MANUHA: Part Two!

More Giraffes!

You can see how much smaller this juvenile giraffe is here. Again, they were rather close to us, but not nearly as close as before. 

Kudu Dung Games

Below, some of the guys are seeing who can balance a Kudu dropping on their nose for the longest. After they also had a contest for who could spit one the furthest.

My Favourite Antelope: Nyala

There were a herd of Nyala that would always pass through our camp. These are by far my favourite antelopes.  I love their markings and their little puffy tails that tuck between their legs. The males are even more lovely looking but I didn't get a snap of them until Balule...

Animal Behaviour: Giraffe.

I did my individual animal behaviour on an adult, female giraffe. This consists of basically watching a giraffe and writing down what its doing every minute for an hour. Giraffes don't really do much other than browse; eating leaves and just walking around. My giraffe went out of sight and so I then started observing the juvenile giraffe. I then could compare the two giraffes activities and see if they spent a similar amount of time doing each thing (eg. browsing).

Herd behaviour

Another  of our animal behaviour sutdies was 'Herd Behaviour'. We did this on a large herd of  Red Haartebeast. This was similar to the Individual behaviour with the giraffe, however its recordig what the herd was doing every minute. This included recording what percentages of the herd was doing what; running or grazing for example.

After we were done for the day we got a group photo of us in the truck!

... And on to Balule; the dangerous game area...

CAPE TOWN: Part Two!

Nobel Square

We took a stroll down to the waterfront in search for the aquarium! on our way we passed through Nobel Square which is a place to pay tribute to South Africa's Nobel Peace Prize laureates including Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela.  Nobel Square website.

Two Oceans Aquarium

Two oceans aquarium has the worlds largest artificial kelp forest... and it was huge! I didn't quite realise how big the fish could be in that habitat. The aquarium was enjoyable with loads to do, touch tanks were pretty cool, with seaweeds, sea urchins, anenomies to name a few things. Two Oceans Aquarium Website

Cheetah Outreach

Cheetah Outreach was a must on our list of things to do. it was a long drive to get there. However a lovely cab driver that took us all over gave us a very good deal and waited there for a few hours for us as it would take him that long to get to Cape Town and back to get us.

I saw the cubs and one of the adults. the cubs were almost fully grown though and very playful. They also didn't like the odd showers very much which made them very energetic. They usually let you see the meercats but on this particular afternoon you couldn't unfortunately. Cheetah Outreach is an education and community-based programme created to raise awareness of the plight of the cheetah and to campaign for it survival.They also raise Turkish Anatolian shepherd dogs which are placed on South African farms to guard the livestock. This is to try to eliminate the conflicts between farmers and cheetahs. Cheetah Outreach Website

Atlantic Point Backpackers

Our hostel was amazing! I would recommend to anyone to stay there if travelling to Cape Town. Everyone was friendly and theyre so much to do as well as having comfy places to relax other than your room.Atlantic Point Backpackers Website

(Above; our hostel room)

District 6 Museum and National Museum of South Africa

In the afternoon a few of us went to some museums whilst the others went shopping (borrringggg).  first was the District Six museum. Its very small however is was extremely interesting.


When we left the last museum after being told to leave as it was closing, we finally saw table mountain clearly as the fog/mist around the mountain lifted. The peak to the left of table mountain is Devils Peak and the one to the right (which you cannot see in this photo) is Lions Head.

Braai

At the hostel we had our first Braai of the trip. A braai is essentially a South African barbecue. It was delicious! the toasted cheese and tomato sandwiches were oddly the most amazing thing Ive ever eaten! after we played some drinking games, including Flippy cup (or flip-a-cup? everyone called it something different). My team won overall! I think.... I'm pretty sure we did.

Table Mountain

So after getting woken up by a friend coming into our room, surprisingly chipper considering the night before, shouting that table mountain was finally open again. As soon as everyone was awake and presentable we headed up. Two of the guys walked up whilst the rest of us took the cable car.

(Above: View from Cape Town from the bottom of Table Mountain.)

(Above: Me on top of Table Mountain)

(Above:Lions head and Cape town at dusk on the way back down.)

Bye Bye Cape Town...

(Above: Thanks for a 'tidy' time! You absolute 'nutters'! Braai was 'lush'. #Naughty.  -USW 05/06/2014)

The next morning we were leaving to meet our lecturer at the airport and to get on our bus to Karoo. so we signed our names on the wall in the hostel with a string of inside jokes. Their were a few tears as goodbyes were said for some people. It was sad to leave as Cape Town was such a wonderful place, but more adventures were waiting for us!