Back in Action

Well well well, here I am again apologizing for not keeping up with blogging. I could keep making excuses, but this time I have no good ones so I will just admit to being lazy and impatient with all the typing and uploading. BUT I am back in action and going to try to commit to writing at least once every two weeks- not only to keep friends and family informed about my wanderings through life, but to keep myself on track with what direction I'm headed in :)

I think the best way to cover the past few months is to upload a few (well, a bunch) of my very favorite photos from Cape Town and Mozambique. Of course these photos will never be able to encapsulate my entire experiences in these unbelievable places, but I'm hoping they'll do a somewhat decent job of giving you a little glimpse into what was an absolutely amazing, unique, emotional, challenging, eye-opening and life-changing experience. I met so many people that I will never forget, I learned an incredible amount about the ocean, the species I love, and the threats facing South African wildlife, I was able to dive amongst some of the worlds most beautiful creatures, and I experienced cultures in both Cape Town and Tofo that were beyond what I could have ever imagined and that taught me so much about the world and myself. I can't begin to describe how grateful I was for these experiences and how much they will lend to my future. I fully plan to head back someday, whether it be for graduate school, another internship, or simply an extended vacation. Both Cape Town and Tofo are such incredible places... I am one lucky lady. With that said, here are some of my favorite photos from the last four months or so:


Myself and a few friends before a freeeezing cold wreck dive in Hout Bay


Cool shot of a distorted-looking White from the boat


My Canadian roomie and great friend, Gen


My favorite sea creature :) Junvenile White shark with a rusty hook and line in its jaw.


Me and Gen in Mozambique, first time around. Amazing, warm, crystal-clear water.


The 'rents and I on a game drive at Inyati Game Reserve. Unbelievable experience.


The hippo that emerged from the river right next to us. This guy was hilarious.


Sundowner drinks at a watering hole during our evening game drive


One of many rhinos we were lucky enough to see up close and personal


Male leopard tracking a female to find her cubs in order to kill them so he could mate with her. This guy was on a serious mission.


Male lion eating a young female buffalo, killed by his pride the night prior


Out on Animal Ocean with my favorite Stevo and the fam. So glad they got to meet!


GoPro image of Boulders, where the penguins are. Love this little camera.


Lunch at a beautiful winery, Mont Rochelle, in Franschoek along the Garden Route


Shot of the water and beautiful sandstone at De Hoop Nature Reserve


There were tons of these guys washed up along the shore at Buffelsbaai.. lucky to find this one still alive and moving around in a little inlet off the beach


Cool rock formation at a small secluded beach in Plettenberg Bay


One of many gorgeous sunsets at Llundadno Beach... miss this so much.


Llundadno.. easily one of my favorite places in the world to watch a sunset


Andreas and I at Signal Hill after a windy day hike


Sunset from Signal Hill.. can't be beat.


My little Canadian roomie Jaime and myself before heading out in Cape Town for NYE


My Swedish roommate Karin and me taking a dip at the gorgeous waterfall that was the end to an unbelievable hike in Tsitsikamma National Park


Karin and I about to watch the sunset in Plett


Gorgeous view from a hike near Plett


Yet another unreal sunset at Llundadno Beach. Ahhhh, Cape Town.


View from our hostel in Tofo (second time around)


Casey and me diving in Tofo's crystal waters


My favorite Tom Pound showing off his cool new outdoor shower. At least the water worked in one shower of the house!


Sunset over the swamp area behind Tom, Zoe, Casey, Cassie, and Wade's place


My American buddy Jason and I before a night out in Tofo


Love these people to the moon and back.. so much fun


Happy as can be in my seal suit


Myself and some of my favorite buddies at Fatima's in Tofo.


Jason and I perfecting our beach bum skills


The end of the beach in Tofo near Casa Barry


Local fishermans' boats that they take out every morning at the crack of dawn


English Casey and I at their new Divemaster digs in Tofo


One of my favorite people ever: English Rich. Hilarity.


