My childhood dream was to be a veterinarian, what of course never happened. But I had wanted for a long time to someday do work with wild life. Through the internet I found the organization AVIVA, which sets up volunteers with a wide variety of projects in South Africa. North of Cape Town in the suburb of Table View, AVIVA has a beautiful home set up especially for the volunteers that are involved in their projects in this area. Bedrooms are set up dormitary style. With most of the volunteers' ages being from 18 to 35 years, I was the grandmother in the place. There were some other "oldies", but they had left just before I came. However there was no issue of a "generation gap", we all got along just fine.
AVIVA house for volunteers in Table View.
One of the AVIVA projects is Home Of Hope, a center for abandoned and abused children;.
Charlotte, volunteer in House of Hope + another AVIVA orphanage Masagcine in Cape Town.
The other project is a rehabilitation center called SANCCOB for injured, sick or orphaned seabirds, which includes the African Penguin. I had signed on for 6 weeks with SANCCOB. 90 % of the actual animal work is done by international and/or local volunteers. There are a small number of paid staff, but only 2 of them work daily with the animals.
Following is a day in the life of a volunteer at SANCOBB:
We would start at 0800 with a quick little briefing and an assignment of the area where we would be working for the day.
The SANCCOB door sign and the assignment board.
Time for a swim in the pool. Many are in a hurry to come back in.
Next it was time for feeding. None of them would take fish voluntarily, so we had to take them between our knees, restraint them and forcefeed the fish. Penguins swallow fish whole, so once you had it in partially, they would usually swallow it the rest of the way. They do not have teeth, but they do have little spikes on their tongues facing inward, which helps them to hold onto the fish and push it inward. For the same reason, if the animal did not swallow the fish, you could never pull it back out; it would damage these spikes. We would wait for the animal to spit it out itself, which at times was quite a messy affair.
Volunteers Anika (Germany), Jennifer (USA) and I feeding fish to the penguins.
Penguins look very innocent, cute and sweet, but often this was far from the truth. Our penguins were wild animals that did not understand and appreciate all we were trying to do for them. So they tried to defend themselves with pecking and biting at us. Even though without teeth they could not cause severe injuries, we all ended up with some nice bruises and cuts from them, even though we wore neoprene armguards and one left-handed neoprene glove for protection. We kept the right hand uncovered to be able to insert fish, tubes or pills easily. Penguins have only one hole to discharge all of their bodily fluids, which could happen at any time. So we wore plastic suits to protect ourselves from their “guano” (a great fertilizer, by the way).
Some animals had wounds and cuts, which we treated several times a day. 3 of our penguins had either been attacked by sharks or seals and had huge cuts over their neck, belly and back. By the time I left I was happy to see that all had healed quite well. Because the ultimate goal for all of our animals was to return them to the wild, we did not want to “tame” them. So we did not pet them, and try to get them used to us. Also we did not name them. Each penguin had an impersonal number assigned to it, applied to an armband around its flipper.
A little problem that was caused by the current environment was “bumble” feet. Penguins are supposed to walk on sand or rocks, not on the flat ground and mats (for adequate cleaning), that we provided them with. So for the long-term birds it caused a sort of pressure sore on the bottom of their feet (called bumble feet), that we also had to treat several times a day.
The left penguin has a healing abdominal wound, possibly a shark or seal bite. Penguin on the right has a bumble foot (see the pink/brown area on the left flipper).
So our day consisted mostly out of giving fluids and medications 3 x daily, feed fish 2 x daily and letting them swim 2 x daily. In between we cleaned the pen and pool; all of this kept us quite busy. For a while we also had a cape gannet in PEN 2, a beautiful bird, but with a very powerful and big beak, which we treated with much respect. We were all happy the day he was released back into the wild.
After cleaning the PENS, we cleaned the pool. We had a healthy respect for the strong beak of the Cape gannet.
Together with PEN 2 we usually took care of PEN 1, where we had 6 cormorants, we had to do similar care with them as with the penguins, but catching them was usually a bigger challenge. With their long necks it was hard to avoid their pecking at our hands and arms. We placed them in a box with breathing holes for a short while when we cleaned their pen.
