Blogs from Plettenberg Bay, Western Cape, South Africa, Africa - page 3

Just over a week ago, Neil the Professor picked Elisha, myself and Maya (our Israeli house mate) up in his giant bakkie that he never drives to work, instead driving his beat up mutt car, and took us on what he called an assignment... you see, with Neil, everything has to be an assignment or lesson or some type of top secret mission- I guess this makes life interesting... and which it does!! Life is but a sequence of steps and decisions and to make a game of it often times makes things more enjoyable and life more intriguing... So Neil gives us our instructions. We are to be dropped of at Keurbooms River and take two canoes, one for Elisha and I, the other for Maya and make our way upstream towards who knows what- ... read more

Three weeks into our stint at Monkeyland. times are good- sometimes too much spare time- the volunteer house is very basic... and as sad as it sounds, sometimes it is just nice to sit back and watch mindless (or mindful) TV. We keep ourselves busy though- or we try. During our days- well, in the morning- we clean out the "rehab" monkey's cages...tell them you cleaned up monkey poo : says Neil!! we give them fresh water and food... the squirrel monkeys jump on your back and urinate on you, as the howler digs into the bucket you just poured poo and old food into- and pulls out something that was once hers... but honestly- this is fun. and educational. very much so. I am hoping to start doing tours of the forest soon, taking guests ... read more

So after some rough times- Cape Town was a good cheering up dosage- the beautiful mountains and green goliaths that tower over the city, beautiful itself- a mixture of old architetcture of blues and pinks- Cape Dutch- BO KAAP- fizzling into tall skyscrapers and streets filled with hipster coffee shops and over priced Urban Outfitter look a-likes... but wow is it fun!! Indeed, the Mother City lives up to all of its' stories- Cape Town has always treated me well and I do enjoy it. We both loved our views from the rooms, we loved strolling on the beach and picking up the sparkling, gorgeous shells- writing random sayings in the sand and taking photos of things that most people would probably roll there eyes at... standing so close to the towering World Cup stadium was ... read more

Last night we ate at a place called Cubaña: lovely food and lots of very cheap cocktails. The Marine at Hermanus was a wonderful place and they strived to look after us well. We were a bit early in the season to see many whales but we got to see a few from the shore both humpback and southern right. Yesterday we posted a picture of the whale crier, who is employed at Hermanus for the season. We were fortunate to see the whale that heralded the only sounding of his kelp horn (a round horn made out of seaweed) that day. There had been some debate as to which were better: vuvuzelas or kelp horns; the kelp horns won, as it is possible to get more than one tone out of them. Today we have ... read more

I can not believe my month at the primate project has come to an end, I am really sorry to be leaving. Anyone who has spent time with primates can have any doubts where man originates, the similarities between primate and man is uncanny, they have the same social structures and interactions as human societies, and I swear I recognize some peoples in some of the monkeys, but no names mentioned. How anyone can harm these beautiful creatures is beyond my understanding. What Karen is doing with so little money and resources is amazing, I intent to support the project in some way in the future. This is Leanne & Mollys first visit to Africa, they came directly to the project for a month and are due to fly directly back to the UK from George ... read more