Myself and another wonderful Englishman. If interested in anything marine/conservation related, check out Aaron's underwater videography/photography/filmmaking/magazine writing at his website: www.aarongekoski.com (won't let me load a link here for some reason) He has some really incredible stuff.


Some crazy kids at our unbelievably delicious braai


Cassie, Wade, and Nick, the lovable Tofo Scuba DM's


Sunset in Moz.. can't get much better than that.

Well, I guess that's about it for now. Like I said, these pictures don't come close to doing this experience justice, but they give a little snapshot of the last half of my time in Africa. Hope you enjoyed them! Seattle updates soon to come :) Love to all!

Playing catch-up!

Wow, am I bad at this or what?! It’s been over a month since I last wrote- shame on me. I apologize to those who have tuned into this blog to see the latest news and been disappointed in my lack of updates. Things have been more hectic than usual around this part of the world and I only now finally have the time to sit and think about all that’s happened over the past month.

First things first, Mozambique was absolutely amazing. Even the treck there, over a period of three days, sitting in the back of a Quantum with 12 people, was amazing. The countryside is beautiful, the people are extremely interesting and inspiring, and the lifestyle is laid back and relaxing. We spent most of our time in Tofo, where the focus was diving, enjoying the sun and sand and socializing at the main meeting point, a bar called Dino’s. I did three dives with a dive shop called Liquid Adventures (which is located right next to the lodge where we all stayed, called Bamboozi Beach Lodge), and each and every one was incredible. The first, on a reef called Sherwood Forest, was my favorite, since within five minutes of being on the reef we spotted an absolutely massive Giant Manta at a cleaning station. The manta was being cleaned by small fish and also feeding at the same time. It had to have a wingspan of at least three meters and swam right up and over my head. Just after that we came across a massive sea turtle, who swam up and over me, got spooked by my bubbles and went straight for the Dive Master, Bula. He didn’t take a chomp, but came close. There were dozens of beautiful reef fish and lots of lobster and nudibranchs as well. Ah, I wish I could remember all the names, but I am so bad with this stuff. Beyond the diving we had lots of rest and relaxation, a really nice braai with everyone one night, and plenty of fun drinking on the beach. I am planning on heading back to Moz in a few weeks for another week or so of diving and fun in the sun with my friend Jason who is visiting from the States. I am really excited to now have my new little GoPro underwater video camera to bring to Moz, thanks to Mom and Dad and my 25th birthday! Hoping to get some good shots on that.

After Moz I spent a week or so back in Cape Town at Save Our Seas, where I continued to work on projects for their educational section and was also lucky enough to get out on the boat with Steve to do some more seal diving. The weather continues to improve around here, despite the wind, and we’ve had plenty of clear, sunny days. My parents, as well as my Aunt Cathy, Uncle Tom, Aunt Minda and Uncle Gary all came to visit me on the 30th of November, and it was a wonderful time. We spent the first few days at a private game reserve called Inyati, and it is most definitely one of the highlights of my time in South Africa. Each day involved getting up at 5 am, eating breakfast, embarking on a morning game drive of about three hours, followed by three or four hours of rest and relaxation (which I spent in the pool and on the lawn), followed by more food, an afternoon game drive, and sundowners before an hour or so of a night game drive. Our guide’s name was George, and he had been at Inyati for over 25 years and knew the place like the back of his hand. We were in an uncovered land rover that literally drove over trees, down into ditches and through rivers with crocs swimming in them. Within the first few hours of driving on our first day we saw a pride of lions, leopard, rhino, elephant and buffalo. Throughout the week we sat among a herd of buffalo (literally within three feet of them), next to a hippo in a river, watched a pride of lion feed on their previous night’s kill within 10 feet of our vehicle, and also tracked a leopard while she was fleeing from a male leopard. Unbelievable.