Cormorant in PEN 1. While we cleaned their PEN, they had to wait in boxes.
The majority of our penguins were the “African penguin”. As the name implies, they are found in Africa. They are quite small, approximately 1 to 1,5 foot (30 to 50 cm. high) and they weigh approx. 3 a 5 kg. Everyone knows that penguins are found in Antarctica, but many also live in the lands surrounding Antarctica, such as Chile, South Africa and New Zealand. The African penguins have had a sharp decline in numbers, a 100 years ago 2 million lived in South Africa, at the present there are only about 26.000 breeding pairs left. SANCCOB's goal is to save these cute creatures from extinction.
Penguins live in Antarctica + in the countries surrounding it.
Their appearance goes through quite a few changes during their life time. As a baby they are very fluffy, and not waterproof . Next they become a youngster “Blue Penguin”, then a "Juvenile" and finally an "adult". Adults have the most clear and pronounced "tuxedo" markings.
The small chick in the left picture has fluffy, non-waterproof feathers. In the right picture on left is an adult, 2nd is a young "blue" penguin, the 2 on right are juveniles, they do not have pronounced markings and a dirty-yellow belly.
During my first week at SANCOBB, we did get a “foreigner” in. A Macaroni penguin, that normally only lives in Antarctica. How did it get here? We did not know, but a theory was, that sailors had picked it up in Antarctica. Upon getting close to Africa, where they were not allowed to have it on board, they probably released it. This one did get a name "Mac". At first I did not think that Mac was going to survive. He was extremely stressed; he would just stand in a corner and seemed to be gasping for air. On top of that he was moulding. Penguins mould once a year for a period of 3 weeks and between different stages of growing up. During this period they change their feathers and they are not waterproof. They can not swim and feed themselves. Usually they eat a lot before moulding starts, so they can live off their fat during this time.
Slowly Mac came around, he finished moulding and he started to improve. Because Mac can not be released into the African penguin colonies, and we can not bring him back to Antarctica, it was decided that he would stay at SANCCOB. Therefore he was an exception to the non-befriending and no-name rule. We also did not force feed/fluid him, but we offered him the fish by hand.
Mac in the middle of his moulding. He has his nice new coat and accepts fish from us.
Max after a while, became very tame with people. He allowed us to pet him and would start preening when approached. On the other hand, he did not allow the African penguins to get too close. After he had finished moulding and he was doing much better, he was placed in “home pen”. Home Pen is a separate section at SANCOBB where birds and penguins, which for some reason can not be released into the wild, can live out their lives in a natural looking environment. Here Max appeared to be befriending “Rocky”, a rock hopper penguin, who also was a stray from Antarctica.
Mac has become very friendly with humans. Rocky (L) and Mac (R) in home PEN.
Home PEN is taken care of by one of the regular staff members, Lana, a job I would love to have. When the penguins see her, they start running to her, because they know she will have fish for them. She does not need to tube or force feed them, they eat straight out of her hands.
Rocky is very popular and he is good for education. He goes all over the place, including our coffee room.
Finally they get to go for a swim and then into the PEN for a well-deserved rest.
The wineries north of Cape Town.
That same night we went with a group of our volunteers to a cultural African restaurant with live music. Together with a piece of cake it sure made my birthday memorable.
I had a birthday dinner in a typical African restaurant with live music.
Most of the white-owned houses are behind fences with strong, metal gates.
The tour included the ugly side of South Africa. During the days of Apartheid many areas in the towns were determined to be "whites-only" and the blacks or “coloreds” who lived there were simply evicted and their houses destroyed. We visited “District 6” near downtown Cape Town, where 60.000 non-white people were simply uprooted and kicked out. Their houses were bulldozed down. For various political reasons the area was never rebuild and still exists now as a overgrown dirt area.
The former District 6 ("Zonnebloem"). A museum displays the old streetsigns and many stories and pictures of life in the former neighborhood.
Robben Island lies off-shore from Cape Town. During the Apartheid era it was a maximum security prison, where besides common criminals many political prisoners were held.
5 people could sit in the cage and watch the sharks underwater close up.
