Spaghetti Bolognaise
Trip Start
Sep 10, 2008
1
10
71
Trip End
Sep 03, 2009
Shamwari Game Reserve,
Eastern Cape,
South Africa
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
On the way I remember saying to Hannah that there was no way that I was going to be the first to jump of that group. I also realized as I got platform that I was jumper number 13, just that bit too late to be superstitious! And of course they made me jump first, despite my protests. Before I knew it my feet were tied and I was being edged towards the, well edge. I had rehearsed the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, bungy countdown in my mind a thousand times. So when they only called 3, 2, 1,bungy it meant I spent the first few seconds of my jump wondering what happened to the 5 and 4
Born Free!
. I don't remember how I actually started falling, but I'm pretty sure they pushed me. My next thought was, $@#*! I'm falling and there's nothing I can do about it! Once I got over the whole falling off a bridge thing, I started to enjoy it. Probably the scariest thing I've ever done. There was a great view of the valley, stream and sea though as I was hanging upside down waiting to be rescued and I was very glad that I actually managed to do it!
The day before, a few of us decided to do an abseil. The guide seemed to be just a little bit crazy, and practically ran back up the hill after our first descent after showing us a random cave where layers and layers of evidence of early human existence had been found. We all followed, at a more reasonable pace for first thing on a Saturday morning for another go. It wasn't as scary as the bungy by a long shot, but still the feeling of stopping yourself from falling 40m with just your own grip on the rope wasn't a walk in the park.
On Monday we headed on a local bus to visit Shamwari where the Born Free Foundation is based. The staff from a volunteer project visiting Rocky Road had invited me and another volunteer to stay, and we got a glimpse behind the scenes
Black Rhino
. The highlights had to be seeing three black rhino in the daylight and watching the snake training.When I first heard about the snake training, I had imagined some sort of Indian guy with a pipe and basket in front of him. Instead we got a rubber snake, two lions and some electricity. The news crew came to film as the two lionesses learned to be afraid of snakes (or at least rubber snakes with electric wires running down their backs). It didn't take long for them to learn (funnily enough), as the wire was hooked up to the 9000 volt electric fence. At one point one of the lions jumped straight in the air. It sounds a bit harsh, but the training was necessary as the foundation had lost a lion to a snake bite fairly recently. It was great to watch the whole set up.
In between I had my own "training" as I discovered a scorpion in my room. Pondering what you actually do when you have a scorpion loose in your room I eventually phoned my local friend who told me to put a glass over it. As the scorpion had decided to lodge itself where the floor meets the wall, that was not an option without actually moving the scorpion. After much pondering and after deciding I really wanted to go to sleep now, I shut it in the closet and stuffed a towel under the door in the hope it would prevent me waking up next to a scorpion
Giraffe
. After a long night of waking up, dreaming I was being attacked by scorpions in various different ways I got up, opened the curtains and of course, my little friend had managed to work his way behind there. Not quite the view I was expecting, but this time I managed to get the glass over him so he could be put outside.
Apart from that I watched the staff chase a male elephant out of the car park, and then stood face to face with him for a while as he moved round to another gate and pretended to eat as he watched us watching him. It was fantastic to be so close to him whilst being on foot, if not slightly unsettling knowing that if he wanted to he could easily get through the flimsy but electrified gate.
One of my favorite moments however, belongs to spaghetti, the slightly deranged gemsbok (type of large antelope). We were walking along when my friend told me not to look behind me. Of course I looked and was face to horn with a huge gemsbok who was practically walking on my heels. Slightly startled I jumped out of the way and spaghetti carried on minding his own, or everybody else's business. Turns out he was rescued as a baby and hand-reared. They have tried put him back in the wild but he always comes back, because he seems to think he is either a dog or human or both. So now he wonders round the staff houses with his single horn (the other was mysteriously lost), causing mischief.
