Aug 3 - Cape Town
Got to visit several outdoor sites and talk to people working on conservation education. Started the morning by picking up our ZA colleagues at Kirstenbosch. We drove from there down the eastern side of the cape to WESSA - the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa - for a talk on what they are doing in environmental ed in ZA. They are an NGO so it was interesting hearing a different perspective.
From there, drove down to False Bay and visited one of the shark spotters. They started 11 years ago as a system to help the surfers in False Bay - they are up on higher overlooks and search for the shadows of sharks (since the Great Whites are big enough you can actually see them). On busy days, there are a hundred surfers in the bay, and the sharks lurk just outside the outside break. They've spotted almost 900 sharks and there has been just one attack and no deaths since the program started.
False Bay is interesting because it is a big bay with cliffs on all sides. it's called False Bay because back during the days of the Dutch Trading Company in the 16th and 17th centuries, ships would go from India around the cape and up to Europe. If they weren't careful in bad weather (lots of fog so they couldn't see very far), they'd go up False Bay thinking they'd reach the point and turn up - and it was a big problem because to turn around they had to wait for the winds to change.
I talked to the shark spotter, who said they don't see that many now - they are all out at Seal Island (in the middle of False Bay) feeding on the baby seals. But on the really busy days in the summer, they spot maybe one each day.
Now was also Right Whale season, but she says oddly they haven't been spotting very many...
From there we drove down to Simon's Town, and visited the Save our Seas Shark Center in Kalk Bay. They are working to educate the public about sharks. From there we walked down to the tide pools where we got a mini-lesson on what we saw there.
Then we drove further south to The Boulders to see the colony of African Penguins. There is a boardwalk that allows us to walk down to the beach and go fairly close to the animals. It was really windy, but I guess that's good because penguins really stink!!
Some of the bird were still quite young, which means they don't go into the water and still have quite a bit of fluff on them. They are more grey and black, not yet the black and white of typical penguins.
Then we drove further down, not quite to Cape Point but cut across to the Western side of the cape. We stopped at a colored township called Ocean View (although there were no views of any ocean!) Its where the people were relocated away from the nicer coastal areas during apartheid. We learned about how poor management has devastated the marine resources - many of the fish species are threatened or already wiped out. There is a lot of poaching, but small scale and traditional fishermen can't follow their livelihoods.
We then went to the Two Ocean's Aquarium where we heard from the WWF's Sustainable Seafood Initiative. They gave us a lecture that they give schoolchildren, including hands-on work with sea urchins. Afterwards we went down to see their large kelp bed exhibit, which was really cool.
Walked from there down the waterfront to the Hildebrand Restaurant - a nice chicken marsala (too much fish for one day!) Overall, a nice day!
August 4 - Cape Town
A cold, rainy day!! Went to KNBG in the AM to meet with the South African teachers and learn about Environmental education in ZA. We also had a workshop with an Active Learning Framework - we all got an environmental issue and had to discuss how to tackle it in the classroom. After a nice lunch we were supposed to go on a service learning project but it started raining very hard. We got a talk on the Working for Water Program, but skipped out on the clearing invasive species project. Instead, we went down to the Kirstenbosch Gift Shop for an hour, then went back for a short game on sustainable fishing using jellybeans in a pond.
The group work finished early, and Candice and I got invited to sleep over at Alicia's so that she wouldn't have to come all the way downtown to pick us up the next day. We picked up some food at the market, stopping also for Candice and I to get some fresh bilton (smoked, cured meat, kind of like beef jerkey).
Alicia's house is nice - much like you'd find in the US, only nobody has heat. The houses are very cold - they keep their jackets on inside, so luckily they have a fireplace/woodstove where we sat. Alicia's brother-in-law Richard came by - an administrator at a private school, and his wife (Julian's sister) is a primary school teacher. So it was nice to hear several different perspectives and experiences.
The interesting story that Julien told us was how in '94, he and his friends (they are all colored) used to go out every Wednesday and find a white guy to beat up. That was their way of releasing the tensions and anger. As Richard and Julien were telling their apartheid stories they were laughing - I asked why, and they said it was so awfully unbelievable that they just had to laugh. I guess that was truly one of those examples of "you have to laugh or else you'd cry."
After dinner we actually went to Alicia's mom's to sleep. She has a huge house in the township - has 2 extra bedrooms. So we slept there. Comfy, but freezing cold. I showered just to warm up but didn't wash my hair because I was afraid of the cold!
Visited Alicia and Julien's school the next day, then had a brai at their house before going back into Cape Town to join the group.
August 6 - Stellenbosch
A free day!! It was an absolutely beautiful day - sunny, with blue skies - so it was perfect for a drive into the countryside. I went with the boys - Jamison, John, Eric, Dave, and Scott - we hired Jerome and his cab for the entire day. We drove up to Stellenbosch to see some wineries - went to Tokara and Meerlust wineries. Then we went to a traditional store, Se Winkel, which looked like something you'd find in the old west or pioneer days. Watched rugby in a pub and found porcupine quills on a walk through the countryside. A great day!