Barry, the owner of Birdman Paragliding, taught me the skills of paragliding.
First I had to learn how to run properly with the parachute, then the take-off.
It's great to soar like a "Duck".
Today May 3rd I finalized all my paragliding requirement after a great sunny weekend of flying. And so I qualified to get my glider license!!!!
The other project is a rehabilitation center called SANCCOB for injured, sick or orphaned seabirds, which includes the African Penguin. I had signed on for 6 weeks with SANCCOB. 90 % of the actual animal work is done by international and/or local volunteers. There are a small number of paid staff, but only 2 of them work daily with the animals.
Following is a day in the life of a volunteer at SANCOBB:
We would start at 0800 with a quick little briefing and an assignment of the area where we would be working for the day.
The SANCCOB door sign and the assignment board.
Most of the time while I worked at SANCCOB, we had a fairly low number of animals, because recently no big disasters had happened. Cape of Good Hope is an infamous boating area and shipping disasters happen on a fairly frequent basis, with resulting damage to the environment and sealife. So during my stay the place was far from full (they can handle 2000 animals) and we volunteers only had 3 areas to deal with: ICU, PEN 1 and PEN 2. Regular staff took take of the aviary (birds that were able to fly and would be close to release) and Home Pen, where animals live that for various reasons can not be released. In ICU were the sicker animals that needed quite frequent care. These were mostly various sea birds, such as gulls, cormorants, etc. in which I do not have a big interest. I mostly worked in PEN 1, where we had several cormorants, and PEN 2, which has most of the penguins. My favorite area to work. These animals were on the road to recovery. The penguins were divided into 3 groups: the strongest ones are the 1-hour swimmers, then the 20-minute swimmers and finally the non-forced swimmers. As the name implied the 1-hour swimmers were placed in the swimming pool twice daily for a 1-hour swim.
The worksheet with swimming times and treatments. PEN 2.
Once in a while after these swims, their feathers were checked for dryness. A penguin coat is like a wetsuit, if it functions well, it will keep the animal perfectly warm, but when it does not, the animal in the wild is basically doomed. It can not swim, because it can not stay warm enough and therefore it can not feed itself. Once an animal was judged strong enough and its coat stayed perfectly dry below the top feathers, it would be released back into the wild. So at the beginning of the day, I would place the 1-hour swimmers in the pool right away. These stressed penguins will not eat and sometimes not drink. The ones that were dehydrated had a regular schedule for fluid administration. This consisted mostly out of placing a tube through their throat into their stomach and give them fluids with a large 60 cc syringe. Several of them had to have it done 3 x a day + some of them needed medication which we placed deep into their throats.
Dehydrated penguins get fluids administered per tube.
After the 1-hour swimmers were in the water for 40 minutes the 20-minute swimmers were added to the pool. Only a few animals would be left in the pen, these would be placed aside and we would quickly do a thorough cleaning of the pen. After the 1 hour was up, the non-forced swimmers (the weakest or youngest animals) went into the pool and the gate was opened. At this point any penguin that wanted to come back in was allowed to. The funny thing was that often the 1-hour swimmers were very anxious to come back in, but the non-forced swimmers loved to stay out and swim for quite a while.
The worksheet with swimming times and treatments. PEN 2.
Once in a while after these swims, their feathers were checked for dryness. A penguin coat is like a wetsuit, if it functions well, it will keep the animal perfectly warm, but when it does not, the animal in the wild is basically doomed. It can not swim, because it can not stay warm enough and therefore it can not feed itself. Once an animal was judged strong enough and its coat stayed perfectly dry below the top feathers, it would be released back into the wild. So at the beginning of the day, I would place the 1-hour swimmers in the pool right away. These stressed penguins will not eat and sometimes not drink. The ones that were dehydrated had a regular schedule for fluid administration. This consisted mostly out of placing a tube through their throat into their stomach and give them fluids with a large 60 cc syringe. Several of them had to have it done 3 x a day + some of them needed medication which we placed deep into their throats.
Dehydrated penguins get fluids administered per tube.
Time for a swim in the pool. Many are in a hurry to come back in.