PS… just to throw this out there.. I am currently watching a show called Sharkman on Animal Planet, featuring a man named Mike Rutzen. Mike is the uncle of my friend Morne Hardenburg, who is in the water filming Mike while he dives with the White sharks. The footage is incredible, and they are diving with 8 large White sharks surrounding them. They are trying to test a theory about the state of tonic immobility, which happens to sharks when they turn upside down in the water. Some of them can be put into tonic immobility by having their ampullae of Lorenzini stroked, which are the sensory pits found on all sharks’ snouts. Anyway, just wanted to plug the show because it’s AMAZING and anyone who’s reading this should tune into Animal Planet to see it.

Following Inyati the fam and I did some sightseeing around Cape Town for a couple days, which was a lot of fun but VERY windy! We were able to get out on the boat with Stevo to do some diving with the seals, which was wonderful as usual (despite the seal bite I endured on my left leg- apparently I was getting a little too close with my new camera? Who knows!) We did the usual stuff.. ate on Kloof street, walked around Table Mountain, went to Cape Point, went to Signal Hill. It was all beautiful, as expected, but I wish we would have had a little more time so they could see the REAL Cape Town, more as I’ve experienced. BUT it all comes down to time, and we had to get to the Garden Route as well, so we took off the following Monday and trekked it along the East coast for a few days (in a VW bus, of course :). The mountain passes and winelands were absolutely gorgeous, as was Tsitsikamma National Park and even Oudtshoorn, which is located inland and specializes in ostrich farming. All of the B&B’s we stayed in were super luxurious, and I felt oh so spoiled (but I’m not complaining!). Such a nice time to spend with family… if only the rest of the crew could have been there!

Since the fam left, I have been hanging in Cape Town and took a nice long weekend to Plett with some new friends from Cape Town. Plett is short for Plettenberg Bay, and it is near the end of the Garden Route on the East coast from Cape Town. It’s about a 6-hour road trip, but oh so worth it. Plett is a gorgeous town on the beach, surrounded by rainforest and rocky, craggy shoreline. We did some waterskiing, beach walking, cliff jumping, and lots of cricket watching (due to a day and a half of rain :) Definitely interesting hanging out with a group of South Africans and having to defend my American ways (on my own this time!) for a few days, but so much fun. I am so lucky to have met the people I have met here- everyone’s been so good to me.

Whew! So that is a SERIOUS summary of the last month or so- I wish I was better at keeping a journal or at least keeping a blog, but I have come to terms with being terrible at it. Hope this helps give a semi-update to those who care and I will do my very best to be better about it throughout my last month and a half here (although that may be tough considering I’ll be traveling for the entire month of January…)

Happy Holidays to all! Hope everyone is surviving the snow (MN) and the rain (Seattle)!! Love to each and every one of you!! (I will add some more pictures later!)

Love, av

Mozambique!

Ahhh, so much time has passed since I last wrote! I am so bad at this blogging thing.. I thought I would be so good at sitting down for two hours and just pouring my South African life out onto the keyboard, but it has proven to be much harder than I expected. Just not enough hours in the day!

Anyway, lots has happened since I last wrote around Halloween. I have been busy at SOS, still doing projects for the educators and the centre (I now spell it centre instead of center without even thinking about it.. bad news. Also: colour, programme, honours, etc.... too much South African reading, writing and typing since I've been here I guess!). I have become good friends with my coworkers and know already that it is going to be SO hard to leave them. I have even formed a strange attachment to the two False Plum anemones that we have in the aquarium, and of course the two shysharks as well (the female has laid three eggs since we got her- so cool!). The anemone thing sounds weird, I know, but False Plums are so incredible.. they have so many different moods and are always changing shape and size. For example, here are a few photos of our favorite aquarium resident at SOS.. he doesn't have a name yet, but I am rooting for Tim or Roger:











