The Reptile Park

Today we went to the local reptile park. This is a place that is there to teach people about snakes and lizards and turtles. They also have a vet on site who specializes in reptiles so you can bring in injured or mistreated reptiles or snakes found in places that they shouldn’t be and they will take care of them and then, if possible, release them back to the wild. The park had so many different types of snakes, lizards, and turtles; they also had alligators and crocodiles. It was very interesting, especially since right now we are learning about all the different reptiles in the area. We got to watch a black mamba eat a live mouse. That was the best part watching them stalk it, then how quick the snakes moved to bite it, then watch it eat the mouse whole. Truly awesome!

I also got to hold a python, a girdled lizard, a scorpion, feed a Chameleon, and I even held a Baboon Spider, willingly! It was very soft and gentle and felt like velvet. Not gross or scary at all.

Then they showed us how snakes hardly ever bite even when they feel cornered. With a live puff adder he used a stick to demonstrate how close you can get and what you will have to do to be bitten, basically you could accidentally step on a snake and it will try to run away before it will bite. Snakes don’t want to waste their venom on something they can’t eat. Only people who try to kill them usually get bitten. It was an eye opening experience.

A Real South African Experience

You will be all happy to know that I passed my learners license. It was much more difficult than expected and 2 people out of our group did not pass. So they had to go through the process again to rebook another test. Now if I can only pass the driving portion.

When we had finished our exam we were all waiting around to get the test results back when we heard all this shouting going on outside the testing centre. My first thought was there was a fight between one of the hawkers who are the street and a customer but then we saw about 100 kids marching down the street chanting. Thinking it was some kind of school event we watched until they were out of sight and though nothing of it. Soon we could hear glass breaking, more people shouting, and someone mentioned the word Riot. Marty, Kathryn, and Kimball went to check it out. The school kids who were about 12-15 years old were having a riot. Turns out the students were upset because the teachers confiscated their mobile phones since the students spent all their time in class texting and Facebooking and not learning. So the students decided a Riot was necessary. The police came and hauled all the kids off but they did a lot if damage to the street emptying garbage all over it, tons of broken glass, huge rocks through in the middle, car windows broken. I finally saw it on the way home after a lot of it had been cleaned up and it was still a disaster area. Makes it a bit worrying to think this is the future of this Country.

Not All Fun!

As I sit here before bed and write this I can hear the Jackals calling in the night. It’s nothing like you would expect a canine to sound. The sound is more like a mixture of alley cats fighting and small puppies whining. It’s a screechy sad, and lonely call.

But it’s not all fun and games, especially when you have to get a South African license. This is needed so I can drive on the safaris and it IS a process. First they don’t recognize a foreign license so you have to take your learners exam all over again. This time, however, I have to do the driving portion in a Standard after only one lesson. Yikes!

Last week we went to town to register for a Traffic Number, a process that only took 3 hours. You need this number to apply for a learner’s license. Yesterday was spent signing up just to take the written portion of the learners. There were only 8 out of the 16 that signed up yesterday and the other 8 went today because we wouldn’t have had time to get all 16 done in one day.

We were up at 5am, on the road by 6, drove an hour into town to meet the guys who were going to help us through the process, and it is a process. They then drove us to another town another hour away here we spent 3 hours moving from 1 queue to the next. It’s the most complicated system to get a license that any of us ever had to deal with and we haven’t even written an exam yet. They give you an eye exam; take your fingerprints and a digital photo of you even though you still provide them with 4 passport size photos. You go from one waiting line to the next and no one really tells you why you are waiting in each line. This is found out when you get close enough to the front to see what is going on. After all that you just feel annoyed, impatient and like you wasted your whole day for nothing and to top it off Thursday we probably do it all again because that is when we write the learners exam. All in all we never got to eat lunch until 2 in the afternoon and we didn’t go on a game drive today as was scheduled because the day was spent studying for the learners. South Africa, by the way, has a road sign for everything! 17 pages of road signs to learn many of them quite different to Canada’s.

Wish me luck on my written exam I’m not looking forward to it.

Photo (left to right; back row): Kimball, Dario, Declan, Marty, Chris, Trey, Ruth, Suzanne, Katie, Berry, Aislinn, John, Tom, (front) Tim, Me, Kathryn

Rhinos, Lions, and …….GI Jane?

It’s been a very exciting week around here. Yesterday on our game drive we managed to see not only a male White Rhino but also 4 young lions all within about 5 minutes of each other. On our way to the lion sighting we turned a corner and there peeking out behind a bush, you know the way rhinos do, was a very large male White Rhino, it was a sight! We had hoped to see one the first drive and then found tracks the second drive yet he eluded us but then… there he was. Munching away on grass.

After our visit with the White Rhino we drove down the road and around the bend and there we found the lions! Three females and one male, all about a year old and only about 100 feet from where we were. They were so big even though they were not full-grown. It was truly a fantastic sight. Sadly, I was on the wrong side of the vehicle for pictures so my photos are not so great. I’m sure I will get the chance to see them again.

Today we practiced changing tires and doing maintenance on the land rovers but what made today interesting was I finally shaved all my hair off! It’s gone and I think it looks pretty good. Only a little boyish. Ruth, my roommate was kind enough to do it while everyone else watched the event take place. When you have no TV someone getting a hair cut is a big deal! I’m now known as GI Jane.

Why Do Zebra’s Have Stripes?

Well the first week is complete and what an enjoyable week it was. We spent the first day getting to each other and learning the ways of the camp. Our course outline was given which is going to be very hectic and crammed packed but tons of fun by the looks of it.

Wednesday we went on our first game drive and I couldn’t believe all the animals we saw. Here is just a short list: Giraffe, Hippo, Baboon, Zebra, Jackal, Warthog, Wildebeest, Vultures, Storks, Eagles and at night we saw Hyena cubs. So cute!

Thursday was spent shopping for uniforms and registering for a learner’s license. Yes I have to take my learners all over again. I think that’s for the best since they have so many other road signs and they drive on the wrong (left) side of the road. Friday was first aid where we had to treat each other for snakebites, broken arms, chocking, do CPR and all that fun stuff. Even First Aid is more fun here than at home. I learned of some many more ways that I could die from things I didn’t even think about.

Saturday we went to the local lodge for drinks and food where I taught the other students how to two-step and line dance with the basic moves that I know. Everyone seemed to think I was so smart if they only knew how bad I really was.

The food so far has been excellent and I don’t think I have eaten anything strange but I haven’t asked. Don’t really want to know.

So why do Zebras have stripes?
Some theories:
•Camouflage, predators don’t know where in Zebra ends and another begins
•To act as air conditioning with the heat from the black and the cool from the white
•To confuse insects who would land on them. The stripes confuse the depth perception.

I’ve finally arrived!

After a fabulous 2 weeks in England I have arrived here safe and sound in South Africa with no incidents. It was a long journey starting at a 4-hour bus trip from Exeter to Heathrow, than a 17-hour flight including layover from England to Johannesburg, and the last leg of the trip was a 6.5-hour bus ride to the game lodge. Luckily, I was able to sleep on both the buses and the plane so I wasn’t too exhausted when I arrived.

There are 16 people in our group on the course with most coming from England. One from Scotland, Ireland and Whales. Two are from the US and there is even a guy from Brandon Manitoba! So at least I am not the only Canadian.

I room with a girl named Ruth in our cozy round shack with a thatched roof. It only has 2 beds and a closet but it will work.

Erica you will be happy to know that one of the first animals I saw was some giraffe on the side of the road. No pictures yet though.

Well that is all for now we are having Brai that’s South African for BBQ.