Next it was time for feeding. None of them would take fish voluntarily, so we had to take them between our knees, restraint them and forcefeed the fish. Penguins swallow fish whole, so once you had it in partially, they would usually swallow it the rest of the way. They do not have teeth, but they do have little spikes on their tongues facing inward, which helps them to hold onto the fish and push it inward. For the same reason, if the animal did not swallow the fish, you could never pull it back out; it would damage these spikes. We would wait for the animal to spit it out itself, which at times was quite a messy affair.
Volunteers Anika (Germany), Jennifer (USA) and I feeding fish to the penguins.
Penguins look very innocent, cute and sweet, but often this was far from the truth. Our penguins were wild animals that did not understand and appreciate all we were trying to do for them. So they tried to defend themselves with pecking and biting at us. Even though without teeth they could not cause severe injuries, we all ended up with some nice bruises and cuts from them, even though we wore neoprene armguards and one left-handed neoprene glove for protection. We kept the right hand uncovered to be able to insert fish, tubes or pills easily. Penguins have only one hole to discharge all of their bodily fluids, which could happen at any time. So we wore plastic suits to protect ourselves from their “guano” (a great fertilizer, by the way).
Some animals had wounds and cuts, which we treated several times a day. 3 of our penguins had either been attacked by sharks or seals and had huge cuts over their neck, belly and back. By the time I left I was happy to see that all had healed quite well. Because the ultimate goal for all of our animals was to return them to the wild, we did not want to “tame” them. So we did not pet them, and try to get them used to us. Also we did not name them. Each penguin had an impersonal number assigned to it, applied to an armband around its flipper.
A little problem that was caused by the current environment was “bumble” feet. Penguins are supposed to walk on sand or rocks, not on the flat ground and mats (for adequate cleaning), that we provided them with. So for the long-term birds it caused a sort of pressure sore on the bottom of their feet (called bumble feet), that we also had to treat several times a day.
The left penguin has a healing abdominal wound, possibly a shark or seal bite. Penguin on the right has a bumble foot (see the pink/brown area on the left flipper).
So our day consisted mostly out of giving fluids and medications 3 x daily, feed fish 2 x daily and letting them swim 2 x daily. In between we cleaned the pen and pool; all of this kept us quite busy. For a while we also had a cape gannet in PEN 2, a beautiful bird, but with a very powerful and big beak, which we treated with much respect. We were all happy the day he was released back into the wild.
After cleaning the PENS, we cleaned the pool. We had a healthy respect for the strong beak of the Cape gannet.
Together with PEN 2 we usually took care of PEN 1, where we had 6 cormorants, we had to do similar care with them as with the penguins, but catching them was usually a bigger challenge. With their long necks it was hard to avoid their pecking at our hands and arms. We placed them in a box with breathing holes for a short while when we cleaned their pen.
Cormorant in PEN 1. While we cleaned their PEN, they had to wait in boxes.
The majority of our penguins were the “African penguin”. As the name implies, they are found in Africa. They are quite small, approximately 1 to 1,5 foot (30 to 50 cm. high) and they weigh approx. 3 a 5 kg. Everyone knows that penguins are found in Antarctica, but many also live in the lands surrounding Antarctica, such as Chile, South Africa and New Zealand. The African penguins have had a sharp decline in numbers, a 100 years ago 2 million lived in South Africa, at the present there are only about 26.000 breeding pairs left. SANCCOB's goal is to save these cute creatures from extinction.
Penguins live in Antarctica + in the countries surrounding it.
Their appearance goes through quite a few changes during their life time. As a baby they are very fluffy, and not waterproof . Next they become a youngster “Blue Penguin”, then a "Juvenile" and finally an "adult". Adults have the most clear and pronounced "tuxedo" markings.
The small chick in the left picture has fluffy, non-waterproof feathers. In the right picture on left is an adult, 2nd is a young "blue" penguin, the 2 on right are juveniles, they do not have pronounced markings and a dirty-yellow belly.
