Another miserale day in CT!
Trip Start
Jul 11, 2008
1
7
37
Trip End
Nov 24, 2008
Cape Town,
Western Cape,
South Africa
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Last Thursday (28th) was uneventful as was Friday as there was a cold front here and was very windy and rainy so I stayed in mostly except for Friday afternoon where I walked down to the shops and wandered about abit. I got some bubblewrap to wrap up my giant giraffe! Spent most of Friday afternoon doing that and all the other souvenirs. Thinking I'll definitely have to post back some of it as I bought so much (maybe too much to carry home in the backpack.)
On Saturday we drove to Franschhoek through loads of wine estates here
Fluffy in homepen SANCCOB
. It was a horrible stormy and wet day and we ended up drenched but well worth it to see the place. It's a very quaint little place. Unfortunately I didn't take many photos as it was really awful weather and the mist and clouds were too low for alot of scenery. We drove back the long way through afew Passes, the only one I remember the name of is Franschhoek Pass and along to Stellenbosch, Strand and Grabouw. The mountain scenery there was amazing but the heavy rain made seeing the mountains difficult and we had to cross a bridge which was like a wind tunnel causing the rain to fall sideways and carrying it very fast across the bridge! Was abit terrifying and I should've taken a video of it but I didn't think until after (and I sure as hell wasn't doing that again!) A hairy moment we thought the car may flip up and over the bridge. We did pass a car accident which we were sure must've happened just minutes before as there was no ambulance there yet and it looked like the wind had blown a car over the road.. didn't look promising for the driver.We got back from the drive around 6pm and there was no electricity for afew hours til around half 9 so we played chess by candlelight! I hadn't played for years but was good to use the old grey matter! I think the weather caused the power cut.
On Sunday we didn't do too much as the weather's really odd and with Dani being in work all week it'd be abit much to expect him to be out all weekend too. Also his laptop broke so we went to Bayside to leave it in to get fixed. I got an outdoor windproof fleece as well as I really need more warm clothes here now! It won't go to waste back home though and I can also take it to New Zealand.
Franschhoek
Yesterday I had my first shift in SANCCOB in almost 4 years. It was very hard work but at least they aren't too busy at the moment. They've just over 60 penguins between ICU, Pen 2 and Pen 10. They also have acouple of commies and a Rockhopper penguin. Some fishing boat picked him up nearby and he'll have to go to a local zoo here as he's too far from 'home' for him to be released here and swim back.
It was weird being back at SANCCOB. Alot of the staff have changed. Carole, Lana, Priscilla and Vanessa are still there though. Vanessa is now the CEO! All the other staff are new (ish) but fortunately there was afew international volunteers there as well. Bernard and his wife Val from Toronto who are pretty cool people. Also an American volunteer from Florida who was nice but she was in ICU all day so I didn't get chatting to her so much.
I do have some other news on the SANCCOB front which I don't like posting on here but in the interests of letting people who also used to volunteer here at the same time as me I will have to. I've kept vaguely in touch with Carole since last time, the odd email just and I've often asked after other members of staff. One question I could never get an answer to was how Welcome was or if he was still working there
Franschhoek Pass
. Welcome helped me alot in SANCCOB in teaching me how to be around penguins and how to catch, feed, weigh and bleed them for samples. He also told me the truth about living in townships and what goes on there really and about his Xhosa culture. He taught me alot in the short time I was here and we even had him round to the volunteer house for beers and went out for a meal with him and his nephew Lennox. He was a gentle, sincere and honest guy. Yesterday I found out from a local volunteer who I was working with in Pen 2 that Welcome died afew months after I left. She thinks it was either HIV or TB. His family visited SANCCOB to see where he worked not long after which I'm told was very emotional. I remember that he was originally from East London. I'm very sorry to hear this news as I had let the thought enter my head once before that this may be the reason I wasn't getting answers but I hoped it wasn't true. I don't think it was HIV as I'm quite sure I'd have known if he had it as myself and Welcome often worked in Pen 10 on our own and took lunch. We talked alot and he became a good friend. I'm only sorry I didn't spend more time with him away from SANCCOB.
I don't have any plans for the rest of this week yet, I'm just taking one dat at a time. I do intend to go into the City and do some of the museums I didn't do last time. At the weekend I'm sure one of the days will be driving somewhere on the Western Cape I haven't been before and hopefully the weather will be better.
Now for the second part, more about my emotional journey than the physical one above.
Me and Rocky the rockhopper penguin
Not long after I came home from the internet cafe last Wednesday I got to some serious thinking about this trip and how best to describe it. One thing which sprung to mind was that sometimes you have to go back to realise who you've become. (And no, I wasn't listening to a Stereophonics album at the time!) This thought sums up this trip for me.
Since coming back from Cape Town the first time I could honestly see myself living here in the future. This was my ideal. When I came back and revisited this time in my life it was as much to see if I felt the same way as it was to take a proper break from all that had gone on in my life lately. Life often moves too quickly for us to understand how out perspectives change with each event thrown at us.
Being back here is too man things to describe. It's liberating, relaxing, exciting, terrifying, isolating, lonely and most of all, unexpectedly interesting. Not so must unexpected in this place I'm already vaguely familiar with.. interesting to discover myself. Although I don't really know who reads this and who wants this type of info and who doesn't (particularly those from work perhaps) I feel like I have to explain... The last 4 years since my first trip here I've wandered if I'd be better off moving here. Not financially of course but for my own happiness. I was and have never been miserable with where I was at home and I love spending time with friends and family, they are my world. I was vaguely distracted is all. I realise now that I'm more than happy with where I am (back home) and what I've become in myself. I no longer wonder what it would be like to live here permanently as I do want to stay in NI
View from halfway up Franschhoek Pass
. I think I can finally let go of all the excess baggage I've carried around since my last trip here.I'm proud of who I've become and what goals I've yet to set myself and achieve. I think between this South Africa trip and New Zealand I'll finally be coming home to feel more settled, relaxed and content. My first trip here made me hungrier for travel. This time it has settled my 'drifter' side. This isn't a wasted journey at all and I need to squeeze out the time I have here seeing lots I haven't already. When I return home I know I'll be there mind, body and spirit this time.
Everyone has goals and aspirations, without them we'd be boring. It took me to revisit a time in my past to realise that who I've become and where I'm going is the same thing. I'm very lucky.
