Octobeard The Halfway Point

Well ladies and gentlemen October is half over and my octobeard is looking good. For your viewing pleasure.

The last day in Cape Town

My last day in South Africa took me to new heights. After a few cool and cloudy days Table Mountain finally showed its top again and I was going to get up there. I had a quick breakfast and saw B and invited her to join G and I. So with my smuggled PB&Js we were off. This hike is best described as a 90-minute Stairmaster work out on crack. The path is well maintained and tries to be hiker friendly but I was taking steps almost waist high.

It was wonderful having a nice physically active day just before we were about to board the ship for another 6-day journey to Mauritius. The views were beautiful all the way and we stopped often to take the opportunity for photos. G was making great time and was a fair bit ahead of us prompting me to call him a mountain goat. I have since learned that the space between us was merely a self-preservation technique. You see, like the big bad wolf G huffs and puffs as he hikes. He didn’t want us to know, but he later told us and now I’m telling you. You’re welcome.

With G far ahead B and I enjoyed the hike we shared. B has worked at UCLA for the past number of years so we laughingly compared this to hiking Runyan Canyon where you can often find the Housewife of the Hollywood Hills walking with their Starbucks or Red Bulls in hand and cell phones firmly planted on the side of their face. We passed a fair number of groups (which being rather competitive always makes me feel good about myself) but must admit this uber couple that G still curses to this day smoked us. I had asked G to stop for a photo and he maintains that it is for this reason and this reason alone that the couple passed him.

Once to the top a chill was indeed in the air and the clouds were beginning to roll in. I was happy I had my running tights on and quickly pulled my running gloves out of my bag. Some students we saw on top who were very cold were impressed and jealous of my degree of preparedness. (I owe that to my dad). We stopped in the café to get a coffee, eat our sandwiches and warm up a bit before taking a few more photos and looking at some of the educational stuff.

Not long after we climbed into the cable car to ride down the mountain and found our way back to the waterfront. In my final hours I made yet another visit to the mall to pick up a few last things before meeting the staff to work re-embarkation. As we had been prepared for, many of our students took advantage of the tourist friendly port and local bars to indulge in a few final drinks before re-boarding which provided a fair number of laughs and eye rolls as students stumbled up the gangway. With a smile on my face I encouraged them to go have some dinner and sadly our time in South Africa came to an end.


I was sad to leave but I am confident that I will return to South Africa again. In my journeys so far I am more and more tempted to move abroad and become an ex-patriot. At this point Cape Town is on the top of my list.

Cheers,
P

You should be in pictures!

I forgot about this until I was looking in my desk drawer this morning! While E, G, and I were at the bar one night this woman whose name we later learned is Irene asked me if I was a model and said I look like some actor whom I have never been compared to before and I kindly said no, but thank you. I didn’t pay much attention to her but enjoyed the complement none the less. In my incessant people watching Irene and I made eye contact a number of times. A short time later she came across the bar and said “I had it wrong – you look like Keanu Reeves” a comparison I have gotten on a few occasions. She again asked me if I was a model and I said no. She looked to E and G and asked if we were locals and I shook my head and said that I live in Los Angeles. Her eyes lit up and went into her purse and gave me her card and told me to send her some pictures if I was interested.


I know how pompous this sounds but this is not the first time this sort of thing has happened. It is however one of the more legit situations where its not a modeling school looking for me to pay them, or some sketchy guy at a fashion show in SF who said his friend has a clothing line who needs models and then stalks me for a year (but that’s another story). Should I send Irene a few photos and tell her I’ll be back in LA in December?

Cape Town Day 5

Our last full day in Africa was pretty low key. It had been a full few days prior of late nights and really early mornings so I spent time cleaning my cabin and getting my life back in order before going out to the waterfront again. Doing some shopping, sitting at a café having a GREAT bowl of soup and watching people go by and writing out a few postcards.

I have gotten to the point in the voyage where I could really use a weekend. Don’t get me wrong, my job is pretty easy and my days are not difficult but sometimes you just need a day or two to be in your apartment to watch some TV, catch up on personal e-mails, make some phone calls and the such. Well on the ship you are either working or in port. The ship is a totally different place while in port- as it should be. It is calm and quiet (and the internet is much faster) but I feel guilty not spending every moment I have off the ship. Anyway, that morning I made peace with it and allowed myself the opportunity to sleep in and get a few things done. Oh! It was also a bit cold and rainy that day so that only played into my 'stay in my cabin' mood.

