Cape Peninsula Tour

The winds almost blew me down on the Cape of Good Hope.  I had to really brace myself to stand erect.  I couldn't help thinking what it must have been like for those early sailors on wooden sailing ships trying to round this rough cape.  They didn't have a nice warm van they could retreat to in order to escape the wind.  And they weren't sure what was around the corner either!

There were incredible vistas around every corner on this tour, with water of every hue.

As well as visiting the Cape of Good Hope, we drove down to the most southwesterly tip of Africa, and Jamie stood triumphant at the top of the point:






















Some interesting animals also featured on this tour.  We saw a new species of antelope - the bontebok.











And we had a very close-up view of wild ostriches:











The highlight was a view of penguins.  There was a well-marked path to a cove where there were about 2,000 penguins scattered across the beach and mostly among the low-lying shrubs along the shore.  A great little sign pointed the way and soon we were walking through a veritable sand storm down to the shore.

Penguins are fascinating to watch.  Mother penguins were sitting on their chicks keeping them warm, but the chicks were almost as big as the mothers!  They waddle clumsily (is that why a group of penguins is called a waddle?), tip over as they walk, get knocked over by waves rolling into shore, and all in all provide a delightfully comic spectacle.

Cape Town

Our amazing trip to Africa was capped with three days in beautiful Cape Town.  

The Red Line CIty Bus Tour gave us a good sense of the overall city on the first day.  Brisk wind on the top of that double decker, but well worth it for the fantastic views of lovely beaches and thundering waves like in the picture above.  We spent time at the Victoria and Alfred Wharf visiting little craft stores/stalls and having lunch in the sun.  Most pleasant. People are invariably friendly and jovial in the markets; this is the lady I bought some placemats from:

 Cable car to top of Table Mountain closed due to wind, but we had good view from high on the mountain just below the cable car.  In fact, the cable car has been closed for three days, opening for the first time this morning, when we are leaving and too pressed for time to fit in a visit.

Here's a picture of Table Mountain from corner of the street where our guest house Welgelgen was located:

Wind has been a theme during our time here.  The south-easterlies are mainly seen in summer, but we've had a hefty dose of them while here.  Winds that rattle the single-pane windows of the room and make you feel the windows might simply break apart.  Winds that create great swells on the bay.  Winds that make it worthwhile to shoot a video of clouds moving past Table Mountain!  Of course, while we were bundled up in fleecies and windproof jackets, the South Africans were wandering around in shorts and T-shirts.  They are much more adaptable to a range of weather than we are!

Close Encounters

Our Behind the Scenes tour with Marlice included lots of visits to animals.

First we saw the resident tame jackal walk across the yard

Baboons

We watched the big baboons for a while, as they were being fed.  One staff member was watching over two females, to protect them from bullying during feeding time.  Then, Jamie entered the enclosure with the baby baboons.  Cute, tame but naughty.  Sheila pulled off Jamie's glasses and peed on her pants!

Meerkats and Mongooses were next

Porcupine

Of course Wayne and Jamie had to jump into the enclosure with the porcupine!

What a cutie.  It wound around people's legs like a cat.

Then, on to the

Wart hogs

Marlice warned Jamie that getting in with the wart hogs would be a dirty business, but she was undeterred. Three wart hogs full of mud clambered over Jamie and nibbled at her clothes.  It wasn't dirty; it was filthy!   It took three washes to get those clothes clean!!!  But it was certainly worth it to see Jamie's continuous giggling.

Cheetahs

I earlier described the three cheetahs we visited as 'hand-raised'.  We visited them again with Marlice and learned that she got them when they were 3 days old and fit in her hand.  I asked if they were raised right in her house, as we'd been told.  She said "actually, right in my bed!", with her boisterous, infectious laugh.  Jamie just loved revisiting these cheetahs we had met before: Kiki, Aisha, and Iku.  Aisha came and lay down right beside her, to get tickled under her chin and stayed there for perhaps 10 minutes.  Marlice said that Aisha was usually very standoffish with people, so it was unusual to see her gravitating to Jamie like that.

Thus endeth our close encounters with animals so I leave with a last selection of photos.