How cool is he?! (or she.. or it) I know, I know.. most people probably don't get as excited about this kind of thing as me, but I have to admit I look forward to seeing him every morning :) I also did a little project on this guy with about 10 different pictures and a display about general anemone ecology for the public. So if you're ever in SOS, check it out :)

Onto more exciting things... the weather has been pretty fantastic here lately, but it still doesn't feel quite like summer. I am ok with that though since the next few months are supposed to get HOT and since I've been working a lot I don't mind a cloudy day here and there. The sunny days have definitely been amazing though.. lots of diving, trips to the beach, and surfing when I can. My good friend Brocq was housesitting for his friend Mark VanCollier two weeks ago (Mark is an amazing wildlife photographer and was visiting the Seychelles with his pregnant wife, who is also a photographer.. I swear everyone here is a ridiculously good wildlife photographer) in a town called Nordhoek, which is absolutely gorgeous and known for its amazing surfing beach called Long Beach (home to a wave called Dunes that is popular with the better surfers around here). I was able to camp out by the pool, hang with the resident peacock in the backyard (we named him NaGoose, for various reasons), go to an awesome little Nordhoek festival, and run, swim, and lay out on a totally deserted white sand beach. Absolutely amazing.


NaGoose



Long Beach in Nordhoek


I was lucky enough to get out with Steve a few times as well, diving again with the seals and helping him out with various clients. I have been doing my best to improve my breath hold for freediving, and was able to stay at about five meters for around a minute this last time. I know it doesn't sound like much, but when the water is 10 degrees C and your body is constricted and shaking, one minute feels like about 10! I am hoping to be able to take a freediving course from one of Steve's friends, Hanli (who holds the South African freediving record.. she is ridiculous) before I leave. I have really grown to love diving with just a mask, weight belt, and fins. Of course I am still a SCUBA fanatic and always will be, but its nice to learn a new trick of the trade :)

Speaking of SCUBA, I have made a last-minute decision to head to Mozambique over this coming week with a group of VAC interns and some of the VAC coordinators. I was planning on doing Mozambique for the month of January, and maybe doing my Dive Master course during that time, but I came across an amazing White shark internship in Mossel Bay that I may do instead. SO it turns out that this coming week will be my only chance to get to Moz, and I have been told by many that if I am a diver, I MUST go. Mozambique is known around the world for its manta rays, Whale sharks, good surf, and ridiculously gorgeous dive sites. So myself and a few of my roommates are off for 10 days of sun, surf, sand, and amazing diving. I can't wait!! Even my supervisor said I have to get there.. a few of my coworkers contemplated taking the week off and tagging along to go surfing, but I'm not sure that'll actually happen. They could teach me a thing or two!

A lot of research has been happening at SOS, but because of confidentiality reasons and copyright issues and all that other crazy business, I can't talk much about it. But, I will say that I feel incredibly lucky to be part of a group of individuals who are so dedicated to their work and passionate about what they are striving for. What I can say is that Alison and her team (at this point I'm going to assume anyone who actually reads this knows who Alison Kock is.. SOS White shark researcher, for those who have forgotten) have been trying to get out lately to do some tagging of False Bay White sharks, but it has been pretty windy with a big swell so they'll be making a few more attempts over the coming weeks. I'll still have two weeks at SOS when I arrive home from Moz so I am hoping there will be a chance to head out with them and see everything firsthand.

Speaking of the big guys, the internship I have applied to in Mossel Bay (400 K up the East coast) focuses on boat-based research of White sharks. I would be there with about nine other volunteers, helping scientists at the Shark lab do tagging, chumming, Photo ID, boat skills and everything else that is involved with White shark research. Alison said the program is very hands-on and they get out on the boat every day that the weather permits. She has worked closely with a few of the scientists there and highly recommended the program for someone who is interested in shark research. It sounds like an amazing experience and would give me a lot more exposure to all sorts of important field techniques. Aaaand I just found out that I got accepted! So that' a big whoo-hoo to that one. Looks like I will be spending the month of January with the sharks in Mossel Bay.. should be really, really good!