During my first week at SANCOBB, we did get a “foreigner” in. A Macaroni penguin, that normally only lives in Antarctica. How did it get here? We did not know, but a theory was, that sailors had picked it up in Antarctica. Upon getting close to Africa, where they were not allowed to have it on board, they probably released it. This one did get a name "Mac". At first I did not think that Mac was going to survive. He was extremely stressed; he would just stand in a corner and seemed to be gasping for air. On top of that he was moulding. Penguins mould once a year for a period of 3 weeks and between different stages of growing up. During this period they change their feathers and they are not waterproof. They can not swim and feed themselves. Usually they eat a lot before moulding starts, so they can live off their fat during this time.
Slowly Mac came around, he finished moulding and he started to improve. Because Mac can not be released into the African penguin colonies, and we can not bring him back to Antarctica, it was decided that he would stay at SANCCOB. Therefore he was an exception to the non-befriending and no-name rule. We also did not force feed/fluid him, but we offered him the fish by hand.
Mac in the middle of his moulding. He has his nice new coat and accepts fish from us.
Max after a while, became very tame with people. He allowed us to pet him and would start preening when approached. On the other hand, he did not allow the African penguins to get too close. After he had finished moulding and he was doing much better, he was placed in “home pen”. Home Pen is a separate section at SANCOBB where birds and penguins, which for some reason can not be released into the wild, can live out their lives in a natural looking environment. Here Max appeared to be befriending “Rocky”, a rock hopper penguin, who also was a stray from Antarctica.
Mac has become very friendly with humans. Rocky (L) and Mac (R) in home PEN.
Home PEN is taken care of by one of the regular staff members, Lana, a job I would love to have. When the penguins see her, they start running to her, because they know she will have fish for them. She does not need to tube or force feed them, they eat straight out of her hands.
Another oddball lives in Home Pen, “Fluffy” an arrested moulder. When Fluffy moulded, he for some reason got stuck in that phase, and never grew a normal coat. This also means that Fluffy can get cold quite easily, and just like humans, needs some extra protection on cool days.
Fluffy in Home PEN needs a sweater on cold days.
Fluffy is "an arrested moulder"; he got stuck in the moulding stage and is not waterproof so he needs a sweater on cold days.
Fluffy in Home PEN needs a sweater on cold days.
Fluffy is "an arrested moulder"; he got stuck in the moulding stage and is not waterproof so he needs a sweater on cold days.
While I was there, we received 2 other “visitors” from Antarctica, 2 giant petrels. Very large birds, luckily very shy and they never did try to bite us. However, they do not last long in captivity. After the first one unexpectedly died, we set the 2nd one free, as soon as he seemed strong enough.
The giant petrels also came from Antarctica. They don't survive long in captivity.
Besides rehabilitation and conservation SANCOBB also does education for the local population, and tours can be booked at the facility. For the school children Rocky is the star of the show, because he is so friendly and he does not bite. He has the run of the whole place, including our coffee room.
Rocky is very popular and he is good for education. He goes all over the place, including our coffee room.
Bobby, the cormorant, also lives permanently at SANCOBB, he flies all over the place and at times interferes with our work. He, however, is not as friendly and will pick at us. However we can make him happy by giving him some fish tails.
Bobby, the cormorant, lives permanent at SANCCOB, He flies all over the place.
Bobby, the cormorant, lives permanent at SANCCOB, He flies all over the place.
SANCOBB has a veterinarian on staff, who checks the animals frequently and takes care of their problems.
The veterinarian treats the animals. The gull does well with the leg splint.
The veterinarian treats the animals. The gull does well with the leg splint.
Once a week all the animals get their weight taken and staff member Priscilla draws blood so they can be checked for parasites or diseases.
On Mondays we check the weight of all the animals and Priscilla draws blood.
In my last week at SANCOBB big changes happened. There was a 13 mile (20 km) oil spill in the neighboring country of Namibia. The facility there could not adequately care for all the affected animals and 129 penguins were trucked to us. They arrived at 3:00 pm after a 1300 km (800 mile) 20 hour drive on a large flatbed truck in cardboard boxes.
The Namibian penguins have arrived. The volunteers are ready for them.
Many local volunteers came to help, reporters and tv were on scene and we all worked frantically to get all these birds numbered, recorded, medicated, hydrated and fed.
