I wanted to
make a blog post yesterday, but with a combination of getting home late in the
day, being really tired, and having little to no wifi connection, I decided to
hold off and make it today. Due to big swells, it’s been about five days since
we last went out on the boat. The weather actually hasn’t been bad, but the
wind has kicked up a very rough sea here in Kleinbaai. Regardless of rain
versus shine, if the swells are too big we can’t go out due to risk of capsizing,
or at least most of the guests that aren’t used to the motion of the sea having
a miserable time. So instead, we’ve spent the past few days going around
Gansbaai, Hermanus, and the surrounding area doing some exploring.
Saturday
morning we received two new volunteers, a father and son from Ireland that are
now living in the flat next to Loryn and me. After they arrived the vols all
piled into the WSP van and headed to Hermanus, where the plan was to visit one
of the vineyards out there for a wine tasting, then spend the evening at a restaurant
in town watching one of the football (and by football I mean soccer because I
basically become British when I travel) games that some people wanted to see.
When we
arrived at the winery I quickly remembered that I’d been there before, on my
last trip here. The winelands of this country are so beautiful- I tried to get
some pictures, but no photo can possibly do it justice. After a couple of hours
of hanging out at that winery while the others did their tasting, we jumped
back in the van and headed into the town of Hermanus where we spent the rest of
the afternoon and most of the evening- we didn’t end up getting home until well
after it had gone dark. When we arrived at the restaurant, there was an England
versus South Africa rugby game about to start, and for the rest of the evening
I had some weird combination of “God Save The Queen” and “Nkosi Sikelel
iAfrika,” the two countries’ national anthems, stuck in my head. See what I
mean? I really lose the American in me when I travel!
Sunday was
mostly spent preparing for a little presentation/festival that the WSP vols and
staff were helping out with for about 100 kids in the nearby town of Kleinmont.
It involved us helping out with things like face painting, reading books to the
kids, and Tom leading a little educational presentation on sharks and
conservation. Yesterday at around ten am we piled in the van again and headed
over to Kleinmont, armed with face paint and lots of cupcakes. There were a
little over 100 kids at this event, most of which were under ten years old, and
according to Jerome most of them have never met people from overseas before, so
hanging out with a bunch of volunteers from places like England, France, and
the US was a big deal for them. A lot of the kids were very small, and like
with Swop Shop, it was kind of emotionally draining but very rewarding to work
with them. We stayed there at the event helping with Tom’s presentation and
painting the kids’ faces until about two in the afternoon, at which point we
passed out cupcakes and headed out.
By that
point we were all hungry, and Hermanus was on the way back anyway, so we
decided to return there and spend the rest of the afternoon eating and
exploring around that beautiful little town. I enjoyed the fantastic view of
the ocean from the side of the cliffs, returned to the spot where I’d caught
the brown shyshark with my bare hands three years ago, and ran into some very
cute rock hyraxes. There’s not a single place in this country that I’ve visited
and not liked, and Hermanus is definitely one of my favorite places here.
This evening
we’re having a braai since a lot of the vols will be leaving soon (sadly
including me), then tomorrow we’re heading back to Cape Agulhas, the
southernmost tip of Africa where I’ve been several times before. So far the
weather looks like we will be able to go out to sea on Friday, which is great
because that means I’ll be able to stay another night. I fly out of Cape Town
on Friday, but I don’t need to be at the airport until two, so if we go out to
sea Friday morning I should be able to go on that trip, then head into town on
the bus with the clients. I’ll try to make one more blog post from here in
Gansbaai before I leave. This post’s food for thought: “Travel makes one
modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.”- Gustave Flaubert
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