was themed as a pirate ship and we managed to complete it with 1 minute and 43 seconds left!

We're leaving Cape Town on Wednesday and I'm definitely going to miss this city (and the washing machine we have here!) but I can't wait to get back to OB.

Photos for this week, in order, are of the aquarium including a board showing the issue of plastic in the ocean but specifically plastic in gyres. The aquarium had a lot of information about this issue. And one of some Knysna (the next town to the right of Sedgefield) seahorses - we were super excited to learn that these lived in the water near us. They're the only seahorse known to live in estuaries but they were also the first seahorse to be classified as endangered. There's also a picture of the concert, a lot from my skydive (don't think I'll be able to stop talking about it for a few months), a few from Camps Bay, Bo-Kaap and one of Scott playing chess with someone who lives here. (Scott won!)

Enjoy the photos,

Rachel :)