Back in Skukuza

So despite the fact that I've had internet for the past few weeks, I've still been really bad at posting. Here's the latest:

It’s hard to believe that there’s only about a week left to my program. Although I’m sticking around for an extra week to travel a bit, it’s still starting to make me depressed that I will be leaving this country so soon. We’ve been back in Skukuza in Kruger for the past few weeks. It’s been nice coming back here because we were here earlier in the semester so it feels like we already know this place. The past few weeks have been very busy in terms of work. It was a definite change coming from the relaxation of spring break to the final projects of the semester.

As soon as we returned here we started our second Independent Projects. These are our second big research projects of the semester and are a lot longer and more in depth than our first projects. Although the intention for the second project is to explore a completely different topic than the first project, my group had a lot of success with our first project and enjoyed the topic, so we decided to continue with our original research on termites. At first we weren’t sure it was going to work out because basically no one in the history of the program had extended their first project, so our professors were a little skeptical. In the end though, it turned out okay. We went back to the same location of our first study and sampled about 40 more termite mounds to determine the genera of the species living there. We also decided to collect termite samples from wood in order to get a better idea of the overall diversity of termites in the area. The fieldwork went pretty smoothly although in some mounds we dug for about an hour and never managed to get deep enough to actually find the termites. Luckily the weather wasn’t too hot because we had to spend a lot of time out in the field in order to get the samples that we needed. One day we left around 6:30 in the morning and didn’t return to our camp until about 5 that night. Just like the first time, this project ended up involving a lot of time sitting at a microscope trying to distinguish between different termite samples. My professor who was in charge of advising our project wanted us to try to figure out the species of all the samples, in addition to the genera, but we quickly gave that up after we found out that it involved counting individual hairs on the termites’ heads and trying to measure the length of their legs. Although we didn’t have to completely have to rewrite our entire first paper, we had to do a lot of additional analysis and add a lot of extra information. The whole paper (including the appendix) ended up being over 40 pages, so it was such a relief when we finally turned in our final draft.  I’m sure that no one reading this is super interested in the density and distribution of termites in the savanna, so I won’t go into details about our actual results. We still need to present our projects to all of the staff, other students and people who work here in the park, so the work on it isn’t completely done. There’s also the chance that we might continue revising our paper once the program is over in hopes of getting it published at some point. Although coming into this program, termites wouldn’t have been my top choice to study, I ended up becoming really interested in them, so I’m glad that I’ve spent so long on this one project.

Although we haven’t had a lot of free time, we’ve still managed to get in a lot of game drives. I’m realizing that I only have a short amount of time left here, so I’m trying to go out and see animals whenever possible. It’s definitely paid off because we’ve seen some amazing animal sightings lately. The highlight would probably be seeing a lot of lions (including some young ones, and some eating a freshly caught giraffe) because we spent the first two months of the program without seeing a single lion. So now I have officially seen the Big Five in South Africa.  

Technically it’s getting to be winter here, which is weird to think about considering that it is just starting to warm up at home. It can still be really hot here during the day (sometimes hotter than summer at home), although we’ve had a few pretty cold early morning game drives. The idea of winter here is definitely different from the snow and ice of the winter at home. The most noticeable change is that the sun sets a lot earlier now than it did earlier in the semester. We also had a week of very overcast and rainy weather, which is unusual considering that it is supposed to be getting into the dry season here. Although I’m not really looking forward to summer back in the US, I’m glad that I’m basically getting one long extended period of warm weather and missing out on winter entirely.

Links to prior pictures (the Skukuza ones are still in progress):

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.10150574871875078.662251.870290077&l=1cd954e7ca

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.10150580061030078.669795.870290077&l=60e75eb555

 

Spring Break in Cape Town

From last week in Cape Town:

   

  Although we are more than halfway through with the semester, we had our “midterm break” last week in Cape Town. We have only had a few full days off up until this point because this course doesn’t follow the typical schedule of having no class on weekends, so this was our first time with a lot of freedom. We stayed as a group in a hostel  (called a “backpacker” here) near Long Street which is a street with lots of restaurants and shops and is a pretty touristy area.

