The weather has been very mild so I have been enjoying sunny warm days. I could definitely get use to winter like this. Other than no central heating to warm you up at night, it is very pleasant.
My week have been quite eclectic when it comes to work. It seemed like every day Tracy (the volunteer coordinator) and I would make a plan and most of the time it would end up getting changed to some degree or another. It is a good thing I have had a lot of recent experience with the philosophy of "going with the flow".
Monday we made it out on the water for my first whale / dolphin tour. We managed to see a small school of bootlenose dolphins. Unfortunately, they are the type of dolphins that prefer to hang out in the surf zone (where the wave is actually breaking) so we weren't able to get too close. Then we visited the local colony of seals. No whales that day. The rest of the day was spent running odd jobs around town. It was an excellent way to get to know the town.
Tuesday was similar, punctuated by a lot of turtle work. The whale watching shop I am working from has a large aquarium built into the back wall so clients can see what the local marine like is like. There are various species of fish and coral. Recently, they added a couple of leatherback turtles that are about 4 months old. They have not been gaining any weight lately, so we need to feed them more directly. It is my job to climb to the top of the aquarium, fish the turtles into their own bucket, and feed them freshly caught mud prawns. The prawns need to be pumped out of the lagoon every morning. So for someone that doesn't deal well with fishy things my day starts off up to my elbows (literally) in fish. Apparently, these turtles are quite unique (read: spoiled) because they only eat fresh prawns. We have tried mussels; both fresh and frozen, and frozen prawns, but they only eat the fresh prawns. So I have now developed quite precious prawn pumping skills. Must remember to put that on my CV.
On Wednesday we went fishing to support the local tag and release program. Plett bay is feed by three rivers, all of which has incredible wildlife. Charlie, the whale tour shop manager is a devout fisherman, who is always looking for a reason to head up a river. Once he heard I had fished before, he was determine to get me on the boat. When we set out, it was low tide, so the boat, which is moored on a buoy in the lagoon, was quite easy to wade out to. The water came to just below my knees. On the way back, it was a totally different story - the tide had come in. When he told me the water was to the knee, he failed to mention who's knee. Charlie I'd 6 foot 2, so the water was mid thigh on me!
The fishing was actually lots of fun. I haven't been out since I was a girl, but the casting came back to me quite quickly. We managed to catch 6 fish. All but one we were able to tag and they were all released. These tags will hopefully help researchers better determine how well the fish populations are doing.
After fishing, Tracy and I were off up to Robberg which is the local peninsula and nature reserve. It has great hiking trails with spectacular views of the bay and ocean. Tracy is incredibly fit so I am sure she found it tedious to slow down to my pace. However, I think my months of temple stair climbing in Southeast Asia helped me manage the rough terrain. Robberg has incredible diversity. We started out on dirt paths with small shrubbery all around. Then we made our way into a more rocky area where you had to use your hands a bit to scramble over the rocks. Next was beachy sand dunes and finally a very steep rock face, where it seemed like one wrong step could send you tumbling down to a very painful end. Tracy mentioned that her sea rescue team runs Robberg for fun and exercise. Seems absolutely crazy to me, but then again even running for a bus seems silly to me! Needless to say, I slept incredibly well Wednesday night.
Robberg Peninsula
On Thursday we were meant to teach a lesson at the preschool in the local township. Orca foundation helps out there once a week with a lesson and general support for the staff. The school has between 100-120 kids attending on any day. They are given basic lessons in Zkorsa (local African language) and English, plus two hot meals; breakfast and lunch. We had prepared a program, however, when we got to the school, the space we were to use for the lesson was occupied and the lesson was called off. Instead, we got to work at cleaning up the garden and compose area. We got. quite a bit accomplished. Before heading back into the school to help serve up lunch. I was in charge of ladling out the carrots and cabbage. That is a lot of scooping for 105 plates. The plates also got rice, chicken, gravy and potato. A nutritious and delicious meal. At the end of the meal we were also responsible for washing up the plates and spoons. I had quite the dishpan hands! The really remarkable part was how little food came back on the plates. All the meat and vegetables were gone, only a little bit of rice was left. For most of these kids, this hot lunch will be the last meal of the day.
Friday should have been tree planting, but turned into a double whale watching tour day. This time we had lots of whales. We got to see about 8 brydes whales. They are generally quite shy so we can only get to about 20 metres away from them. However, you can see and hear their blow or spray when they surface. And when they prepare to dive, their backs come arching up out of the water quite a bit. At one point we were quite close to a mother and her calf. We would see this big blow come up and then next to it was a small blow less than half the size.
With the whale watching tours, we go out on large catamaran power boats that hold between 12-20 people. On Central beach there are no docks or launch ramps, so the boat do what's known as a dolly launch and then they beach to return to shore. Now, I have grown up on boats and love being on the water; I have never experienced this kind of maneuvering before. It is a little nerve racking. To launch, the boat is up on its dolly (which is a cradle on wheels), facing towards the water. The dolly is attached to a tractor at the back end of the boat. The tractor driver then drives the dolly, with the boat out in front, as fast has he can directly towards the water. As the dolly and boat enter into the water, the tractor driver then slams on his breaks and the momentum of the force carries the boat off into the water completely. It is quite fun, except if it is choppy, in which case you have a few big bumps along the way. To bring the boat back up on shore the procedure is even more hair raising. Essentially, the boat comes in towards shore until it is about 100 metres away. Then the skipper engages the engines full throttle. You are now racing at about 35 km/h directly towards the beach; which for a boat is the equivalent of a car heading for a brick wall. To trick is to hit the beach as a wave is breaking on it, so you surf up onto the beach as fall as possible before coming to a screeching halt. Then the tractor comes down with the dolly, pushes under the boat, pulls the boat up onto the dolly and drives the boat and passengers up to the top of the beach again. I am sure this set up is common in a lot of places in the world, but for me, full throttle at a beach is just plain crazy!
Beaching the whale boat - yikes!
Saturday and Sunday are off days for this volunteer program. Today, I spent the day sleeping in, having coffee in town, getting a pedicure at the local hotel spa, sipping a cold beer on the terrace off my bedroom, and now sitting on the lagoon beach watch the sun slowly slip behind the hills. Plus tonight, my house coordinator and I will be having a braai (South African BBQ) with some of his friends. Whoo hoo - the life of a volunteer in Plett is rough!
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