Anyway, I am off to Moz in the early morning and will be MIA for the next 10 days or so. Arriving back in Cape Town on my birthday, most likely for a big night of SLEEP! It's going to be a crazy fun hectic amazing ten days, but I'm sure a good night's sleep is not going to be a very constant thing (considering we're staying in an outdoor-ish dorm with 14 beds.. oh dear).

Miss everyone back home and can't wait to share pictures! Love to all :)

Oh, and here are a few pictures from the shark dive two weekends ago that I didn't have until just now:


A curious Blue



Myself and a Mako



The largest Blue we had; a little over 2 meters



Good shot of a Mako

Such an amazing day!

Trick or Treat!

Happy Halloween weekend!!

Despite the title of this blog, little to none of it is about my Halloween celebration this year. That, sadly, is due to the fact that South Africans hardly even recognize the best holiday of the year and rarely dress up for the occasion! Can you believe it?! I couldn’t. BUT I am totally and completely ok with it this year (and that is REALLY saying something, because I LOVE dressing up and celebrating Halloween), because I am lucky enough to be doing something I love just as much all weekend- diving. And not just diving.. diving with sharks! I spent the entire day today (Friday) about 25 miles off the coast of Cape Point on a boat with a few friends diving with Blue Sharks and Mako Sharks. It was my very first time diving with either of these species, and it was absolutely incredible. It took us about two hours to get from Simon’s Town to our destination (basically out in the middle of the sea), and although today was much less windy than the past week, the water was fairly bumpy. I love long boat rides, especially when there are waves, so that was definitely a fun journey. When we arrived, Brocq (my friend who does shark dive tours with his boss Morne, who is married to Alison Kock, the White shark researcher here) chummed the water, which means he basically chopped up fish parts and poured fish blood into a big drum, and within 30 minutes we had two sharks show up. At first it was a Mako, but that one left quickly, and then two Blue sharks showed up soon after. We threw on our wetsuits and hopped in, and within 15 minutes had about five sharks surrounding us. They were very curious, and would come extremely close to check us out, but I never felt threatened by any of them.

We were freediving (without a tank- just a weight belt and snorkel), but it was even better than trying to scuba with them since they all came so close to the surface. I dove down quite a few times, just five to 10 meters or so, and they would come right up to my face, swim through my legs, and even tested out the taste of the tip of my fins a few times. The Blues are sleek and shimmery, with a vibrant blue color that gives them their name. They are much bolder than the Makos, coming up right behind us and swimming all around as we dove down to them. The largest Blue shark was a little over two meters, and the smallest was probably about half a meter or so. The Makos were a little less bold, usually darting away if we got too close. They look like mini Great Whites, with impressive teeth that are very visible and a stockier body shape that looks like one big hunk of muscle. The largest Mako we swam with today was about 1.5 meters. They are amazing creatures. We were in the water for about an hour and a half, and about halfway through I counted six sharks at one time in the water. They were surprisingly calming, though, and at no point did they seem to be more interested in us than the chum. Well, at one point a Blue did give one of the clients a small chomp on the shoulder, but it didn’t perforate his wetsuit and didn’t hurt him at all. It was toward the end when Morne was emptying the drum of fish, so the sharks tend to get more excited about the abundance of food. Aside from that, they were very well-mannered ☺

Since I don’t yet have an underwater camera (boo!), I am relying on others who were there today to send me some of their photos. I will post them as soon as I get them! For now, here are a couple shots of the trip out to the dive site and a couple pictures from the internet of Blues and Makos:


Harbor at Simon's Town where we launched the boat




On our way to see the sharks...




Brocq getting the chum prepared. Slightly nasty business.