I tried to rally the troops to go out that night for our last night in Cape Town but the troops were weary and we had plans to hike Table Mountain the next day so I was asleep a bit before 10pm. I think my body was trying to tell me something.

Kruger 3 day Safari

One of the SAS trips I was most looking forward to was the 3-day safari. Our group of 40 couldn’t all get on the same flight so we were split between a 6:30am departure and an 8:30am departure. I was pleased that I was on the 8:30 flight until I got a call from our field office coordinator at 6:29 telling me that the travel agent made a mistake and I was only the early flight and that I needed to be on the bus in 3 minuets. Seriously! I had packed before going to the bar the evening prior but some of the other 5 students who got the same early call were not so lucky. One student on my jeep ended up only have shorts and t-shirts- and it got pretty cool at times. I think he learned to pack the night before.

After my heart rate returned to normal and I was on the bus to the airport I was excited for our adventure to begin. We had a short layover in Johannesburg before making our way to Nelspruit, in northeastern South Africa. Our layover in J-burg allowed the late group on a direct flight to arrive in Nelsrpuit just moments before us. We all got on the bus and made way to our hotel, the Sabi River Sun Resort which was amazing. After getting situated we climbed into our safari jeeps and made the short drive to the Kruger National Park for our sunset safari

Kruger is the largest game reserve in South Africa covering 7,332 sq miles from north to south and 37 miles from east to west. All the Big Five game animals are found at Kruger National Park, which has more species of mammals than any other African Game Reserve.
As of 2009, the park has counted approximately:
27,000 African Buffalo
350 African Hunting Dogs
350 Black Rhinoceros
4,509 White Rhinoceros
17,797 Burchell's Zebras
500 Bushbucks
200 Cheetahs
300 Common Eland
5,114 Giraffes
5,798 Greater Kudus
3,000 Hippopotamus
1,500 Lions
1,000 Leopards
2,000 Spotted Hyenas
11,672 Elephants
5,000 Waterbuck
9,612 Blue Wildebeest
90,000 Impalas

While I can’t say that I saw all of the animals I am pretty sure I saw all 90,000 impalas. When we began our driver joked that he couldn’t guarantee that we’ll see any animals besides the impalas and we quickly figured out why. They were everywhere. They were the first animal we saw and appropriately so we were very excited but by the end of the three days the impala received no love from my jeep.

The first sunset safari was great and we saw most of the big 5, including a lioness sitting on a rock in the sun. One of the ship psychologists was in my jeep with me and the students were a good bunch. We had a great time and laughed a lot along the way. Getting back to our hotel for dinner we were spoiled with an amazing BBQ and complementary drinks. Some of the students and I watched the soccer games and enjoyed some South African beer before calling it a night. I took a few moments to go outside look up at the clear sky and full moon and as I tried to soak in the experience that I may never have again. Like many times already on this journey I asked ‘what is my life? How fortunate am I?!” I went back to my room and made a few brief phone calls to folks back in the states and fell asleep after an incredible day.

While not trying to disregard the great experience the next day and a half were more of the same, driving through the park, seeing amazing animals and beautiful vistas. One of the highlights of day two was seeing a pack of lions feeding on something they had just killed. While it was rather gruesome as we could hear the lioness ripping the muscle and hide and the breaking of bones of her lunch it was truly intriguing to see animals surviving, as they only know how. Sad to leave but excited to further explore Cape Town we left the hotel and made our way back to the airport for our flight back. I took over 200 photos so i'll share a few of them here with any more on facebook.





The early morning proved to be a challenge for our group so we took turns sleeping between animal sightings


While the impala is a pretty animal, they were everywhere and we lost interest in them just as much as they did of us.
Hi monkey!

South Africa: Octo-beard and Day 1

Before I begin my story of South Africa, I must first welcome you all to October. With October upon us I have decided not to shave for the month and in doing such I am growing an Octo-beard. I’ll be giving updates all month long. (As if I didn’t say enough in my blogs already)

Ok- down to the business at hand:

Amazing, beautiful, wonderful, what else can I say about our arrival to South Africa. If you have been reading along by now you know the drill: wake up early, meet A and E and wait for the sun to rise and our arrival into XYZ port. This time we had a lot of students join us and to be honest I was a little bitter, as if the three of us owned the sun rise experience and the rest of the people joining us are only doing it because they heard how amazing the arrival into Cape Town was. (I’m working with our shipboard psychologist to get over my issues but I am not there yet.)



