Week Seven. Seven!!

I can't believe I'm in week seven already...next week will be my last week with ORCA. Whhaaaattt. Also, super long post. I apologise.

So on Monday me and Chanel went to Ocean Blue to feed the turtles. We now have three, another one was found in Knysna over the weekend. It has been named Chuw (Chanel Hauvette and Ulrica Williams combined as they are the ones who collected it.) He is very very small and we think may only be a week or so old. He weighs 25g at the moment and 20 - 25g is normally the weight they are born. He is being very stubborn and not eating so we'll have to keep our fingers crossed he will be ok. In the afternoon we went fishing again with Charlie and some other people. Nobody caught anything but it was still fun. Tracy's husband was there and he and his cameraman friend had set up three crab nets and they caught one in each. They were big! I think they were going to cook them. Crab is tasty!

Tuesday in the morning we went on a hike in nature's valley. It is such a beautiful hike and when you get to the beach half way through you're pretty much in paradise. Seriously amazing. While we were there we found a dead bush buck on the beach. It was an amazing find as it's really not normal to find them on the beach! It looked like it had been there a while and we were trying to work out how it might've died. I think Chanel came to the conclusion that it was an old cow so had probably died simply from being old. It could have been brought down by a cat such as a caracal but even then it would have been targeted because it was old. In the afternoon we went to do a beach clean up but didn't really find much. It was a lovely walk on the beach non the less! In the evening me and Hilde went to eat at a Mozambican restaurant. It was delicious. It was nice to catch up with her as I don't see her as much now she's moved out!

On Wednesday we went to Tenikwa to kill alien tree species. This time we were meant to be painting poison on the ones we had already chopped down so that they can't grow back. But they gave us something like organic weed killer instead of proper poison. So we think it was a waste of time and won't work. Oh well. While we were there I helped feed a brain damaged African penguin. He has been at Tenikwa for a while and they think he was hit by a boat which gave him brain damage. So he will never be able to be released as he can't even feed himself properly. He is a very sweet penguin and doesn't bite like the others would. I like him. At one I went diving to finish off my open water course. We finally got in the ocean, yayyy!!!! We managed to do two out of the three dives we had left. So tomorrow instead of going to preschool I'll go and do one last dive and I will finally be a qualified scuba diver! It's very tiring and now my legs ache but it is totally worth it as it's so much fun and just such a completely different world to experience. I'm sad I'll miss preschool because I love the kids there so much but at least I have next week to see them again. In the evening I booked my flight out of South Africa. I had been deciding whether to come back to Plett after being in New Zealand but in the end I decided that I couldn't really afford it. So what I am doing is flying to Sydney to stay there for around a week and then I will head to New Zealand to meet Sophie. I will be so incredibly sad to leave South Africa but I am also soooo excited to for the next part of my trip!

So on Thursday we finally completed our Open Water diving course, yay. I am now a PADI qualified open water scuba diver! We just had one dive left where we had to complete one skill - taking off our masks underwater, putting them back on and clearing them. It was fine apart from the fact my regulator came out of my mouth when I took my mask off, but it was fine! When I go to Australia/Sydney I definitely want to dive there! In the afternoon we went out on a boat but unfortunately didn't see anything which is a shame as it was such a nice day. We are having a heat wave here and it's SO HOT! Today and tomorrow the Sustainable Seafood Trust has been with ORCA, seeing what we are doing and what we are about. They are doing a tour of the coast visiting different towns and organisations and getting people to take Ocean Pledges - basically pledges to look after the ocean environment and fish sustainably. So on Thursday evening we went to an event where the SST people gave a presentation and Tony the big boss of Ocean Blue and ORCA also gave a speech. It was interesting and there was free wine which is always good!

Friday was a nice day. We went to see two performances by the Lunchbox Theatre group. One was the Tree Show about the importance of planting trees and the other was the Whale Show about protecting South Africa's whales. They were in two different schools and they were so good. A lot of it was in Afrikaans but you could easily get the gist of what was going on. In the afternoon we came back to the house, cleaned the van, buried the food waste in the garden so it can compost the plants (which is disgusting and made me want to throw up) and other such things. It was a BOILING day so me Ulrica and Marlies had a swim in the lagoon near the house. It was freeeeezing but lovely and beautiful. In the evening a few of us went to Chanel's sister Louise's 30th birthday party. It was a Great Gatsby themed party so I tried my hardest to dress 1920s like with the limited clothes I have with me! It was a good night.