Luckily apparently most of the oil was already removed from their skins, but they had gone through a lot of stress. After a quick swim the work was done for that day by 7 pm.
Each box contains 3 penguins, hungry but in pretty good shape. The new penguins get medicated, fluids and fish.
On Mondays we check the weight of all the animals and Priscilla draws blood.
In my last week at SANCOBB big changes happened. There was a 13 mile (20 km) oil spill in the neighboring country of Namibia. The facility there could not adequately care for all the affected animals and 129 penguins were trucked to us. They arrived at 3:00 pm after a 1300 km (800 mile) 20 hour drive on a large flatbed truck in cardboard boxes.
The Namibian penguins have arrived. The volunteers are ready for them.
Many local volunteers came to help, reporters and tv were on scene and we all worked frantically to get all these birds numbered, recorded, medicated, hydrated and fed.
Luckily apparently most of the oil was already removed from their skins, but they had gone through a lot of stress. After a quick swim the work was done for that day by 7 pm.
Each box contains 3 penguins, hungry but in pretty good shape. The new penguins get medicated, fluids and fish.
Finally they get to go for a swim and then into the PEN for a well-deserved rest.
But now instead of caring for 20 penguins, we had 160 to take care of. But many local volunteers have been helping and so all has gone well so far. 2 of the new penguins have died in the meanwhile and autopsy showed severe internal trauma, probably sustained during the long drive. Luckily no other birds were affected.
April 24 was my last day and I was sorry to say goodbye to my cute tuxedoed friends and staff and volunteers at SANCOBB.
Volunteers Elizabeth, Alex, Lacy, Breanne and staffmember Lana.
April 24 was my last day and I was sorry to say goodbye to my cute tuxedoed friends and staff and volunteers at SANCOBB.
Volunteers Elizabeth, Alex, Lacy, Breanne and staffmember Lana.
Because most of the time it was not that busy at SANCOBB we only worked about 3 or 4 days a week, so there was plenty of time for other things.
AVIVA organized many things, including braais (BBQ's) and several tours for their volunteers.
During the “Cape Tour” we were shown all the beautiful and interesting areas around the Cape area. We saw some of the famous beaches flanked by the 12 Apostel Mountains.
AVIVA takes the volunteers around with their van. Camps beach in Cape Town.
During the “Cape Tour” we were shown all the beautiful and interesting areas around the Cape area. We saw some of the famous beaches flanked by the 12 Apostel Mountains.
AVIVA takes the volunteers around with their van. Camps beach in Cape Town.
We took a boat ride out to a seal island and of course we had to see Cape of Good Hope, the infamous point that boats have to try to safely get around. The trees reflect the prevailing winds. 
Cape of Good Hope, the most south-western point of Africa, where the trees get shaped by prevailing winds.
Cape of Good Hope, the most south-western point of Africa, where the trees get shaped by prevailing winds.
Along the way a baboon visited a car and ostriches were running along the road.
The baboon was comfortable and refused to leave. Ostrich running on the side of the road.
Probably everybody’s favorite was the visit to Boulders Beach where the African Penguins have a large colony and you can wander near them on a board walk.
Boulder Beach has an easy accessible, large penguin colony.
Boulder Beach has an easy accessible, large penguin colony.
A week later AVIVA took us on a “wine tour”. North of Cape Town are major grape growing areas with many wineries, several are in stunning surroundings. It was very appropriate that it happened to be right on my birthday.
Too bad that I am not much of a wine lover, so I did not appreciate many of the wines we got to taste, but I enjoyed seeing all the beautiful areas.
Too bad that I am not much of a wine lover, so I did not appreciate many of the wines we got to taste, but I enjoyed seeing all the beautiful areas.
The wineries north of Cape Town.
That same night we went with a group of our volunteers to a cultural African restaurant with live music. Together with a piece of cake it sure made my birthday memorable.
I had a birthday dinner in a typical African restaurant with live music.
Later we went on the “Cultural Tour” , which showed us more of Cape Town itself. The downtown part is pleasant and very western looking.
Downtown Cape Town is very western.
However most of the white-owned houses are behind stone walls and iron gates, with signs cautioning that the place is protected by armed security.