Jamie with Aisha and Iku:

Jamie with Aisha, the allegedly aloof one:

Conservation through Innovation

Marlice van Vuuren, the dynamo behind N/a'ankuse was our guide today for "Behind the Scenes with Marlice".  Daughter of parents who moved from standard farming to wildlife conservation, she and her husband bought a huge tract of land outside Windhoek in Namibia, to run as a wildlife sanctuary.  As a well-known conservationist in Namibia, Marlice is often sought out when animals are wounded or abandoned.  

She and the rest of the team interact a lot with the farmers, who complain that these wild carnivores are a menace to their livestock.  We often hear of the dilemma of poor black farmers in Africa torn between conservation of these wild animals and the need to feed their families on their farms. However, Marlice points out that the problem is not with the poor black farmers, but with the rich white famers, of German extraction since this is Namibia.  The black farmers don't have problems, because they round up their herds at night and protect them inside thornbush-circled kraals that the predators can't penetrate. Moreover they don't dehorn cows at an early age and thus the mother cows can protect their calves.

Marlice and her team work hard to persuade the white farmers to adopt these practices.  But slaughterhouses deduct 15 cents a pound for cattle with horns (they can gore other cattle in tight quarters) and, with their fast jeeps and their guns, rich white farmers consider it easier to just chase and shoot the predators.  However, they've had many successes and have honed their approaches to win acceptance.

N/a'ankuse also has experimented with various tracking devices for animals in the wild, and particularly for those they have released.  Cheaper VHF transmitters require you to be within 8 Kim's, but the much better GPS trackers cost about 4,000 USD apiece.   Like so many other areas of technology, batteries are the problem; it's their weight that makes the trackers cumbersome for the animals.  

As another innovative approach to tracking, they have developed a software program into which you can feed a photograph of a footprint and have it identified.  They have also experimented with different ways of releasing animals they've saved back into the wild.  They have 100% success with q

'Hot release' of leopards.  Drive to the translocation place, push them out of the truck and out they go and survive.  Marlice says they are like cats, self-reliant, liking humans but not needing them.  Cheetahs need a different approach of slow release. They take them to the target release area and acclimatize them for up to 3 months in a wide range, getting the, ready to go.  They are really sweet, but very dumb, says Marlice, and much more like dogs in their dependence on humans.

It's experimentation like this that leads to their slogan of Conservation through Innovation.

N/a'an ku se is also distinguished by its treatment of workers.  In most camps we visited, workers stay for months at a time, followed by brief visits home to their families.  N/a'an ku se has a much more humane approach of families living there.  They have started a pre-school and kindergarten called Clever Cubs to prepare the Bushmen kids for school.  Their culture has made it difficult for them to flourish in white schools.  Not only do they get thrown into a foreign language, but things we consider important like counting have no equivalent in Bushman - there are no number words past 5.  

We enjoyed visiting the school and meeting kids of the staff we had got to know.  their teacher had them sing a song for us.

N/a'an ku se also supports a bus to take kids to school in Windhoek.  Marlice has a great appreciation and understanding of Bushman culture, and is one of a handful of white people fluent in the language.  I had read about the clicking sound that is part of the language and it was fascinating to hear her speak it.

The cute little school and playground were built by the Jolie-Pitt Foundation after their visit a few years ago.  Jolie and Marlice had met when Marlice was an animal consultant on a movie and she had to breed flies, and then place them carefully on Jolie's face.  Marlice herself is easily beautiful enough to be a movie star herself, and full of exuberance and expressiveness that makes her a completely energizing to be around. 

As we arrived a new batch of volunteers (up to 60 at any given time) had just arrived and were being given their intros to the place.  Some were heading out to check the kms of fencing to ensure the wire was still electrified and bearing shovels to fill in any holes beneath the fence.  Three joined us for a treat when we walked a caracal for about two hours.  I really like caracals.  Unbelievable that you could just walk along with these animals and then all return in the jeep.

Any animals who are in smaller enclosures are taken out daily for long walks, including 3 hour walks for the 52 baboons.

Marlice is on speaking terms with all the animals, calling out with high pitch and high spirits.  She grabs the baby baboons and swings them around in the air, just the way she had swung her own son earlier at the pre-school.  It's such a cliche, but she really is a force of nature.  And multi-faceted.  When I asked who was behind the design of the Lodge and guest villas, she said she was.  They are quite lovely.   Here's the dining room

And here are pics of a guest villa

Very unusual, natural and modern.

And, oh, the interactions with the animals.  I think that merits another post. . .  Coming soon.

