Swellendam: June 25, 26, and 27

So Friday was the last day of Bio-Diversity class! We had a great braai on Friday night, it wasn't too cold, and you could keep warm by the fire. After the braai some of us went out to sokkie. I'm not really sure how to describe sokkie, but it's a kind of South African dance. It's kind of like South African swing, or maybe more like quick waltz to Afrikaans line dance music. Like I said, it's hard to describe. It sounds weird, but it's actually a lot of fun. I'm not very good at it! Charl and Jeanine (two of the South Africans) tried to teach me a little bit. We didn't stay out very long though, because our bus for Swellendam was to depart early Saturday morning, at 8:30 sharp.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but our program is actually divided into two groups. "Option 1" is the group that I'm in. In that program you get class credit for three classes. "Option 2" is the other group. They took the first class (South African history) with us, but after that they went off to do their own thing. They're doing a "service learning" program. They still live with us and eat with us and everything, just during the day when we're in our classes they're doing other things. Unfortunately they had to be in Stellenbosch this weekend, so when Option 1 went off to Swellendam, Option 2 got to go to Table Mountain in Cape Town. Next weekend they'll go to Swellendam and we'll go to Table Mountain.

Swellendam, it turns out is a sort of resort town about three hours east of Stellenbosch. It's located along a mountain range, and is really beautiful! We stayed at a place on the Buffeljags River dam. It formed a small lake where you could canoe or kayak if you wanted to. The camp consisted of several cabins and a lodge with a big fireplace, a kitchen, a pool table, and a television (to watch rugby on, of course). The Stormers were playing on Saturday, so we watched that.

The Buffeljags River dam. This was the view just outside of my cabin. It's hard to believe that on the other side of those green mountains is one of the most arid regions in the country, the Karoo! The mountains keep this side green and wet, and block rain from getting to the other side.

 The main building. That's where our TV and pool table were. There was a really nice fire place inside, which we used, especially on the first day when it was pretty cold (there's no central heating). We spent a lot of time sitting around the fire outside though.

 Hanging out on the dock by the lake after going canoeing. It was a little bit chilly on Friday. After a hike we moved to the fire and stayed there for the rest of the evening.

 Here we are by the lodge at night. The fire was really hot and it felt great!

 The camp during the daytime.

 This is a picture of the lake in the morning. Breakfast was at 8:30. At 10 we took a boat ride along the lake.

There's our boat! We stayed on there for a few hours and had lunch. If it was summer time we could have done some swimming from the boat. They took us to a "foefie slide" (zip line, in America). Some people did it, but the water was way too cold! It was in the 50'sF that morning!

 Having lunch on the boat.


















Another picture on the boat. Jan Willem, our program director, put these boat pictures up on Facebook this morning!

That's Luna. She lives with the people who run the campsite. She was a really good dog. She loved to catch things. If you were sitting at the fire she would pick up a small rock in her mouth and drop in on the armrest of your chair to throw to her. She would jump in the air and catch the rock, and drop it. She didn't care about retrieving, she just liked to catch things!

 After lunch they led us on a hike to a waterfall. The hike was about an hour. You could climb up beside the waterfall. It was hard to get up there, you had to climb with your hands, and it was really muddy (it had been raining). The view was amazing! It was tough to get down though!



















After we got back from the hike and boat ride (around 1 in the afternoon) I took a canoe ride with some friends. After that I sat around the fire for a while. I had planned to go on another hike in the afternoon. I had taken my shoes and socks off to dry by the fire (as had most people, our feet got soaked on the hike) and was sitting with my feet up on the stones around the fire pit. Something in the fire shifted, and a log fell. Some of the coals went flying, and one hit me right on the bottom of my right foot. It was such a weird freak accident. I put some  first-aid stuff on it, but it still blistered a little bit. Needless to say I wasn't able to hike that night. I mostly stayed by the fire. That was alright though, because that's where almost everybody was anyway. (The foot is much better today! I can walk on it just fine, but it's still a little sore).

One of the coolest things at Swellendam was that once you got away from the main lodge and the campfire, the sky was amazing! There were no clouds and you could see so many stars. I don't really know many southern hemisphere constellations, but I did remember the Southern Cross from my Astronomy class. It's really easy to spot.

We stayed in Swellendam for two nights. It's nice to have absolutely nothing to do. After cramming two full classes into two weeks it was great of them to give us a nice relaxing weekend away! It was cold on Saturday and Sunday morning, but by Sunday afternoon it was starting to warm up a little bit. I enjoyed getting to spend the weekend outside.

The bus took us out of Swellendam on Monday morning. Instead of heading back west to Stellenbosch though, we drove north through the Oberburg (over mountain) pass into the Kleinkaroo. The Karoo is a desert, it's arid, but shrubs and small trees still grow there. They took us to the town of Montagu Springs. We got to spend the afternoon at one of the resorts in town hanging out in the natural hot springs by one of the mountains.