Anyway, like I said it was beautiful. With a cheer from the students the sun quickly rose and South Africa began its day. We passed Robben Island where Nelson Mandela served his jail sentence; we could see Table Mountain and the soccer stadium, which will hold the World Cup next year. Our arrival into the V&A Waterfront Port was great. No more shuttles or mile walks to the port gates, no more cargo ships next to us. We were literally docked outside a mall and I have the credit card bill to prove it.

The first day I walked the waterfront with A, E, and G checking out the mall, listening to street musicians, buying souvenirs and researching the great South African wine we would enjoy over the next few days and weeks. Now, we have reached the point in the journey where I have begun to miss some things and all week I had been saying how I wanted nachos, so imagine my joy when a group of us went to dinner and they had nachos on the menu! It was a magical experience. The group of us had a great time as usual, loving our first dinner off the ship after a long voyage from Ghana.

After dinner E, G, and I went out to a hookah bar and sure enough our ‘grown ups’ evening was crashed by a group of students as we heard our names screamed from across the bar. Remember the feelings of seeing your third grade teacher outside of school for the first time. It’s like that the first time students see us off the ship in every port. We said ‘Hello’ then tried our best to ignore them and carry on with our conversation and hookah. A while later the students left and we soon did as well, heading for another bar a few blocks away.

The second bar was fun but it didn’t take long to realize that this time, we had come across our students. At that point we threw caution to the wind and knew that we couldn’t win. We danced with them a bit and enjoyed our drinks responsibly while encouraging them to do the same. E, G, and I made our rounds checking out the different levels of the bar and chatted with some locals up on the rooftop patio before I had to surrender for the evening because, you guessed it, I had an early start the next morning.

A Military Escort

For our last day in Ghana I went back into town for lunch and shopping with Ana. The street vendors figured us out very quickly and asked Ana and I if we were from the ship. They told us that many students had purchased things from them and that they would even give us ‘last day deals.’ I bought a few small items but was saying ‘No, thank you’ much more than ‘Yes, please.’ While we had stopped for lunch the sky opened up and a short but heavy rain storm passed through prompting Ana and I to enjoy our spicy chicken sandwich and cokes at a very slow and casual pace.

The rain passed and we continued with our shopping before getting in a cab to take us to the grocery store and post office. The drive was another exercise in faith and fear; a number of the roads had turned into rivers and at best were dotted with small lakes. The cab driver was great and while he did have to ask where the grocery store was multiple times he was patient as I ran in to purchase my two bottles of wine. Going into the grocery store alone was a neat experience and being the only white person in there made it even more so.

Upon reaching the port gate the cab driver could go no further. So Ana and I got out walked through the gates and proceeded to look for the SAS shuttle from the gate to dock 11 where the ship was. Realizing that we had come in a different gate than normal I was prepared to walk but Ana started to ask around as to where we got the shuttle. Various gentlemen in military uniform said they didn’t know anything about a shuttle. Ana explained that we were on the Semester At Sea ship and that we had a shuttle from the gate to the ship. We were passed off to a few different people. "Oh, the tourist vessel" we heard in reply.

We were told to stay where we were and some time later a cab was brought in for us. We told the guy that we were not going to pay a cab and asked if we could just walk to the ship. After a slight hesitation he finally gave us the 'okay' and we began the mile walk to dock 11. While we received many inquiring glances as we did not have a reflective vest on and clearly didn't belong there we just kept walking making way for semi trucks and other equipment. Along the way we were happy to find a duty fee shop and used the opportunity to spend the rest of our cedi. Ana got some chocolate and I got a case of coke. Feeling inspired by the culture and more so my weak arms, I chose to carry my soda on my head.

Overall I was pleasently surprised by my time in Ghana. I really didn't know what to expect so maybe that helped. As our interport student told us, the Ghanaians are very friendly. From tour guides and children, to street vendors and waiters everyone had a wonderful smile on their face and was happy to help. Of the three ports so far I think Ghana would be for first place that I would return to.

The next day we crossed the equator and had a big ceremony to mark to occasion but I'll save that story for next time.

Cape Town here we come!
Cheers,
P