Saturday was an awesome day. In the morning everyone from the ORCA house (minus Lore, who can't dive) and some people from Pro Dive joined together and did a reef clean up. We managed to get rid of 5kg of fishing crap (lines and hooks and such like) from red bait reef. It was good to go diving again too. Me Chanel, Hilde, Ale and Chanel's dad (who was visiting Plett for Louise's birthday) then went on a seal swim. Again it was a beautiful weather. On a seal swim you get taken out on a small boat to the seal colony at Robberg and you swim with the seals! You wear wetsuits, snorkels and fins and the seals are eeeeeverywhere! They completely surround you. The pups are really inquisitive and playful and come really close. I got a few nibbles from a couple of them but it's only to figure out what you are and it doesn't hurt. Saying that Hilde got bitten on her bum and it even made holes in the wetsuit! Luckily it didn't break the skin! It was sooo much fun and the water was really really clear which made it even better. I was buzzing even before we got the the seals though. As we were on the way to Robberg some dolphins popped up right beside the boat. I automatically assumed they were bottlenose dolphins which still would've been cool but they weren't. They were common dolphins. I hadn't seen them yet and I had resigned myself to the fact I wouldn't be seeing them as it's out of the season for them now. But there they were! I was so happy I pretty much cried. No joke. They are beautiful dolphins with a beautiful yellowish stripe down their side and they are the kind that ride the waves created by the boat, so they get really close. Because we were on such a small boat I literally could have reached out and touched one. It was incredible. I am SO happy I got to see them. Aaaarrrhhhhghghghghgggghhh I love them!!!! After the seal swim went went for lunch which Chanel's dad very kindly paid for. I liked him a lot, he was very nice. In the evening I went to Hilde's flat where she and another Norwegian girl Oda (also like her a lot...maybe all Norwegians are nice?!) cooked us Norwegian meatballs with potatoes and Norwegian peas. They were delicious. I also loved the peas which Hilde and had told me many times that I wouldn't like, but I loved them! We played games and watched a film. It was fun. And we found a MASSIVE spider which wasn't so fun.

On Sunday I had a looooovely lie in (not a lion) and then skyped with Sophie. We chatted about our impending trip to New Zealand (so excited!) and other such things. She's hopefully going to meet me in Syndey and then we'll fly over to Auckland together. Later me Marlies and Lore met a friend at a pub by a river. Again it was a beautiful day and there was live music. It was so nice. Her parents were there and they bought us drinks and then we played mini golf. It was fun. I started off really well and then went super crap. Managed to not lose though, wahey!

So, week seven was a bloody good week! Can't believe I only have one week with ORCA left...

Week Sixxxx

So here I am at my sixth week with ORCA. Mental.

On Monday I did my practical guiding exam. This involves being the guide on an Ocean Blue boat to paying customers. I did it on Gaia, the smallest boat to about 9 people. Of course I wasn't the only crew member on the boat, Nino was skippering. I wasn't really that nervous about speaking in front of people (I do that everyday at my job at home) I just wanted to make sure I got all the information right. And I think I did! I haven't been told if I passed or not yet because Nino who was assessing me had to head straight off when we got back to shore. I'm pretty sure I passed though. After the boat I joined a township tour. Ocean Blue offers these tours to people who want to learn more about the local township Qolweni. (Qolweni is where the preschool is). The tour guide was Aggie who actually lives there. Although I have been there many times before, it was interesting to learn more about the place and see it from the perspective of someone who actually lives there. Back at Ocean Blue we carried out little tasks like cleaning the small aquarium and data entry. Other than that I can't remember. My memory really is bad!!!