 It's hard to believe that this is Africa!

 The pools at Montagu Springs. The water coming out of the springs was really great! It felt good on my foot. We stayed there a few hours, and then had lunch and ice cream (even though it's winter it was in the 70'sF on Monday). Then we drove back to Stellenbosch. We got back around 5 on Monday.

Group photo! I'm in the second row near the left. (In my Baylor shirt!) Too bad we took the picture looking directly into the sun!

The third session of classes started today. I'm taking a South African literature and film class (which will count in place of my Baylor required British lit.) It's another small one, only seven students. We're on the top floor of this really confusing building. Class started today with a book called Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee. It's really sad, but then I guess that if the literature that we read in classes in America is tough, literature in South Africa would definitely top it. We discussed it in class today (we got the books on our first day here). It's weird doing a book in a single day, normally we would take a week or more to cover it, but the discussion was actually really thorough. We discussed some South African poems as well. I think that it will be a good class, but I guess I kind of got spoiled last week with my sack lunches and hikes!

Catching up! (June 22, 23, and 24)

It's Friday afternoon, almost 5 o'clock. Dirk is outside setting up the braai, and I just finished four essays for my first class. I finally have a little bit of free time and I thought I'd take a few minutes to put out an update.  It's the weekend! Tomorrow we leave early in the morning for a long weekend holiday in Swellendam (the third oldest city in South Africa after Cape Town and Stellenbosch). We'll get back sometime on Monday.






This week has been almost entirely take up by our classwork. Although, as I said in a previous post I definitely made the right decision in choosing my class. On Wednesday we went with Dr. Nox Makunga (another professor at the university) to learn about the medicinal uses of Cape plants. After a several hour hike in the mountains (it was freezing cold and rainy, but it was a good hike) she took us to Cape Town to visit the markets and learn about the plants from the people who worked the stalls. We also got to walk around the old part of Cape Town for a little while. We were able to walk past the Parliament building (only Parliament is located in Cape Town. South Africa has three capitals, one for each branch of government), as well as Cape Town Castle. After that our class went out for dinner in Cape Town. We didn't get back until around 7 that night. By that time it was about time to leave again for quiz night.

 This is the area (in one of the mountains outside of Stellenbosch) where we went on our hike. You can see the clouds coming in. It was so cold and windy, but it was a really good hike with an incredible view. There were parts where we were walking through plants that were at least two feet over my head!









There was a small waterfall coming down the mountain. It fed into a little spring that we had to cross. I almost fell in, but didn't! That would have been cold! The steam was a few feet wide. Wider than it looks in this picture.





















At the beginning of the week each student got assigned a native South African plant genus to study. Lucky for me I got the Proteaceae! The King Protea is the national flower of South Africa and is as important to them as the Bald Eagle is to Americans. This isn't a King Protea, but it is a close relative. Protea are really common in the Fynbos! I took this picture on the hike to use in my presentation.

After the hike we went into Cape Town to visit the traditional markets. We talked to a lady who sells the plants for a little while, then we had some time to walk around the city before getting dinner and heading back. Here's Parliament.

 This is a picture of Cape Town Castle out my window in the van. When we were actually walking past it it was pouring rain and I didn't want to get my camera out.

 A statue of King Edward left over from British rule (ending in 1961). Queen Elizabeth II was the last queen of South Africa.

 A monument to the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902.

We ate in downtown Cape Town at a Cuban restaurant on Long Street.
















When we got back we had to almost immediately leave again, because we wanted to make it to quiz night. Dirk and his mates make up a team called "The Naked Man" who win almost every week. Last week was no exception, although my team did win one round of the game!

On Thursday our lesson was over the commercial value of South African plants (specifically Proteaceae). Our professor was Professor Lynn Hoffman. Every day after tea break (around 10:30) everyone else had to go back to their lectures and we got to go on one of our excursions. Unfortunately on Thursday it was raining. We were supposed to go to a Protea farm and watch them harvest, but they don't harvest when it's raining. (The Protea are very sensitive to moisture, and if they harvest during the rain they will go bad really fast). Instead she took us to a florist/bakery out in Franschhoek (the next town over) to look at some of the plants. They also had a big bowl of free cookie samples, and we tried a lot! After that she took us to her farm to meet her pet zebra, Kevin. That was one of the best things that has happened so far in Africa! I got to pet a Zebra, and his name was Kevin!

 She and her husband adopted Kevin. He is a rescue Zebra. They have about six horses too. When we first got there Kevin was way on the other side of the field. We were trying to call him with clicks and things but he just ignored us. "How do you call a zebra?" I asked. One of the South African guys, Charl jokingly yelled "Kevin!" but Kevin actually came running when he heard his name.