     I was really impressed by the city itself. It is sandwiched between mountains and the ocean, so it is in a beautiful location. I definitely didn’t get to explore all of it, but the areas that I did see were clean and there were a lot of beautiful old buildings. Compared to cities in the US, it doesn’t seem as developed, at least in terms of skyscrapers and large buildings, although it’s definitely still growing (for example, I drove past the new stadium built for the World Cup). From where we were staying there were a lot of places within walking distance although we had to take taxis often to get to further locations. Although our last two days in the city were scheduled for lectures and class activities, we were free to do whatever we wanted for the rest of the time. So here are the highlights of my time in Cape Town:

·         Climbed Table Mountain: This is one of the major landmarks of Cape Town and is always listed as a must-do thing for visitors to the city. I went with a group of friends and our original plan was to walk from our hostel to the mountain itself, hike up the mountain, walk around the top of the mountain and have lunch, take the cable car down the mountain and then walk back to the hostel. Our day didn’t end up going according to plan though. After we had walked uphill for about 45 minutes to actually reach the base of the mountain we learned that the cable car wasn’t running that day due to high winds. We decided to climb the mountain anyways and hike back down too. The climb itself was kind of challenging and involved climbing up natural rock steps for almost two hours. Once we got about halfway up, the wind started to pick up, which made hiking a little harder. When we finally reached the top, we experienced the full force of the wind. We ate our lunch huddled next to a wall trying to get out of the wind because all of the buildings and shops at the top of the mountain were closed. It was the coldest I have been in South Africa and being at the top of the mountain wasn’t the most enjoyable experience. It also was a very tiring day of walking because once we reached the top we still had to hike back down, plus walk back to our hostel. Overall it was a really good workout and I enjoyed most of the experience.

·         Swam with seals: I went on a snorkeling trip out of a place called Haut Bay in order to swim with Cape Fur Seals. We went out to an area called Seal Islands which is a colony of about 3000 seals. The water was pretty cold, but we were able to wear wetsuits while swimming. The seals have no fear of humans and in fact were very curious. The baby seals in particular would swim right up to us. It also should be noted that these seals are the favorite prey of all the sharks that live around here. Luckily we didn’t see any while swimming though.

·         Toured several vineyards: The area around Cape Town in South Africa is known for its amazing wine, so I went with a group on a biking wine tour. We went on a prearranged tour with several other people. We had a very multi-national group – there were people from Australia, Spain, Germany, Norway, England and Israel. Our tour guide drove us to a town about an hour away; then we got on bikes and rode to the first vineyard. The bike ride was beautiful and took us through the countryside on dirt roads. Unfortunately we were only able to ride to the first two vineyards because the final two were too far to reach by bike. At each of the four vineyards we had a chance to sit down and sample some of their wines (anywhere between 4 and 9 samples). I don’t really know much about wine, but after this tour I’m starting to learn the difference between all of the different kinds. I also don’t really know how to classify a “good” wine, but a lot of the wines we tried won some sort of awards, so I guess some people would consider them to be good.

·         Saw a concert in the botanical gardens: These gardens are some sort of heritage site, I think, so the place was beautiful. We saw some South African band which I had never heard of, but it was a good way to spend the night.

·         Ate lots and lots of good food : This was the first time that we really had the freedom to choose our meals, because they have been cooked for us during the semester. We were given food money that we could budget however we wanted. The restaurants in Cape Town are pretty amazing. My favorite was a place called Café Royale which has some of the best burgers/milkshakes I have ever had. I also got to try sushi and Ethiopian food (thanks to having friends who are more worldly in their food choices) both of which were interesting, although I’d have to say that I liked the Ethiopian a lot more.

·         Visited Cape Point/Penguins: As a class we went to see Cape Point, which is often confused with the Cape of Good Hope which is located right next to it. Cape Point is the southernmost point of Cape Town. On the same day we also visited the beach to go surfing and to a colony of penguins that live nearby. They lived right next to a parking lot by the ocean, so their environment didn’t look too natural, but it was still interesting to see them.

·         Tried to visit Robbin Island (where Mandela was imprisoned): Unfortunately the wind was too strong and the seas were too rough, so our ferry was cancelled. Hopefully I’ll be able to come back to Cape Town at some point, because it’s supposed to be a really interesting tour.