Tuesday was Freddie's last day in South Africa, so although he wasn't on the program anymore he joined us on the morning boat trip. We saw a shark jumping out of the water which was pretty cool. I think it was a thresher shark or something like that. After the boat Charlie took us tag and release fishing. We went to a river where we waded in as deep as we could without getting wet and fished! It was really fun. As I'd never fished before I started off with Charlie. He cast his first line and immediately he got a bite. He then handed me the rod and I reeled in the fish. It was so cool! The fish was stronger than I'd expected it to be but I managed to reel it in successfully. We then brought it to shore, put a tag in it, and released it back into the river. I didn't touch the fish, but next time I am determined to! The only other fish we caught that day was one that we were allowed to eat. So we killed it (but cutting off its head, which was really gross) and took it home with us to braai that evening. We then did a beach clean up and got lots of lovely rubbish to sort out and weigh. Because it was Freddie's last night we had a braai, invited people round and got drunk. It was really fun although it was sad to say goodbye to Freddie.

On Wednesday I was supposed to go birdringing again but I had a really dodgy stomach from something I'd eaten the night before (I think!) so I couldn't go which was really annoying as I really wanted to! I spent the day in bed feeling sorry for myself. It sucked.

Thursday was preschool as usual. I was still feeling a bit horrible from the day before but I didn't want to stay in bed again. I was glad I went as it made me feel much better. The kids are the best. After preschool we fed the turtles and then came back to the house to sort through a million CDs. We have to take all the photos of whales and dolphins off them and sort them out into dates and animals. It is going to take a looong time. Last Thursday a new person came to stay in the house. Alejandra is staying for two years and is researching bottlenose dolphins for her phd. So we're sorting out the photos for her to use. In the evening I read my open water diving book as hopefully (weather permitting) me and Marlies are continuing with our diving course at the weekend. Yay!

On Friday we went to feed the turtles like we do every morning and then we came back to the house and learnt stuff about stuff from Dr. Vic. I then sat in the lovely African sun and studied more for diving. Even though it's approaching winter here and sometimes it can get cold, when you're in the direct sunlight it can still be booooiling! Like 10x nicer than the nicest English summer day. I love it. Tracy helped me with the dive tables which can be slightly confusing which was very nice of her. Me and Chanel had decided a few days ago that we should make a design for an ORCA Foundation hoodie. So I started sketching out some ideas for an image to go on the back. I need to refine it but I think it should look quite good once it's finished! In the evening me and Chanel went over to Hilde's new flat (she moved out on Wednesday, which is sad because now my room feels lonely again, but its good she's still in Plett and hasn't left completely!) It's a really nice flat! We had a braai then went to Surf Cafe for a bit but I didn't drink much or stay out too late as I wanted to be fresh for diving in the morning. I'm excited!

Saturday me and Marlies went diving to begin to complete our Open Water course. However the sea was crap and the weather was crap so we spent the whole day doing theory. It was ok at first but got sooooooo boring and my mind began to melt and by the end of the day and I think I was a bit delirious. In the evening Hilde came round and we watched 127 Hours with James Franco. I hadn't seen it before but I know what happened. It was a good film but I only half watched the whole arm chopping off bit. Ew.

Sunday and we finally got to go diving! But the sea was still rough so we had to just stay in the pool and do all the pool stuff, which was fine as we would have needed to do it at some point. I'm definitely getting more used to it now and I really like it and I'm excited for actually being able to get back into the sea and dive for real! Hopefully tomorrow. Depending on the sea. Stupid sea.

BUNGEEEE!!!

On Saturday me and Lore went bungee jumping. It was fricking awesome. I was absolutely terrified but it was totally worth it and I would definitely do it again. I was pretty convinced that I would never do a bungee jump. I didn't like the thought of plummeting head first towards the ground. But seriously it was absolutely awesome and would recommend it to anyone and everyone! We jumped off Bloukrans bridge and it's the highest bridge jump in the world. It used to be the highest bungee jump in the world full stop but there's a higher one in Thailand now. Anyway, it was amazing. And the scenery surrounding it was incredible too.

It felt totally different to skydiving. You obviously free fall for a shorter amount of time but there's no way to compare the two. I'd skydiving is harder to describe because it doesn't really feel like you're falling, it just feels....crazy. But I did feel like I was falling while bungee jumping, although it didn't really feel like the ground was rushing towards you. It was confusing but amazing. Better than any roller coaster for sure. I would totally be up for doing it in New Zealand when I go after leaving South Africa.