However most of the white-owned houses are behind stone walls and iron gates, with signs cautioning that the place is protected by armed security.
Most of the white-owned houses are behind fences with strong, metal gates.
The tour included the ugly side of South Africa. During the days of Apartheid many areas in the towns were determined to be "whites-only" and the blacks or “coloreds” who lived there were simply evicted and their houses destroyed. We visited “District 6” near downtown Cape Town, where 60.000 non-white people were simply uprooted and kicked out. Their houses were bulldozed down. For various political reasons the area was never rebuild and still exists now as a overgrown dirt area.
The former District 6 ("Zonnebloem"). A museum displays the old streetsigns and many stories and pictures of life in the former neighborhood.
These people set up shanty towns around the outskirts of cities. Furthermore, many other people have been lured to the big cities with their promises of jobs and money and they also ended up in these “townships”, a very fancy name for crowded areas full of corrugated shacks. The local residents have extended power lines into their areas with thin poles and branches, there are no good facilities and porta-potties are all around the outskirts. These townships apparently can be found around many of the South African towns. They are also areas of huge unemployment and high crime. We were taken into 2 of the townships: Langa and Kayeletisha and we visited some of the projects that aim to educate, to increase employment and to better the township people’s lives. Even though Apartheid ended about 15 years ago, it does not seem that life in South Africa has improved a lot for the many of the non-whites.
Shacks in the townships. One of the projects to teach local women weaving.
Continuing in the Apartheid era history and the atrocities that were committed, I took a trip by boat to visit Robben Island, the place where many political prisoners, including South Africa’s former president Nelson Mandela were imprisoned
Shacks in the townships. One of the projects to teach local women weaving.
Continuing in the Apartheid era history and the atrocities that were committed, I took a trip by boat to visit Robben Island, the place where many political prisoners, including South Africa’s former president Nelson Mandela were imprisoned
Robben Island lies off-shore from Cape Town. During the Apartheid era it was a maximum security prison, where besides common criminals many political prisoners were held.
It was quite impressive. By bus we were taken around the sights on the island. The tour of the prison itself was conducted by a former prisoner, who had spent here 10 years. We asked him why he was doing this. The answer was simple: "I needed a job". We were told stories of what life was like for the prisoners and the forced labor they had to do in a limestone quarry.
A former prisoner showed us around. Forced labor was done in this limestone quarry.
A former prisoner showed us around. Forced labor was done in this limestone quarry.
Of course we saw the maximum security prison with large dormitories and the solitary prison cell, in which Nelson Mandela spend 18 of his 27 years as a political prisoner. Pictures show many others of the Apartheid freedom fighters.
President Nelson Mandela's prison cell, it did not have a toilet, a "honey bucket" took care of that. There were many political prisoners.
President Nelson Mandela's prison cell, it did not have a toilet, a "honey bucket" took care of that. There were many political prisoners.
Robben Island is off shore from Cape Town with great views of its landmark Table Mountain.
It does not seem very far, but the waters are very cold with powerful currents and sharks. Hardly any prisoners were able to escape alive.
It does not seem very far, but the waters are very cold with powerful currents and sharks. Hardly any prisoners were able to escape alive.
Views on Cape Town with Table Mountain towering over it.
With a group of the volunteers we went “Shark Cage Diving”, in other words; have a very close eye-to-eye encounter with the infamous Great White Shark. We were picked up at about 4;00 am for the 2 hour drive along the coast to Gans Baai.
A few miles off-shore is Dyer Island with big colonies of seals and penguins, which is a major food source for the great white. So we were loaded on a boat and motored to near this island
A metal cage was lowered next to the boat, a fishy liquid was poured into the water to attract the sharks and we struggled to get our bodies into heavy wetsuits (the water is very cold in this area). 5 people could get into the cage at one time with a snorkeling mask on their face.
With a group of the volunteers we went “Shark Cage Diving”, in other words; have a very close eye-to-eye encounter with the infamous Great White Shark. We were picked up at about 4;00 am for the 2 hour drive along the coast to Gans Baai.
