London

The Plane Journey
Sorry I haven't updated my blog for a while I have been busy traveling from South Africa to London on a 12 hour flight that wash't actually that bad.  The weather was lovely and we had all the times figured out and at about 4:00pm we found out our flight was at 6:50pm not 10:00pm!  We raced through the traffic all the way there and made it with the rain pouring down and us getting soaked to the skin.  We made it to our flight and I managed to have a sort of good sleep.

Some Facts about the Olympics
I watched the opening ceremony, which depicted the history of England through the industrial revolution to modern times.  Everybody in England is enjoying hosting the 30th modern Olympic Games.  204 countries are competing (republics etc) in 36 sports.

I will spend my time in England visiting family and friends but I will keep you updated on my journey throughout Europe.  By the way it's the middle of summer in England so I'm getting used to the sun going down at 9:00pm and the sun coming up at 5:00am.  Keep you updated!

Hog Hollow

Journey on the Garden Route (Western Cape)

On the 5-hour drive across to Wilderness we went past some huge agricultural areas that were situated throughout the Cape Town region and neighbouring towns.  The area was colonised by Afrikaners as they migrated north from Cape Town.  They cleared the forests and native fynbos from the land as well as rocks across the large flat valleys between the mountains and the coast. Today they grow rapeseed, wheat, barley and aloe vera (which is very useful against a sun burn amongst other things).  At this time of the year there is plenty of rainfall in the Western Cape, however in the summer months it is extremely dry which means that irrigation in the fields is very important.  They use huge water sprinklers that rotate around in a circle (they have them in NZ as well) and spread the water throughout the crops.  When you fly over these fields that look really freaky as they look like huge round circles, something you might imagine UFO’s created! 

Voortrekkers

Voortrekkers is the South African word for “those who trek ahead”.  They were the early Dutch settlers who arrived in the 1600’s.  They established themselves in Cape Town and you can see evidence of this by the large amount of old houses built in the Dutch cape style houses.  Over time the English also settled in Cape Town as well as French Huguenots.  During the 1830’s and the 1840’s the Dutch “fore-trekkers” migrated north moving into the interior, which is now known as South Africa.  The reason for the mass migration is blamed on British policies, which sought to pacify the indigenous tribes, shortages of land in the Cape and possibly droughts that occurred at that time.  A major factor was clearly that the Voortrekkers were unhappy with life under British rule.  At the end of the 19^th century there was a major war between the British and the Boers, many Voortrekkers joined this fight to avoid British rule.

Relaxing in Wilderness

After arriving safely at Wilderness (which is an extremely small town that is cut in half by a motorway going straight through the middle) we went for a walk on the beach that was just outside our “house”.  It was a long sandy white beach with rolling surf.  I can imagine that in the summer it would be fantastic but when we arrived it was cooling down from the shade of the huge mountains that surround Wilderness. 

Outshoorn and the Caves

The morning after arriving in Wilderness we decided to go to a nearby town called Outshoorn, which was only 1 hour away.  We drove through some very beautiful mountain ranges and witnessed some very interesting rock formations that had been changed under a lot of pressure form the surrounding mountains.  The highland valley was an old river bed covered with red rocks and soil rich in iron.  At the side of the road the large metamorphic rocks lined the road at various angles.  After arriving safely we decided that we would visit the famous Cango Caves that was a seriously fun adventure in the end!   

Cango Caves

The caves are a very famous area and tourist attraction of South Africa since they were inhabited by people that lived around the 1600’s (not the Dutch) the local people were called The San people.  The San were a very superstitious group of people and believed that if they ventured further into the 5.2km stretch of cave it would upset their ancestors and they would not have a happy afterlife.  I definitely hoped that that wouldn’t happen to us when we went inside! 

The cave tour ventures only 1.2km inside the cave and passes through 3 chambers and 4 tunnels that were even harder to get through than the camp caving (I’ll show you some pictures).  We went through our first tunnel, which was called Lumbago Alley.  It was only 75cm high but very wide and went on for about 50 metres, I was told that that was the easiest one so far (they got really, really hard after that). 

The second tunnel was called the Coffin and wasn’t at all very hard and you only hard to go up through a big hole in the ground onto a thin layer of dried calcium carbonate (calcium carbonate is the chemical that comes out of the water in the caves since the caves are made of limestone). 

Our third tunnel was the Devils Chimney and was harder than any other tunnel on camp and was only 27cm high and 1 metre wide and you had to climb up it like a chimney!  It took me 5 minutes to pass and my brother only 2.  My mum and dad took about 10 minutes each but everyone in the end made it through safe and sound (Mr Green take 8PG to Cango Caves next term!). 