That evening we went to a 'white trash' themed party. So we basically tried to look as trashy as possible, which is why in the pictures half my bra is out. I don't dress like that normally, I promise!!! It was good and fun was had by all.

Sunday was quite funny because we had a power cut in the evening. We started freaking ourselves out thinking we could hear creepy noises. But it was all fine and it was fun!

Week Five

I can't believe that I'm already half way through my time with ORCA. It's going crazy fast.

On Monday we went down to Ocean Blue to feed and measure the turtles. Oscar is still doing well and is steadily gaining weight. Elvis is more of a worry as it's more difficult to get him to eat and he's not gaining any weight. We'll just have to keep trying to feed him and hope he starts to improve. We carried out tasks like changing the water in the small tank. Unfortunately we found out later we had put in dirty water from the estuary and had to do another complete water change because of it which was incredibly annoying. We managed to get out on a boat in the morning which is always good. We went out on Fat Boy and saw humpback dolphins. Humpback dolphins supposedly never jump out of the water (or so the books say) but on this trip we saw a mother and calf jump completely out of the water three times. It was so cool as you properly get to see how defined their hump is. I didn't manage to get any decent photos of them jumping but Chanel got at let 2 awesome ones that captured them completely out of the water. It was great!

Tuesday was a bit of annoying day. We were supposed to go to Tenikwa to do alien tree removal but it was raining hard so when we had finished feeding (attempting to feed - they were being stubborn little shits today) the turtles we came back to the house and Ulrica gave me a presentation about ORCA and Ocean Blue's carbon neutral programme. Basically we plant trees to counteract any carbon emissions we produce through running the boats and car and electricity by planting trees. There's a calculator on ORCA's website where you can calculate your carbon emissions for one year and then it tells you how many trees you have to plant in order to cancel that out. You can then buy trees from ORCA and we can plant them for you! It had stopped raining at this point so we went and did a SASS and a beach clean up. Then it rained again so I watched a documentary about how basically our oceans are fucked because of over fishing and fish populations are basically in collapse and if we don't do anything about it soon then we will literally have no fish left. At all. Scary shit. So please make sure if you're going to eat fish that you know that it has come from a sustainable source. I mean in sushi restaurants in London they sell blue fin tuna which is listed as critically endangered. Yet people still buy it. Imagine the uproar and outrage there would be if a restaurant in England started serving orangutan or tiger??! It would be crazy, but no one really bats an eyelid at blue fin tuna because its a fish. Ridiculous.

On Wednesday we went to Tenikwa to do the alien tree clearing that we were supposed to do on Tuesday. It was still cold and a bit wet which actually proved perfect weather for tree cutting. It's fun using the machete and imagining the trees you're hacking down are people you really dislike. It's brilliant fun. After we'd had lunch at Chanel's parents house, we went down to ocean blue and I can't remember what we did. My memory is so bad. Evening we went to Surf Cafe again. It was fun.

On Thursday me and Ulrica went to preschool. We taught them a little bit about what marine animals eat and then we sang lots of songs and the children loved it! They are so cute. In the afternoon we did a rock pool evaluation and then went back to the house. Again I can't remember what we did next. Again, bad memory. I think we sorted out stuff for me and Marlies to go diving the next day.

Friday was a good day. Me and Marlies had decided that we wanted to learn how to scuba dive, so on Friday we completed a course called Discover Scuba where you learn basic stuff and you do one pool dive and one ocean dive. It took a little bit of getting used to and I had a little trouble with my mask, but I really really enjoyed it! The visibility wasn't very good when we went into the ocean but we still saw corals and fish and anemones and sea urchins and other stuff. It was cool. The next stage is to complete our Open Water course. Once you have done that you're a qualified scuba diver with PADI which is recognised all over the world. We're hopefully doing it next weekend.
At 4 that day everyone from the house went paint balling. I was a little nervous that it it would hurt a lot when you got shot but it was actually not too bad. It was really fun but I think my problem with it was that I'm not competitive enough to care who wins. Saying that my team won the most games, which was good.

Week Four!

