South Africa!

11.1.12

First I would like to say, I'm only an hour ahead of Kentucky! How
crazy is that?!

Secondly, what you've all been waiting for! My times in South Africa!
:) I won't lie, I definitely watched The Lion King the night before we
got into port too haha.

Well the first day in South Africa, my friends and I just walked around
the mall area for a little bit. The port of South Africa reminded me a
lot of the port in Halifax, but the mall area reminded me a lot of
home. We walked around because we had an appointment at 3pm to visit
SANCCOB. SANCCOB is a penguin rehabilitation center for South African
penguins. I found out about it by volunteering at the Newport Aquarium
this past summer, and when realized I would be able to visit, I made an
appointment so my friends and I could!

SANCCOB was really awesome! We saw how they prepare the medication, the
different pens the penguins (and other seabirds) are enclosed in when
they are being rehabilitated, and even got a chance to see some penguins
being fed! We had a chance to see some birds in the ICU, which just
limited their flying capability so that they can be treated easier. The
people we saw feeding penguins were actually volunteers! One girl was
from San Diego, California. It was definitely an amazing experience.
SANCCOB also has some penguins that permanently live there. This is
because they have injuries that are detrimental to survival in the
wild. A couple penguins were missing eyes, one was missing a foot, and
another was missing a flipper! Then there was Rocky, the Rockhopper
penguin who lives there. She washed up on the shores there, and they
don't know which flock she belonged to, so she stays at SANCCOB. We
were allowed to pet Rocky, and I have some great pictures to show everyone!

The second day was much the first, we basically just explored Cape Town
and the area around the mall. There was a little craft market that we
also went checked out. But the third day, a big group of us went on a
safari!! It was at the Aquila Game Reserve. It was absolutely
freezing, however, and it was so cold that the company provided us with
blankets! I have some really funny pictures of my friends and I
huddling together in our bright green blankets. But we saw a ton of
animals! Right off the bat, we saw an elephant! (Did you know an
elephant grows into its skin? Its wrinkly when it's younger, and then
gets less wrinkled the older/bigger it gets!) We also saw ostriches,
zebras, rhinos, hippos, lions, springbok, wildebeests, cheetahs,
crocodiles, and even a leopard, plus more animals! Some of the animals
were put in pens because they couldn't live with other animals, or they
needed special attention. That's the only time when the reserve felt
more like a zoo, but overall, I enjoyed the safari a lot!

The fourth day was probably my favorite overall though. Originally, the
group I was going to go hike Table Mountain with was about 15, and
growing. Due to clouds over Table Mountain, it dropped to 6 other
people, and 4 of them were because I had mentioned it to my friend
Ashlynn, who got a group to go. So basically, it was me and Brett from
the original group. We took a taxi to Table Mountain and began our
hike. It was much different than Mt. Teide, because it was more
stair-like, than a gradual slope. I was definitely feeling it a couple
days after the hike. Well we start climbing, and we get about a third
of the way up, and it starts to rain a little bit. Not a problem,
because it was cooling us off. But the higher we hiked, the more rain
we got, the more it began to storm. We ran into some hikers and two
National Park rangers. The rangers advised us to turn around and head
back down. So what do we do? Naturally, we kept hiking up the mountain
haha. I wouldn't advise it to anyone to do what we did, but we didn't
have time to try again the next day, so that's why we kept going. A few
times, a couple of the people in the group (who don't ever hike) thought
about turning around, be we coaxed them to keep going. The weather was
absolutely horrendous by this point. I literally almost got blown off
the side, but thankfully Brett caught my arm before I got much further!
(Don't worry Mom and Dad, I wouldn't be writing to you right now if I
wasn't alright!) We finally made it to the top, where the winds were so
strong, and the rain was pouring. It literally felt like we were in the
middle of a hurricane, but the point is, we made it to the top!! It was
an awesome bonding experience, and we can say we made it to the top of
Table Mountain, one of the 7 World Wonders!

The last day in port I baby sat for a family that I'm pretty good
friends with here on the ship. They're going to come to Northern
Kentucky over winter break to visit their extended family, and then
we're going to get together one night! I'm really excited.

Overall, I had a great time in South Africa, and I definitely want to
come back because I was unable to shark cage dive and go to Robben Island!

Tomorrow we make it to Argentina! It's been a long 10 day trek across
the Atlantic, and I'm definitely ready to be on land again!

SH