Sharks, Maintenance and My Last Course.

Good evening from a windy winters evening in South Africa! This blog will finally, finally bring you all up to date with what I've been doing here. I fear this may turn into a whole book with the amount of things I need to cover....

Week 40 (Monday 10th June - Sunday 16th June) - Sharks!!

So on Monday we all started with the monthly safety checks. We manged to get a good amount done so we were able to finish it all off on Tuesday. On Wednesday our main job was rechecking some ropes that are dated July 2019 to see if we could extend their lives a bit longer. That night Scott, Talitha and I hosted a ceilidh!! It was great fun and everyone absolutely loved it.

Thursday was the start of our few days leave so we hired a car and went to the beach and spent some time there. Friday we headed along to Mossel Bay where we went shark cage diving!!!! This was insanely incredible! Mossel Bay has the highest concentration of great white sharks anywhere in the world and it was so cool to see so many of them in one place. I think there was definitely more than six different sharks spotted and we got VERY close to a few of them! On our drive back we stopped off at Dolphins Point (a very nice look out point between Wilderness and George) and amazingly we saw two pods of dolphins! Very lucky!!

After the market on Saturday we headed to another beach and spent the whole afternoon there. Finally on Sunday we braved the cold water temperature and went for a VERY quick swim down in the veil.

Week 41 (Monday 17th June - Sunday 23rd June) - Maintenance and Potchefstroom

So on Monday we were tidying up around base which led to Scott, Talitha and I taking a canoe out and paddling along to 'shack' - a wooded area that OB uses for overnight solo. Our task that day was to clear back vegetation and put numbers up at good solo spots so participants can easily find areas to build their shelter. Tuesday and Wednesday were spent doing small odd jobs around base such as cleaning windows, creating a car parking area and moving bark chips. In between all that we were regularly playing some football or volleyball. A DSD course also started on Tuesday that Scott was going to be supporting.

After cleaning the gutters on Thursday morning, we packed a bakkie and the gear trailer with everything we would need for the course that would be happening up in Potchefstroom. Early on Friday, the six of us who were travelling to Potch tumbled out our beds and straight into a bakkie for the 13+ hour trip.

We split into groups on Saturday - Talitha and the three instructors heading to the abseil to create path opening (so many people got lost last time trying to find the way in) while me and Nthabi went into town to buy all the food we'd need for the next week. Once we were all back at the base and the food unpacked, we all sat down for the course brief.

Sunday was the start of the course.  However the group didn't arrive till after lunch so we spent the morning putting up a spiders web and patching the raft. The group was a primary school from Malawi and the kids were between the ages of 10 - 12. After the opening circle it was very chaotic with everyone running around trying to get the very excitable kids sorted. I did the float test with Joes group in the pool which was definitely freezing!! While we chatted to the teachers we found out that one of them was a volunteer with Project Trust in 2004/5! She had volunteered in Malawi, worked for Project Trust and has since moved back out to Malawi to teach. 

Week 42 (Monday 24th June - Sunday 30th June) - The Last Course

I spent Monday morning taking pictures of all the activities the groups were doing. After lunch I headed out with Sicelo's group on the raft which was nice. Tuesday morning was VERY cold. All the outdoor water pipes were frozen so we had to go round with hot water from the kitchen to unfreeze them. I spent Tuesday and Wednesday at the abseil and rock climbing site helping all the groups. Thursday was a clean up and solo day for the groups before I hosted a concert in the evening. Even us instructors performed!

Friday I was up and in the kitchen by 3am helping make the packed breakfast for the group as they left just after 4am. We all headed back to bed for an extra few hours of well needed sleep! The rest of Friday we spent packing up everything, debriefing, did a last minute campsite rubbish check before all heading into town to buy stuff for our braai that night.

Saturday and Sunday we drove back down to Sedgefield but we stayed over on Saturday night, breaking up the long drive back.

This was the last course I'd be working on in my year away. I've absolutely fallen in love with this job and couldn't have imagined a better year away. Now it's time to see a bit more of South Africa and enjoy the remaining days I have here at OBSA. 

Enjoy the pictures,

Rachel :)

 A very cold day at the beach.

 Testing the ropes in a z-drag formation.

 Getting very close with this great white!

A view from the boat before we got in the cage.

 Our fantastic bark chip laying skills.  

Our lovely car park sign we made.

Doing the rock climb set up for the last time.

 Talitha doing the abseil set up.

My clothes were frozen solid after putting them out to hang for only 30 minutes!