A few miles off-shore is Dyer Island with big colonies of seals and penguins, which is a major food source for the great white. So we were loaded on a boat and motored to near this island
A metal cage was lowered next to the boat, a fishy liquid was poured into the water to attract the sharks and we struggled to get our bodies into heavy wetsuits (the water is very cold in this area). 5 people could get into the cage at one time with a snorkeling mask on their face.
We were taken by boat to "shark alley", where a large metal cage was placed on the sde of the boat.
The staff would throw a large fish head connected to a rope into the water and gave a yell; “DOWN” each time a shark came near. We would then stick our heads under water and see the shark swim by the cage. The first time the shark was too quick, and grabbed the fish head before staff could pull it back. It was very interesting to see these scary creatures so close by, being in the cage felt quite secure, we had no fear that he could get to us. The weather was beautiful, the ocean calm and we never totally agreed on the number of sightings we had, but there were many.
The staff would throw a large fish head connected to a rope into the water and gave a yell; “DOWN” each time a shark came near. We would then stick our heads under water and see the shark swim by the cage. The first time the shark was too quick, and grabbed the fish head before staff could pull it back. It was very interesting to see these scary creatures so close by, being in the cage felt quite secure, we had no fear that he could get to us. The weather was beautiful, the ocean calm and we never totally agreed on the number of sightings we had, but there were many.
5 people could sit in the cage and watch the sharks underwater close up.
We stayed for several hours, then we spent a little while seeing the seals, before returning to Gans Baai. It was evening before we were back in Table View. 
The seals and penguins on Dyer Island attract the sharks. Life is better at the top of the food chain.
The seals and penguins on Dyer Island attract the sharks. Life is better at the top of the food chain.
I did a few more visits to Cape Town, either alone or with other volunteers. I roamed around the city and I visited the beautiful and busy waterfront full of shops, restaurants and street entertainment.
Cape Town's waterfront. Beautiful painted ostrich eggs are on sale.
Cape Town's waterfront. Beautiful painted ostrich eggs are on sale.
I also took a cable car ride up to the top of Table Mountain together with Suzanne, a Dutch volunteer.
(Photo Jennifer Quinn)
The cablecar to the top of Table Mountain.
The cablecar to the top of Table Mountain.
where we hiked around the flat top for a few hours and admired the views.
Views from the top of Table Mountain.
I had plenty of time left over, which made that I could fulfill another long-time dream; to learn paragliding. It turned out that there was a paragliding school just a few minutes walk from where I am staying. “Birdmen” Paragliding is owned and operated by Barry, who has a huge amount of patience to put up with me.
Views from the top of Table Mountain.
I had plenty of time left over, which made that I could fulfill another long-time dream; to learn paragliding. It turned out that there was a paragliding school just a few minutes walk from where I am staying. “Birdmen” Paragliding is owned and operated by Barry, who has a huge amount of patience to put up with me.
Barry, the owner of Birdman Paragliding, taught me the skills of paragliding.
I started out with ground handling on a nearby beach, where I learned how to deal with the parachute and how to run in order to get it into the air. The same day we drove twice to a nearby hill to fly, but each time it was just too windy to get up. But the next day it was good and I flew right away all by myself. So from then on any of my spare time here has been spent flying whenever the weather has been suitable. We have gone to a couple of different areas. Occasionally I do have some tense moments and I still need improvement on my take-offs and landings. I sure do not look like an eagle in the sky, more like a duck, but nevertheless I think that it is a great experience and I've been loving every moment of it.
First I had to learn how to run properly with the parachute, then the take-off.
It's great to soar like a "Duck".
Today May 3rd I finalized all my paragliding requirement after a great sunny weekend of flying. And so I qualified to get my glider license!!!!
Most of the time the weather here in Cape Town has been very pleasant, sunny and warm, but not hot. Now however it is late Fall here and this week the weather has cooled down considerably and it has been quite rainy. Apparently that is what the winter is like around here, so it is a good time to move on.
On May 4th I will leave Cape Town and I will go to a different area of South Africa for a new animal project to work at. That story will be in the next blog.
On May 4th I will leave Cape Town and I will go to a different area of South Africa for a new animal project to work at. That story will be in the next blog.
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