Our final tunnel was the letterbox and was the same dimensions as the Devils Chimney.  We had to crawl across an open space on our stomachs and then maneuver ourselves down a slide that was pretty steep.  Once again we all made it through safe a sound but I heard a story that one person earlier this year had gotten stuck and spent 11 hours trying to get out!  He got out by some baby oil and soap; it wasn’t a very pleasant experience for that man!  We sadly finished (well it was sad for my brother and I) and started heading back to Wilderness but before we arrived back at the “house” we stopped at an Ostrich Farm, which was very interesting.   

Ostrich Farm

The farm tour was exceptionally educational and I learnt about all the basic facts about Ostriches, the ones I remember are:

-       No part of an Ostrich is wasted

o   The meat is healthy to eat

o   The skin is used for many purposes including handbags, shoes etc

o   It takes 36 weeks of manual labor to cure the skin, which makes it very expensive

o   The bones are very useful in the Ostriches diet being crushed up and placed back into their feed because of the calcium in the bones

-       Ostriches need lots of Calcium because in the breeding season they will lay one egg every two days for up to 4 months (60 in total)

-       Each egg weighs one and a half kilograms, hence the shell is extremely hard

-       The eggs will take up to 200kg in weight if stood on

-       If the eggs are dropped from a height or jumped on they will break easily, that is what method the eagle uses

-       The father only starts sitting on the eggs if there are 15 in the nest, which is counted by instinct

-       The price for a kilogram of Ostrich feathers was more than a kilogram of gold in the late 1800’s

-       The Ostrich feathers were used for ladies hats, scarfs and fashion accessories

-       Wearing the Ostrich feathers stopped in the early 1900’s partly because people couldn’t wear the fluffy Ostrich feather hats in their new cars

Steve Riding an Ostrich and my Dad Getting Kissed by One

At the end of the tour Steven decided it would be a good idea to have a ride on an Ostrich (poor Ostrich) the name of the Ostrich was Killer, which sounded very inviting.  Steve lasted 7.4 seconds before falling off into the helper’s hands with only a missing leg (jokes!).  The tour guide asked a lovely dwarf Ostrich that was old, featherless, ugly, non-attractive and would like a kiss from my dad and he said, “Yes I’d love too!”  He received the wettest kiss in the world and I got it on video!  (I’ll show when I get back to school).   It was a very adventurous and exciting day and I definitely thought that the cave experience really made me feel like I had actually achieved something.  We finished off the night with a lovely dinner and by the time we had gotten in bed I was thinking (I wonder what 8PG are doing right now?)

Hog Hollow

We left the next morning and continued to our next destination, which was a lodge called Hog Hollow.  It looked very nice and our hut was very modernized.  The dinners throughout the time we were staying there were top quality and we even had time to visit a few places.  We visited the Cat Sanctuary, the Bird Sanctuary and Monkey Land, all only 2 minutes down the road!

The Cat Sanctuary

In the sanctuary that we visited they had Servals also called the “cat of spare parts” (because its spot look like a mix of Cheetah, Leopard), Caracul, African Wild Cats, Cheetahs and Leopards. 

Some facts about the Cats:

-       Cats that are held in the sanctuary are hand reared or brought in injured (poachers will kill the parents of the cats and try to sell the cub)

-       Some of the cats have been there all of their lives because they can’t survive in the wild

-       Cheetahs

o   They are recognised by their spotty body and the “tears” that run down their face starting from their eyes

o   They have back legs in the shape of a dog and eat on their tip toes for a quick escape if there are any predators about

o   They have the ability to run up to 120km/h but only for 500-600 metres otherwise they overheat and die (they are at risk from a heart attack)

-       Leopards

o   They are recognised by their spotty body by have no “tears” and their bulky structure

o   They are very hard to find since they hunt at night and walk during the day

o   They are the only cat to sleep in trees and do that to hide from their prey

o   They are an at risk of extinction due to the significant reduction of their natural habitat

Bird Sanctuary

There are 250 different species of birds inside the Bird Sanctuary; unfortunately we didn’t see all of them. 

I learnt that:

-       The birds are kept in with bird netting, which is hung over the top of the valley as a roof and are supported by pillars

-       There are boardwalks throughout the sanctuary with feeding stations along the way

-       There is also a bridge made with small branches that the birds like to visit

Monkey Land

There are 10 different types of monkeys inside the sanctuary that are constantly cared for and given food. 