Morning Visitors

"Come quickly, Jamie", shouted Wayne.  She arrived to see two visitors in our small backyard and terrace: a donkey and a zebra.  She immediately went outside to see them, and they came up to her and nuzzled her, especially the donkey whom she quickly named Oscar.  Animals just seem to gravitate naturally to Jamie and she to them.  She is equally happy petting them, or tickling them under the chin, or firmly commanding them to back off if they get too aggressive in nuzzlilng her clothes.  Amazing to watch.  Zebras are one of my favourite animals, so I was entranced, but Jamie preferred Oscar because he was friendlier.  I quickly named the Zebra Felix, but Jamie thought he should be Mayer!

These animals stayed on the terrace for about an hour, as we oohed and aahed.

We later heard the back story from Marlice.  Both the donkey and the zebra had been brought to N/a'ankuse after being orphaned. After being looked after they were released into the wild, but remain totally tame with humans, and best friends with each other.  Another benefit of being out in this house about 7 minutes from the lodge, as they never visit the main lodge or villa area.  The duiker who visited us the previous day had a similar story.  It's an odd combination of wild animals - they're out on their own fending for themselves on the veldt - and tame - they were raised by humans and totally comfortable with them.

Cheetahs

Cheetahs - my favourite animal.  Sleek, gorgeous, fast.  What a marvel.

We've had three opportunities to experience cheetahs at Na'ankuse.  On the carnivore feeding tour, we saw two cheetahs through a fence as food was thrown over to them.  (they may be behind a fence, but these animals have huge territory to range over.  It's not like a zoo.)

More exciting was this morning's Walk with a Cheetah.  Kiki is one of three cheetahs who has been hand-raised at Na'ankuse.  Farmers will often trap very young cheetah babies, and put them in a hole to attract the mother cheetah who has been attacking their livestock.  The mother comes to the hole for her young, and is captured and the farmer gets rid of it one way or another.  This time, the mother never came back and the farmer called Marlisse to take the days-old cubs.  They were consequently hand-raised off a bottle and are totally tame.

Kiki arrived in a truck to meet us out in the midde of the veldt.  There were the three of us and a four seniors from Wisconsin just finishing their education degree with a Study Abroad in Namibia.  After a bit of petting and stroking near the truck, Kiki got a bit of food to lead her out onto the veldt.  We walked quite a distance with her as she got bits of food along the way.  She spotted some hartebeest and got distracted to go after them, but mostly we just walked together through the brush and thornbushes.  Solomon told of one time Kiki took off after a baby springbok.  Worried about the demise of the poor springbok, Solomon ran to follow her, in hopes of rescuing the yougn springbok if Kiki attacked.  When the springbok fell, he thought it was finished.  However, when he caught up, Kiki was waiting by the springbok until it got up and started moving again.  These animals have the instinct to hunt, but not the killer instinct and certainly not the skill.

Well, the walk was thrilling, but of course there were 7 people taking turns getting close and patting Kiki.  This afternoon we saw Cheetahs Up Close.  Just the three of us, and three cheetahs, and Johannes the guide.  Unbelievable!

Johannes brought chicken parts along and fed the cats alternately.  He was good at advising how to get pictures with the right angle to the sun and so on.  Kiki, our female friend from the morning, Aisha, another female, and Aiku, the large male, were incredibly tame and approachable.  We spent about an hour with them.  They LOVE being tickled under their chins, just like a house cat.  And they purred constantly, with a deep-throated purr.  All three of us got to pet and tickle.  Jamie fed them some of their food: boy did they stick closely to her after that!  They kept licking her hand even after the food was gone.  They even licked my hand hopefully although I had never had food.   This was truly an amazing experience.  

I have so many pictures from that hour visit, and Wayne has so many videos, I'm torn about how to illustrate this post.  One of the big thrills for me, of course, was watching the intense excitement on my granddaughter Jamie's face.  Her emotion was palpable.

Here she is petting Aiku.

And here the cheetah is licking her hand for the food.

Caracals

We were astonished on our carnivore feeding tour to be escorted into the enclosure where the caracals were.  These had been hand-raised and so were perfectly safe.  They were so soft to the touch, we couldn't get enough of them!

Lions at Na'ankuse

We were standing a meter or so from an electrified fence behind which were three lions.  All of a sudden there was an enormous roar and we all jumped back terrified.  Well, yes, they were behind that fence, but they were awfully close. It was Clarence the male who had emitted such an enormous roar.  