 He really liked the girls. Prof. Hoffman said that when he was a baby the group that took care of him were all girls. He doesn't trust guys as much.













That's Kevin and his friend. Prof. Hoffman said that they are inseparable.

Me and Kevin! I actually got to pet a zebra. I think that's pretty cool! So this is Africa!














Today we had to do our presentations. Although our class is very informal, it was almost a little bit intimidating. Dr. Dreyer was there, as well as Francois and Kenny (Drs. Roets and Oberlander who took us to the beach at Royals earlier in the week). Nox was there, and Professor Hoffman too. Five professors for six students! It was fun though, the class was very informal and the teachers liked to joke around with the students. We are in this tiny little room, almost a closet, and we had to get up in the front and present our power points.  They all turned out really well though. After tea break today Kenny and Dr. Dreyer took us out one last time to an orchid farm/vineyard to see the different species of orchids. Although this class had nothing to do with my major (actually hardly anyone in that class needed it. We had an engineering major, international relations, criminal justice, education, etc) it was a really great class and I learned a lot. I'm really glad that I took it, because I got to do things that I wouldn't have gotten to do otherwise. I mean, I got to pet a zebra! I think everyone else was pretty jealous when they found out that we did that!

June 20 and 21: Bio-Diversity Trips

I definitely made the right choice! Yesterday we trekked the veldt outside Stellenbosch in the foothills of the mountains. After getting out of class at 11, we had two hours off to eat lunch. The school provides a sack lunch to our class only, everyone else has to get food on their own! At 1 we met up and walked to the mountain. Our teacher and two post-docs, Dr. Roets, and Dr. Overlander, took us around the mountain for a few hours explaining the two main components of the Cape Floristic Region, (Fynbos and Rhenosterveldt) which are both found in the mountains around Stellenbosch. They showed us these little yellow flowers with stems that you could eat. They had a weird sour taste, almost lemony. Dr. Oberlander was the one who led the trip, and he pointed out lots of cool weird things about the plants. The area we were in was mostly Fynbos, but we were able to see a little bit of the much rarer Rhenosterveldt too.

 This is Charl, one of our South African students holding a chameleon that Dr. Roets found (that's Dr. Oberlander in the picture though). It was really cool! This picture was taken while we were still waiting for everyone to arrive. We hadn't even left yet and we were seeing cool things! He didn't really change color that I saw though.

 I got to hold him too. He grabbed onto my thumb. He wasn't slimy or anything, but his feet were really weird and sticky. Cape Dwarf Chameleons only have two toes (maybe all chameleons do, I don't know), so it's hands kind of reminded me of Mr. Spock. After we all got to hold him we released him back near the mountain. Charl named him Chris. At first we all thought that it was named after Chris, one of the Americans in the class, but Charl and Dr. Oberlander explained that in fact there is a famous South African musician named Chris Chameleon.













Here's a picture of the trail that we took yesterday on our hike.

 An example of Rhenosterveldt. It was found in the low laying areas around the foothills of the mountain.

 That's an olive plant. It doesn't look anything like the olives that we're used to though.

 They had us identify this plant by it's distinct look and smell. It's eucalyptus!
















This is a view of the mountain as we're heading back to town.

 This is a picture looking back over Stellenbosch as the sun is setting. It wasn't as dark as it looks in the picture though.

We only had a half day of lectures again today. In the afternoon while everyone else was going back to class we picked up our sack lunches that the school provided for us (grilled chicken!) and met up with Drs. Oberlander and Roets. The school sent a driver too. We got to take one of the Stellenbosch shuttle busses for a drive along the coast, stopping occasionally to look at interesting biological things. The road was really narrow and winding above a really steep cliff, and our driver was going so fast! We were bumping all over the place, it was pretty terrifying! The view was amazing though.

This is what I saw when I looked out my window! We drove through the town of Gordon's Bay on the other side of False Bay from Cape Point. In the distance we could see Cape Town and Table Mountain.












This is a piece of Strandveldt that we got to examine. Luckily the weather was so good again today! It was windy but only a little cool. I didn't even need a jacket.

 Here's the other side of the road. Going up the mountain is some more Fynbos. Fynbos is dependent of fire for survival. It must burn down every several decades or the Fynbos plants will begin to die out. This area was burned around five years ago.

 There's our van parked by the cliffs.

 Another picture that I took out my window as we were driving.

 We turned off from the coast and drove into the Kogelburg mountains

Typical Fynbos plants.

 There was nobody out where we were. You can see our van way down there. There was nobody else on the road!