I learnt that:

-       Monkey Land is a place where monkeys go if they have been injured or abused by people.  They get monkeys from all over the world

-       Some people buy the monkeys as pets but then find out they can’t care for them or they are too smelly and hard to look after, or they are no longer cute and little

-       They mark their territory by urinating on themselves and rub the urine on the surrounding trees (or furniture)

-       There are no Chimps or Apes in the park because the Chimps and Apes can’t co-exist with each other (Chimps actually eat monkeys!)

-       The Apes can also be very aggressive to humans

Zip Lining

Our second day at Hogs Hollow we ventured out to experience the awesome thrill of the Tstsikama Canopy Tours Zip Line!  If you don’t know what Zip Lining is, it’s when you get a harness on and you sail through the trees on a metal wire between 7 stations and you are about 3 metres in the air.  (Photos can explain it better).  I enjoyed the Zip Lining and definitely would take the time to do it again with 8PG of course! 

I found out that over 50% of money that is made by us paying to do the Zip Lining goes towards supporting the local school and community in the village nearby.   The money is used for clean food and water, feeding children at school, education and training and helps keep the village running, the rest of the profit goes towards making the Zip Lines better!

The Zip Line is an Eco-adventure.  Each Zip line is attached to a large tree but does not have any bolts or nails into the tree.  The cables are wound around the tree using wooden blocks and rubber pads.  As the tree grows the cables are loosened.  When they do this they have to look out for scorpions and spiders that might be hiding behind the rubber!  The forest is an ancient forest that remains unchanged – the Zip Line Company does not touch any of the surrounding trees to make way for the lines.  Animals still roam underneath including Leopard and Servals, monkeys and many birds. 

A Message to 8PG

Dear 8PG,

Hi guys and thanks for all of the comments, I really appreciate having someone to talk to and explain what I have done so far.  I might sometimes not be able to upload and update my blog since I might not have an Internet connection, but when I do I’ll be sure to write something to stop you from worrying that I had been kidnapped or eaten by a lion!  We are heading up to London in a few days time (depending when I send this blog) with my dad and I’ll be writing about the Olympics and what is going on Live!  I hope you guys keep reading my blog and I’ll try and upload as many pictures as I can since uploading a movie takes up to much space!  Mr Green I will keep pushing with my math’s and I have just finished my unit on Expressions and Formulae and I’m starting Equations, which my dad is helping me heaps with J.   I’ve decided to put together a video of movies and pictures that I will make and when I get back to school I will show you guys what I really did close up and personal

See you guys in my next blog

Keep the comments coming (and write your name after the comment)!

From

John

 

Cape Town

The Arrival in Cape Town

We left using a small international airport in Zimbabwe near Victoria Falls on a plane with a destination to Johannesburg.  The flight there was 1 hour long and was from Zimbabwe to South Africa.  We arrived back in the huge Johannesburg airport and collected our bags from storage (that we had left there when we flew to Maun) and hopped on another plane to Cape Town where dad’s cousin Bert greeted us.  It was dark outside when we arrived and we had to go and collect our rental car and when we finally did we spent 30 minutes travelling through the beautifully lit city of Cape Town to Bert’s house, which was situated right on the coast in a place called St James.  A dog whose name was Zuki came out and licked us to death as we exited the car and as soon as I knew where I was sleeping I was so tired I couldn’t even take off my jeans as I collapsed into bed.

Lunch with my Cousins!

It was wet, it was raining, it was windy, all of the things that I didn’t want the weather to be after waking up with a headache at 9:30am in the morning! I was forced out of bed and told to have breakfast since everyone else was ready to go and meet our cousins (well third and fourth cousins). We were going to meet them at a lunch place on the coast of Cape Town near a town called Stellenbosch, which was only 30-minute drive. 

The drive to lunch went past a large number of shantytowns where a large number of immigrants had settled.  They were from neighboring countries such as Zimbabwe looking for a better life.  South Africa has opened its borders and as a consequence there are a large number of people living like this.  The settlement houses are made from anything they can find such as tin and wood.  The houses if you can call them that are shacks around half the size of our classroom.  Extended families live under one roof with no inside toilets and in many cases no running water except for the pump nearby.

I was dumbstruck when we arrived at the table we were sitting at, since a lady, man and a 1-year-old baby who claimed that they were my cousins greeted us and it turns out that they actually were my cousins!  More arrived and more still and by the end I realised that our family wasn’t really that small after all!  The lunch was terrific and my headache was practically gone after having a lovely piece of steak and something to drink.  Our cousin Pippa (who was thirteen) came back home with us and played Murder in the Dark, Hide and Go Seek and enjoyed a lovely soup made by Bert!