The three lions were related, and left orphaned when young cubs.  They live in a wide open area within that fence, and are fed each day by Na'ankuse staff.  So they know to appear at that spot in the fence every day.  They were the first visit of our Carnivore Feeding Tour here at Na'ankuse, and already the shadows were very long, because the tour had been delayed to accommodate some guests arriving late.  They never appeared, so the lighting was dim, but we did get a tour to ourselves - AND, we're going to get a whole make-up tour tomorrow.

One of the females was in heat and we saw the male mate twice with her.  He's had a vasectomy because Na'ankuse has no license to breed lions, but he hasn't lost the desire.

After a brief few seconds, the female hisses, swats, and drives away the male.

Wild Dogs in Africa

If you're a wild dog and you want to have a pup, you better be the alpha female.  That's the only dog in the pack allowed to have a litter, which will number 15-23.  Any other pups will be killed by the pack.  After the litter is born, the whole pack will swallow food, and then return to the pups and regurgitate it. They are very co-operative animals.

Farmers don't like wild dogs, because they create havoc with their livestock.  One farmer found a litter of wild dogs, and touched the dogs.  After that, the mother will not return to look after them.  A call to Marlisse earned them a home at Na'ankuse.

On our Carnivore feeding tour, we saw them tear apart parts of an Oryx and wildebeest.  We were looking down on them from a viewing platform.  They were like - well - wild dogs!

A Little Bit of Germany in Africa

 If you walked into this breakfast room at your hotel, where would you guess you were?  Germany or maybe Austria, right?  Wrong.  Windhoek, capital of Namibia, which was a colony of Germany until after WW II.  

The whole town has quite a German flavour, mixed with African.  In the middle of Klein Windhoek, you can stand on the corner of Koch Strasse and Nelson Mandela Avenue.  The Germans really didn't treat the Namibians well during colonial times, executing one of the earliest and most vicious genocides of the Herero tribe.  Yet German street names remain.  Very surprising to someone who saw familiar English street names in Montreal get overwritten by French!

African Houses

We walked into a magnificent holiday house at Na'ankuse due to some vagaries of bookings.  Huge four bedrooms, 3 1/2 bath, swimming pool, out at the end of about 5 Kim's of rough road from the lodge.  Gorgeous vista out across the veldt.

Here's the house.

You can see how isolated it is from this picture.  Notice the chimney shaped like a bird.

Here's the room where Wayne and I were.

Here's the dining room.

Beautifully decorated but missing some things we would take for granted back in Canada, like heating and air conditioning and double glazed windows.  Basically you have to be ready to take the weather as it comes, and cope.  It was CHILLY in the morning and late in the evening.

Best of all was our ability to see wildlife right from our yard.  When we returned this morning, there was a duiker visiting in the yard.  Apparently, it had spent a lot of time at the Na'ankuse farm, but had drifted over to our place.  It was not at all skittish, as you can see.

Afternoon Game Drive in Xakanaxa

 In our afternoon game drive, our guide Water took us to a large pond of water with all kinds of birds.  There were yellow-billed and saddle-billed stork, marabou stocks, greater egrets, wattles crane (with wings folded back to look like a long tail) and pelicans.  

We also saw a croc with its mouth open, to cool off.

There was a brief pas de deux as a crocodile swam into shallow water, approaching a group of storks.  They didn't look very worried, as the croc already had a fish in its mouth.  One bird in its direct path took a small step backwards, but other than that, the birds totally ignored the croc.  

When we arrived, there were just two pelicans among the other birds.  

Then more pelicans started flying in from another pond.  They came and they came and they came.  They flew in single file and did a sharp U-turn to land.  As they turned their white wings glinted in the sun against the beautiful blue sky.     

 Spectacularly beautiful.  Soon there were so many, we couldn't figure out how they could fit on the shore.  

We met some people at dinner who had watched from the departure pond, who said that even after such a flock had flown to our pool, there were many left at theirs.

Jamie got a good picture of a Marabou stork

And of a hammertoe

 And of a Grey Go-Away Bird

Since we're on the topic of birds, I'll include two other birds that we loved.  I got a close-up of a starling, a bird whose green iridescence I love.  And those orange eyes are startling.

Jamie had earlier got a great picture of an African roller

OK, let me fly away for now . . .