 We had to hike through the veldt up some of the hills. It got pretty dense in some places, and I was really glad that I wore jeans. In spots it was ankle-high, but in others the plants could be knee-high! I kept thinking about snakes. "You don't have to worry about the mamba snakes here, they're found mainly in Free State and Eastern Cape and up." Dr. Oberlander told us "You're much more likely in the Western Cape to meet a Puff Adder or Cape Cobra". Great! Luckily they're not at all common near populated areas (where we were), and don't like to live near the ocean, so we were ok.


We got back as the others were getting back from their classes too. I think most of them are jealous that they have to sit in lecture all day while we get to go out hiking! We tried to look for whales and dolphins, our teachers told us it was the right time of year to see them, but we never saw any.

Right before we got to Stellenbosch though we had to stop and fill up gas. It was weird! It was like going back in time to the 1950's or something. There was a guy waiting at the pump. The driver gave him cash and told him to fill it up. While the attendant filled the tank he cleaned the windshield too! I asked Charl if that was common. He told me that they don't have any self-servace petrol stations in South Africa, all of them are manned by the attendants!

Anyway, it's Tuesday night! Quiz night!

Bio-Diversity

Today is the first day of our second class! For the first week everyone was together in our South African history course. It was a really good class and Professor Smith, our instructor was really good. One day she even brought in an older man who spoke to us about his experiences under Apartheid.

Today though we broke off into four different classes. My class is Bio-Diversity of the Western Cape. It doesn't help for my major, but it counts as a science course, which I need. Plus the course description sounded really interesting. I am one of six students taking this course. I have no idea why nobody else took it, but Dirk told us this morning that it's always the smallest group, and it's the class that the students have the most fun in.

Our classroom is only a little bigger than a storage closet, but there's only six of us, so it's really fine. Our teacher, Dr. Dreyer is really good. She's important in the Zoology, Horticulture, and Botany department (in South Africa they're called faculties, not departments). She told us at the beginning that she really wants us to learn, and not stress about our grades. There will be an assignment for the end of the class though. Today we each got assigned an indigenous plant family and we will do a presentation and turn in an essay on our plant at the end of the week. Today's lecture was just setting up information about the Cape Floristic Region (CFR as it's called). It's so crazy because there are six major botanic regions in the world. One covers North America and Asia. One covers South America. One covers Africa, and so on. the sixth is found only in a small part of the Western Cape! For such a small area it is incredibly rich and diverse biologically. It's really incredible. It has to do with the unique geographic features and climate of this region.

At 10:30 of course we got to have our tea break where we met up again with the other three classes for half an hour. After that we finished up our intro and she let us out early for a two hour lunch break (that's when I'm writing this). Because we will be going on class field trips some days the school provides us with a sack lunch. Bio-Diversity is the only class that gets lunch provided! I think I picked the right course.

This afternoon at 2 we are going to meet up with Dr. Dreyer again and our class is going to hike in the mountains! I'm glad it rained after all yesterday. I was going to hike up the mountain, but because of the rain I went to Fairview instead (which I would have missed out on had I gone hiking). Now I get to hike up the mountain anyway, and the weather is beautiful. I have my window open and it's sunny and feels great! It's a really good day to be outside, and I feel sorry for all the other students who are stuck inside all afternoon. She told us that for the whole week we only have lectures in the morning. Every afternoon we're out on some sort of excursion!

Fairview

Today is sunday, it's the first free day we've had in the week that we've been here. Some people slept in after the trip yesterday, I didn't want to do that. I can sleep when I'm back in Arlington, and besides, I don't want to mess up my sleep schedule. There weren't too many other people up at 8 for breakfast this morning! When I woke up it was cold and rainy. I had to walk to the ATM at the mall this morning to take out some cash, (it's about two minutes walk away). As soon as I got there it started pouring!


I had really wanted to hike up Stellenbosch Mountain, I know some other guys did too, but it's just too muddy and rainy today for anything like that. Later in the morning the rain stopped and the sun started to come out, but it was still to wet to do anything like that. Instead, some of our South Africans organized a tour of a nearby vineyard and cheese farm, Fairview. It's one of the oldest ones in Africa, founded by the governor of the Cape in 1693, and operated by the French Huguenots. It is one of the most visited sites in the Cape winelands, and is hugely popular with the locals. We couldn't use the school shuttle bus today, so we had to hire a taxi. Taxi's in South Africa aren't what we picture when we think of them in America. They are small busses, with notoriously crazy drivers. It was an experience! The taxi drove us about half an hour outside of Stellenbosch into the countryside. The farm itself is on the foothills of Paarl Mountain. Fairview is especially famous for their goats. One of the main attractions on the farm is the goat tower where the goats live. At fairview they make a ton of different types of goat cheese, and we got to try some samples!

This is the famous goat tower!

One of the goats that lives on the farm.

It had stopped raining, but it was still really dark and cold. We were up in the mountains, and the clouds were really low.

A typical South African taxi. It picked us up outside our dorm and drove us to Fairview and back.