So overall Cape Town was a lot of fun and I would recommend that anyone visit if they are ever in South Africa.  

De Hoop

     Our next location was De Hoop, which is close to the Southern Coast of the country. It took a few hours to get there from Cape Town, but we stopped in a town called Hermanus on the way. It is considered to be one of the best places for land-based whale watching in the world, and as a result a lot of the town is whale-themed. Unfortunately we are here in the wrong season – the whales are down in Antarctica right now. It definitely would have been amazing to see whales while I was here, but this just means I’ll have to visit South Africa another time in the fall, so I can actually see them. The town itself was really nice and reminded me kind of like Cape Cod – lots of little shops and restaurants right by the water. We were able to walk around for a few hours and discovered this amazing café which sold crepes. The water itself was also really beautiful and I was glad to see the ocean again because it’s one of the things that I have missed.

     The place that we stayed in De Hoop is usually used for an environmental education camp, I think. We were in large dorm rooms above a big meeting room, which was been converted into our classroom/eating area. We were also right by a lot of hiking trails, one of which leads to a big cave in the hills with a great view of the area. The area we were in is considered to be the fynbos, which in non-scientific language means that it has special soil and moisture characteristics. It is also one of the most diverse areas of the world in terms of plant species and has a high percentage of species that don’t grow anywhere else. I don’t know much about plants, so I can’t really say what makes these plants so different but most of are low to the ground and seem similar to plants that you might find on a mountain.

     Our time in De Hoop was pretty busy in terms of work. We had two FFP’s, presentations on conservation and a history paper due. I wasn’t in either of these FFP groups, but still had to participate in the fieldwork. The first one was with a scientist from the University of Cape Town who led a project about tide pools. We were trying to determine if the size of the pool and the distance from the water had an effect of the oxygen levels and the species diversity. It was probably the FFP that I have enjoyed the most in terms of fieldwork because it consisted of going to the beach and exploring tide pools for a day. I was responsible for collecting sea urchins, sea cucumbers, whelks, winkles and crabs from the pools for a behavioral experiment based on the oxygen levels in water. Watching the animals and recording their movements wasn’t too interesting, but I really liked being right by the ocean. A huge pod of common dolphins swam by which was exciting because we have the same species at home. We also got a chance to swim once we were done, so I can now say that I have swum in the Indian Ocean.

     The other FFP dealt with a type of insect called a leafhopper, which is nothing like a grasshopper. They are really small and thin, but have noses that are about the size of half their bodies. This project was done with a professor from the University of Stellenbosch, but it was really the master’s project of one of his students. This school is pretty close to where we are, so the professor brought his honors class (basically the last year of college, although they have a different system here) with him to work on the project with us. It was nice to be able to work with new people and here what they had to say about living in South Africa, although it definitely made the place more crowded for three days. That FFP project involved looking at leafhoppers, which are nothing like grasshoppers. They are very small insects with very long noses and are often found on a certain type of plant. The project dealt with figuring out if there was in preference for plant species, or if the type of camouflage could be considered crypsis (meaning that it just blends into their surroundings) or masquerade (meaning that it pretends to be part of the actual plant). The whole day basically involved walking around hitting grasses and trying to capture the leafhoppers. Later in the afternoon we had to spend about 2 hours observing the leafhoppers, which turned out to be extremely boring because they really don’t do too much.

     We actually had a day off during our time in De Hoop so we spent a good portion of the day at a beach. The water was surprisingly warm and I was really impressed by the lack of seaweed. I also had the chance to try surfing because one of my professors is big into it and brought along a few surfboards. It was a lot of fun, and I’m hopefully going to try it out again during our time in Cape Town. We didn’t see any sharks, but the coast of South Africa has one of the highest densities of sharks in the world. In addition, we visited Cape Agulhus, which is the very Southern tip of Africa. Besides that, De Hoop was filled with a lot of work, so I’m glad to be done with in and move on to the fun of Cape Town.