The return journey to St James was via Stellenbosch a large town that has a famous university called Stellenbosch University.  The town looked like you were in Holland, the buildings were in the Dutch cape style.  All the signs were in Afrikaans, which is one of the main languages spoken in South Africa.  The Afrikaner people are of Dutch descent that colonised South Africa, starting in Cape Town in the 1600’s.  Most people speak both English and Afrikaans but it is not an easy language to learn.  I guess if you chose to live in Stellenbosch you would have to be an Afrikaner, or be able to speak Afrikaans fluently.

Cape Town and Surrounds

The second day we were in Cape Town we visited the Waterfront, which is in the old docks, similar to the viaduct in Auckland.  We went through the local market place and stopped there with Bert for lunch.  What was of interest on the wharf was a ferry that took tourists to Robben Island.  This is the island where Nelson Mandela was held in prison for 22 years for standing up against the apartheid regime.  Apartheid was the name given to the segregation of people according to their colour.  There were places made around South Africa that separated white people from black people.  For example a public toilet in Apartheid had 4 sections.  One of the sections for black men, another for black women and the other two for white men and white women.  Most restaurants were only for white people and you would only see black people being the waiters, which is another part of Apartheid.  Everyone had to carry around an identification card that told you your name, where you were born and what colour your skin was.  Everybody had to carry one of these with him or her and if you didn’t you could be sent to the police station and have to go before court.  Nelson Mandela is still alive today and turned 95 years old on Wednesday, which is a great achievement.  He was elected Prime Minister of South Africa for a number of years and retired in his 70’s.  He is a major part of history and has sealed his place, as a hero the world will never forget.

In the afternoon we drove to Hout Bay passing through cliff faces made of sedimentary rocks and metamorphic rocks, which my dad explained to me about and I will use in my Science Project.  In a place called Boulders Beach we saw some a large penguins colony that lived all over the side of the hills and on the beach.  The whole bay is only in use for penguins and some other wildlife and you have to pay to go down to the beach.  I also found out about an animal called a Dassie (a rock rabbit), which is a mammal is closely related to an elephant since it has elephant shaped feet but definitely not as big!  Once we had finished looking at all of the animals and watching the burnt orange sun set on the horizon we decided to go back to the house and relax for the rest of the night after yet again another interesting day.

Up Table Mountain

Our final full day at Cape Town was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, the birds were singing and all you could hear were the cars coming past the back of the house.  Today we were going up Cape Town’s famous mountain called the Table Mountain!  After driving below Table Mountain for 1/2 an hour we finally made our way to the Cable Car Station, which was located near the bottom of the mountain - it was definitely a long way up!  We parked the car close to the station with the expert guidance of a parking attendant who are basically self employed people who take it upon themselves to help you out, watch your car and of course expect a tip (of a few dollars).  We queued in the line that was flooding out the doors, no surprise since it had been appalling weather the past few days and people were desperate to make use of the lovely weather.  When we finally went up in the Cable Car I managed to get a great view of the surroundings that were absolutely amazing!  The floor rotated so everybody got a chance to see everything and by the time we were at the top I didn’t want to get off, only to go even higher.  We walked around the flat expanse of the top of Table Mountain and I learnt why the name Table Mountain came about.  It turns out that the top of the mountain is so flat it is like a huge dining table that stretches on for a very long way.  Sometimes went the cloud covers it, it is described as its ‘table cloth’.  We could have stayed all day on the mountain as there are loads of walks however we chose to do a short one instead and then continued back down to the bottom making our way to our next destination, which was the Kirstenbosch gardens.

The Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens

As we walked into the spectacular front gate of the Kirstenbosch Gardens we saw some lovely different types of flowers, ranging from small roses to huge cactuses that were spread all over the property.  They have this term for much of the plants they grow on the craggy rocks and dry conditions called ‘Fynbos’ which means fine bush.  It was amazing and we only had one hour to try and see it all, which was a bit of a disappointment since there was so much to see!  By the end of our experience we were tired and definitely needed to go home, but we knew that we were still going to my cousins house for dinner that night and there names were Nicola, Lloyd and the one year old Baxter. For dinner we had a lovely piece of meat cooked on a Braai (which is the South African term for BBQ but not over gas, but real coals) and talked about what we had done so far in the holidays.  We were sad to leave that night but at the same time excited because the next morning we were leaving Cape Town (via car) across to a place called Wilderness, which is a 5-hour drive up the West coast from Cape Town.

The Dassies or Rock Rabbits!

The Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens

The Cable Car up Table Mountain

The Waterfront in Cape Town