On Monday we couldn't go out on the boats as the weather was too bad. It was cold and rainy AGAIN. So we fed Oscar (which we actually do every morning) and weighed and measured him. Marlies is joining us this week because the school where she works is closed for the week for the Easter holidays. We cleaned out the small fish tank which took a while as it was filthy. By this time the sun had come out (yay!!!) so it was boiling. We went and did some fishing and prawn pumping in the estuary in the sun. We came back and Chanel appeared (it was her day off) and with her she had another turtle that had been stranded! This one was much smaller than Oscar, was also a male but had all his flippers, which is good. We named him Elvis. He was very weak and tired and wouldn't eat. We are hoping that he improves. We put him into the newly cleaned small tank with Oscar. Fingers crossed.
I was then required to go into the large aquarium to do a 10% water change. I was given this pumpy thing that I had to kind of shove into the gravel and then slowly pull out. It's somehow siphoned off some of the water which went into a tube and was caught by others at the bottom with buckets. I emptied the tank of 40 full buckets of water. I was not all that thrilled to be going in there as for those of you that know me, fish are not exactly my favourite things and I was worried that I would feel claustrophobic in there. But I actually really enjoyed it and it was cool being in there with all those fish!
Once we had come home in order for me to shower and for us to have some lunch, we headed back out again to do a beach clean up along Robberg beach. It was still lovely and hot at this point, until it started to absolutely piss it down. It was the cool kind of tropical rain where the droplets are huge and you get drenched in seconds. There was also a bit of thunder and lightening, but not loads. Once we got back I was freezing so changed into dry clothes and we sorted through the rubbish we had collected. Freddie them decided it would be fun to drench me again with a bucket full of rain water. I was not amused. I still need to get him back (insert evil laugh).

Tuesday was a bit of a write off for me as I had a really horrible migraine. It was the first one I've had for a long time which is good but it was a really bad one, which is bad. I pretty much spent the whole day is bed, woopie!!!

On Wednesday we went on a hike on Robberg. I was still feeling a bit funny from the migraine the day before so I did a super short route. Hilde is now back from Cape Town which is good! In the afternoon we went to Qolweni (the local township) to plant some trees. We were shown where to plant them by the preschool head mistress. We walked around to 10 different houses and planted trees outside and got pictures of the people who lived in the house holding the tree. It was good. One old guy got scared because he thought that Chanel's camera was a gun and that we were going to shoot him!
In the evening we went to Surf Cafe for open mic night. It was crazy busy and there were no tables so went somewhere else and played pool instead. I was crap as usual. I drank too much considering we were supposed to be going out on the boat at 8 the next day! We ended up running around on the beach at midnight and taking stupid photos. It was fun!

Thursday we went out to sea with a guy who is doing research into humpback dolphins. We were out for over three hours and it was really fun because it was really wavy and we were in the smallest boat so we were flung about quite a bit! It was a good trip. We saw loads of bottlenose dolphins and because the surf was so big they were properly jumping out of the waves and surfing along with them. It was awesome. We saw some humpbacks too which is good as that's what the research guy wanted! In the afternoon we had a little lesson from Tracy about research population distribution and the importance of fin profiling and things.

On Friday we went to Nature's Valley to help out with bird ringing. We helped set up long high nets to catch the birds. They were black but as soon as you walked a few paces away they pretty much disappeared which means the birds can't see them which is why they fly in and get caught. We weren't allowed to handle the birds as you need to be trained but we watched as Mark the bird guy put rings on their legs. The rings are so the birds can be identified and populations and things can be monitored. I really really can't remember what we did in the afternoon. I will add it in later if I can remember! Went out in the evening and got very drunk. Everyone left early for various reasons but me and Marlies stayed til the end and had many a fun time.

On Saturday I was very hungover. I hate hangovers. I wish they didn't exist. It was a nice sunny day so we sat outside in the sun. In the evening we went to Charlie's house for a braai. His house is sooo nice and he has a pool, but it was too cold to go in! One of his kids was there with a friend. I think he has ADHD or something and he NEVER gets tired or stops moving. He's a really nice kid.

On Sunday me Hilde and Marlies went horseback riding through Knysna forest. I really enjoyed it but let's just say I'm not a natural rider! The forest was really beautiful. It was nice to be in a totally different sort of place. We got back to Plett around 6, after an interesting journey home, and had a braai. It was good, I like food!