Pretoria and Joberg

So now that I finally have free internet once I again, I can post all of these updates from the past month:

     It’s hard to believe that I’m already more than halfway done with this program – time has flown by. After our time in Mapungubwe, we drove to Pretoria to experience a few days in the city. It was definitely a change to be back in a place with lots of people, buildings and traffic after being isolated for so long. We stayed in a hostel in Pretoria which was on a really quiet street. Although most people stayed in large rooms, I was lucky enough to stay in a small cottage off the main building with several other people. Although we were never actually at the hostel too often, it was still nice to have such a large space to spread out. It was also really nice that the hostel had internet, so I was able to finally check my e-mail once again.

     We were only in Pretoria for two full days, so we were pretty busy. On our first day there we went to the Hector Pieterson Museum which is in a township near Johannesburg called Soweto. Pretoria and Johannesburg are located really near each other, so it didn’t take too long to reach there. This museum was all about black uprising during the Apartheid Era in South Africa. We had learned a little about this topic towards the beginning of the semester, but this museum was very helpful in clearing up a lot of the confusion that I had about the topic. I’ve never officially taken a class on South African history or the Apartheid, so I’ve learned a lot in my time here. That same afternoon we visited the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg. This museum was huge and it took a while to see everything. It basically gave a chronological history of the Apartheid and included a lot of pictures and news clips. There was also a large exhibit on Nelson Mandela’s life, which was really interesting. The subject matter of these two museums definitely wasn’t too uplifting and happy, but they were informational so I’m glad that we got a chance to see them.

     After visiting the two museums we went out to dinner at this really great buffet. When I heard that we were going to a buffet, I kind of expected huge amounts of okay-quality food, but the place we went had some of the best food I’ve had all semester. It was a really small place, so our group took up most of the space. The food was international – a mix of traditional African dishes with Indian and Mediterranean plates. There were also a lot of amazing desserts. Once we finished eating we headed next door to a theater where we saw a play. I don’t actually know what the play was called because we were never given a playbill or anything, but it had to do with a young man growing up during the Apartheid. It was a one-man production without any props, effects or lighting but the actor was really good. I feel like I would have enjoyed it more if I actually understood what was going on. Parts of it were in Afrikaans and other South African tribal languages, meaning that I had no idea what the man was saying. I think a lot of it was supposed to be funny, because a lot of people in the audience were laughing, but I had no way of really knowing.

     On our second day in Pretoria we visited two more sights – some caves and a museum on the Cradle of Humankind. The area that we were in is thought to be where human originated from. The caves that we visited are archeological sites where some early skeletons of human ancestors have been discovered. Right now they are excavating a skeleton known as “Little Foot” that is a complete skeleton of an ancient human ancestor, but they have been working on this for the past 14 years. We didn’t actually get to see the actual archeological site, but the caves themselves were pretty interesting. In one part of the cave there was a huge underground lake. A university tried to map out how big this lake is, but never reached its far limits because it’s so big.

     The museum that we visited was also about the origins of humans. It was definitely geared towards younger kids and there were a lot of school groups there. There were lots of hands-on activities, including this weird boat ride that seemed like it should be in a theme park or something. It was a “journey through the 4 elements of life” which basically consisted of sitting on a boat that went by volcanoes, waterfalls, wind and moving rocks. I honestly don’t know what the point of it was considering it had nothing to do with the rest of the museum, but I’m sure that it is pretty popular with all the kids who visit the museum. There was also a spinning vortex tunnel to walk though, which makes you feel like you are in a spinning tunnel of stars and unable to walk straight. The museum was definitely a change from the kind of depressing museums the day before, but I didn’t really learn much from visiting it.

     On our final day in Pretoria we woke up around 4 in the morning to make a 7am flight to Cape Town. It’s definitely a challenge traveling with 25 college students, but we managed to make the flight on time. It takes less than two hours by air from Johannesburg to Cape Town, so we arrived in the city relatively early. On a side note, I was really impressed that we were served a full breakfast on the plane even though it was such a short flight. If it had been an American flight, we probably wouldn’t have even been given drinks. We only spent a day in Cape Town (we’ll be back after our time in De Hoop) but it was long enough to begin exploring the city. Because we’ll be spending more time there for our “midterm break” I’ll save my descriptions of the city until then, because I’ll probably have a lot more exciting things to write about.