Got to visit several outdoor sites and talk to people working on conservation education. Started the morning by picking up our ZA colleagues at Kirstenbosch. We drove from there down the eastern side of the cape to WESSA - the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa - for a talk on what they are doing in environmental ed in ZA. They are an NGO so it was interesting hearing a different perspective.
From there, drove down to False Bay and visited one of the shark spotters. They started 11 years ago as a system to help the surfers in False Bay - they are up on higher overlooks and search for the shadows of sharks (since the Great Whites are big enough you can actually see them). On busy days, there are a hundred surfers in the bay, and the sharks lurk just outside the outside break. They've spotted almost 900 sharks and there has been just one attack and no deaths since the program started.
False Bay is interesting because it is a big bay with cliffs on all sides. it's called False Bay because back during the days of the Dutch Trading Company in the 16th and 17th centuries, ships would go from India around the cape and up to Europe. If they weren't careful in bad weather (lots of fog so they couldn't see very far), they'd go up False Bay thinking they'd reach the point and turn up - and it was a big problem because to turn around they had to wait for the winds to change.
I talked to the shark spotter, who said they don't see that many now - they are all out at Seal Island (in the middle of False Bay) feeding on the baby seals. But on the really busy days in the summer, they spot maybe one each day.
Now was also Right Whale season, but she says oddly they haven't been spotting very many...
From there we drove down to Simon's Town, and visited the Save our Seas Shark Center in Kalk Bay. They are working to educate the public about sharks. From there we walked down to the tide pools where we got a mini-lesson on what we saw there.
Then we drove further south to The Boulders to see the colony of African Penguins. There is a boardwalk that allows us to walk down to the beach and go fairly close to the animals. It was really windy, but I guess that's good because penguins really stink!!
Some of the bird were still quite young, which means they don't go into the water and still have quite a bit of fluff on them. They are more grey and black, not yet the black and white of typical penguins.
Then we drove further down, not quite to Cape Point but cut across to the Western side of the cape. We stopped at a colored township called Ocean View (although there were no views of any ocean!) Its where the people were relocated away from the nicer coastal areas during apartheid. We learned about how poor management has devastated the marine resources - many of the fish species are threatened or already wiped out. There is a lot of poaching, but small scale and traditional fishermen can't follow their livelihoods.
We then went to the Two Ocean's Aquarium where we heard from the WWF's Sustainable Seafood Initiative. They gave us a lecture that they give schoolchildren, including hands-on work with sea urchins. Afterwards we went down to see their large kelp bed exhibit, which was really cool.Walked from there down the waterfront to the Hildebrand Restaurant - a nice chicken marsala (too much fish for one day!) Overall, a nice day!
August 4 - Cape Town
A cold, rainy day!! Went to KNBG in the AM to meet with the South African teachers and learn about Environmental education in ZA. We also had a workshop with an Active Learning Framework - we all got an environmental issue and had to discuss how to tackle it in the classroom. After a nice lunch we were supposed to go on a service learning project but it started raining very hard. We got a talk on the Working for Water Program, but skipped out on the clearing invasive species project. Instead, we went down to the Kirstenbosch Gift Shop for an hour, then went back for a short game on sustainable fishing using jellybeans in a pond.
The group work finished early, and Candice and I got invited to sleep over at Alicia's so that she wouldn't have to come all the way downtown to pick us up the next day. We picked up some food at the market, stopping also for Candice and I to get some fresh bilton (smoked, cured meat, kind of like beef jerkey).
Alicia's house is nice - much like you'd find in the US, only nobody has heat. The houses are very cold - they keep their jackets on inside, so luckily they have a fireplace/woodstove where we sat. Alicia's brother-in-law Richard came by - an administrator at a private school, and his wife (Julian's sister) is a primary school teacher. So it was nice to hear several different perspectives and experiences.
The interesting story that Julien told us was how in '94, he and his friends (they are all colored) used to go out every Wednesday and find a white guy to beat up. That was their way of releasing the tensions and anger. As Richard and Julien were telling their apartheid stories they were laughing - I asked why, and they said it was so awfully unbelievable that they just had to laugh. I guess that was truly one of those examples of "you have to laugh or else you'd cry."
After dinner we actually went to Alicia's mom's to sleep. She has a huge house in the township - has 2 extra bedrooms. So we slept there. Comfy, but freezing cold. I showered just to warm up but didn't wash my hair because I was afraid of the cold!
Visited Alicia and Julien's school the next day, then had a brai at their house before going back into Cape Town to join the group.
August 6 - Stellenbosch
A free day!! It was an absolutely beautiful day - sunny, with blue skies - so it was perfect for a drive into the countryside. I went with the boys - Jamison, John, Eric, Dave, and Scott - we hired Jerome and his cab for the entire day. We drove up to Stellenbosch to see some wineries - went to Tokara and Meerlust wineries. Then we went to a traditional store, Se Winkel, which looked like something you'd find in the old west or pioneer days. Watched rugby in a pub and found porcupine quills on a walk through the countryside. A great day!
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| Tokara Winery |
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| Weaver bird nests |
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| The hills above Tokara |
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| In Oom Samie se Winkel |
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| watching rugby with the locals |
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