Funny

On my way home from visiting friends on Sunday evening, I got stuck in my first ever DUI checkpoint. I had spent the day at church and visiting in Hillcrest, a town about 12 miles north of where I live. At about 5:00 pm I was headed home and when I was about a 1/2 mile from home the traffic came to a hault. When I got to the front of the line the police officer asked if I had 'had any ciders this evening.' I had never heard that before, but I was able to spit out a 'No Sir.' Luckily he let me go, but it was pretty interesting to have a breathalizer test--thankfully the only thing I had had to drink was a diet coke and some tea! It just makes me wonder what kind of place they would throw an American with a DUI.
It seems like every road over here is being dug up. I guess that they are laying new phone lines and water pipes, so all they do everyday is dig. I think that the process would go a lot quicker if they used some heavy machinery, but they only use manual labor. Well, it just so happens that they are digging right outside of my housing complex. Of course they happen to burst a water pipe so I haven't had any water in the house since I got home from school. I think they are fixing it...so hopefully I will be able to shower tomorrow before school!

Sharks Rugby

I went to a Sharks Rugby game at Absa Stadium. There were tons of people and everyone was braai-ing (our word for bbq-ing). We braaied before and after the game, there were huge fields/parking lots and everyone was eating, drinking and having a great time...it would have been even better if the Sharks won.

Here is a picture of the inside of the stadium just before the game.

Although a bad picture--this remote control dump truck delivers the field goal kicking tee. It drives out onto the field and lets the kicker select the tee and then drives off. I think it is a pretty cool idea.

Blue Balls

Here is a smaller Vervet Monkey, she is one of about 5 that were surrounding my house. I was afraid to leave the door open while trying to take their picture--I didn't want them to sneak inside!

The males have blue balls...I am almost embarrassed for them!

Tick-Bite Fever

Lucky me! After a wonderful week off from school where I was able to travel and see the country, I come home and find that I have been bitten by ticks. I have 3 bites so far, I hope that no more spring up. They are sore, painful, cause a horrible headache and leave your neck and back in pain. I was told that I could get medication or just wait it out which would make me immune to any future tick bites. I decided to go for the meds, hopefully they start to work soon!

Happy Endings

African Sunsets

Here are some of my favorite sunset pictures. Two taken at Camp's Bay in Cape Town and two taken in Hluhluwe.

Robben Island

We took a boat ride to Robben Island, it took about 30 minutes to get there from the water front.

Here is the entrance, now it is only used for tourism and for 'team building' camps for students.

We took a bus tour around the island and then toured the prison on foot. There are about 120 people that currently live on the island. There is a primary school there with 7 students, 2 teachers and one principal. Anyone can send their kids to the school, but they would have to take a boat to the island everyday.

This was Nelson Mandela's prison cell, cell #7. They were given three blankets and a bucket. Mandela was imprisoned here for 17 years and then was transferred to two other prisons after that. The cells were recently painted to help preserve them. It is amazing what a fresh coat of paint can do to a prison cell.
This is where they would S, S & S.

This is where some of the inmates would stay. I think that there would be about 100 inmates in this room. The bunks weren't there in prison times, but they are there now for the student camps that attend the island. The inmates were given two pieces of carpet to sleep on at night.

The Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point

We started our drive around the cape and our first stop was Hout Bay. It is a big fishing area and famous for its Fish & Chips.

Here is some of the local restaurants 'main dish' for dinner. They threw the frozen fish in the back of this pick-up. Yum!

Here is a picture of one of the light houses in the area. I forget where this one was.

On our way to the Cape of Good Hope we saw some wild ostriches. I am not sure how 'wild' they really are, but they seem to produce about 5 billion eggs that people can buy as souvenir's.

Here is the Cape of Good Hope.
I am not sure why the Cape of Good Hope is significant other than what it says below. It was really sunny, it was hard to keep my eyes open for the picture!

This is Cape Point. It is different than the Cape of Good Hope--again, I am not really sure of its significance. Some people say that it is where the Indian and Atlantic Ocean's meet, but my travel book says that isn't true. But it is very neat looking--and so they made it into a tourist trap. Our next stop was Simon's Town. They are known for their African Penguin population.

These penguins are only found in Africa, and they were originally called Jack Ass Penguins because of the donkey sounding noise that they make.

They look basically like normal penguins that we see at the zoo, but they have a pink splotch around their eyes.

Shark Dive

We took a two hour taxi trip to Gansbaai for our shark dive. They have custom built boats with shark-dive cages that attach to the side of the boats.

On our way out, somehow they caught an octopus. Pretty cool to touch, they have some pretty strong suction things on their legs.

This is Dyer Island--there are two islands, one with seals and one with lots of birds and a research station (I am not sure which one is actually Dyer Island.) There were tons of seals on the island and playing in the water.

This is the island with all the birds and the research station. I guess they have people that scare the seals away from this island so that they don't smash all of the bird nests--which is why all of the seals are on the other island.

The water in between the two islands is known as Shark Alley. So, that is where we anchored and waited for our sharks to come.

They attract sharks with some tuna as bait and a 'dummy' seal made from a kick board. They also have a guy in back mixing some 'chum' that is made of blood and guts of fish. I hope that guy gets paid well, it smelled disgusting. You can see a shark fin just above the dummy seal.

Once the sharks are attracted, you put on a wet suit and mask and jump in the cage. The cage can hold 7 people at a time. The cage is 1/3 above the water and 2/3 under water. When the shark spotter see's a shark he hollars and you go under water holding your breath to see the sharks. That day you could see about 3 meters into the water, which some said was pretty good. Here a shark came up close to the cages.

The shark spotter said that we saw three 3-meter sharks and two 2-meter sharks. I guess that is pretty good for this time of year. They said that May is the best month to see sharks in this area.

Remember to keep your fingers and toes inside the cage at all times! Here the shark is attacking the bait right by the cages.

Table Mountain

Here is a picture of Table Mountain from Robben Island.

This is a view looking up at the top of Table Mountain. We took a cable car up to the top and then hiked our way to the bottom. Yes, it was a rocky steep trail all the way down. My legs were killing me!

Here is a picture of part of the city below, I believe that it is Camps Bay--there was an awesome beach there.

This is a picture looking across Table Mountain at Devil's Peak.

Here is a picture from the top of the harbor and the city.

This is a Rock Dassie. They say that they kind of look like rabbits, but they look like big rodents to me. Their closest living relative is the Elephant, and I am not joking. They have collapsable rib cages that help them squeeze into tight spaces.

A picture of me at the top of Table Mountain.