Blue Shark





Mako Shark


Today was by far one of the best days I have had here yet- I am so lucky to be able to participate in these kinds of things, and I feel incredibly grateful for the connections I have made. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be spending a Halloween weekend diving with sharks! Tomorrow is another dive, but this time no sharks- we are doing a wreck dive in Hout Bay. A few of my roommates are getting their advanced SCUBA certification, so this is part of their required dive set. I am going along as a fun dive, and also because I have never done a wreck dive. The waters in Hout Bay are cold, but it should be a pretty awesome experience.

Aside from diving, I have been continuing my work at SOS developing some more projects for display in the center and also for the school groups. I am just finishing up a presentation called Life on the Rocky Shores, and spent Tuesday and Wednesday taking some pictures of our animal life in front of SOS. Here are just a couple of the better shots used in the presentation:


Anemone, tentacles in (I know this one's not as cool as the ones with their tentacles out, but no one ever shows them like this...so thought I would switch it up :)




A couple urchins using limpet shells as protection




Pear limpets, each surrounded by their own algal garden. These particular limpets are found down in the cochlear zone during low tide. They use their muscle to suction tightly to the rocks, and if birds want to eat them, they have to sneak up behind them to quickly pop them off the rocks.




Cape Reef worm! Not the greatest quality picture, but these guys are so cool. If you touch them, them dart really quickly back into their hole.


Work has still been going very well, and everyone at SOS continues to impress me with their generosity and kindness. I am so grateful to Meg, my supervisor, for the opportunities she’s giving me with this research and also for letting me take time off to dive with and learn more about the sharks I am studying every day.

One of my favorite people here is leaving us this Tuesday.. my roommate Leah Webber, who has been here for about three months, is heading back home to San Francisco and then off to Sydney, Australia for yet another adventure abroad. Leah has become one of my closest friends here, and is so much fun and one of the nicest, funniest girls ever. I am super bummed she’s leaving but promised I would be visiting her in Australia soon ☺

Otherwise, not much is new.. just livin the Cape Town life and loving every minute! Only one month until my parents arrive (yes, that’s you Candace Faye and Johnny V!), and I cannot wait!!

Love to all in the states and elsewhere- miss you!!

Kids, kids, and more kids!

Hi all!

I come to you in the middle of a crazy hectic week at Save Our Seas… we have 100 primary school kids coming every day for about four hours of rock pool lessons, shark lessons, and shark videos. It has been absolutely nuts and totally exhausting, but so much fun at the same time! The kids are from all different schools around the area, and most of them are eager to learn and happy to just be down by the water. A few of them don’t know much about the sea beyond that it is home to “big, scary sharks that will eat you!” (direct quote from an adorable 6th grade boy this morning)

My role this week has been to teach alongside one of our educators, Michael, down at the rock pool out in front of our building. We have a protected area out front which is home to everything from African Black Oystercatchers to limpets, barnacles, sea anemones, urchins, and all kinds of other animals. We have been doing a 20 minute lecture about these animals’ adaptations to their unique environment, then the kids come down onto the rocks and we show them everything close up, and then we bring them over to some touch pools to touch and hold the animals while we finish up the lesson. A lot of them seem really interested in both the animals and the kelp, and it has been a lot of fun to hear them asking questions and getting excited about life in the ocean. Often there has been two or three kids in each group that are especially interested and will ask what kinds of programs they can join and how they can be a marine biologist. It always makes me smile ☺

They then move on to a shark lecture inside SOS with another educator, Paul, and their third “station” is a shark video showing footage of the White sharks that breach out near Seal Island. All of the teachers that have come along with the kids so far have seemed really happy with the trip, and a few of them scheduled follow-up days with us so we can go a little more in-depth with smaller groups of children. All in all, it’s been a good week so far and it has made me a lot more confident with the lecture material and the sea life living in this part of the world.

In addition to the school groups, I have continued working on projects for the main area of SOS, including a presentation board about Shark Threats and a powerpoint lecture about the importance of kelp and rock pool life. I have spoken to Alison Kock as well and should be getting out on the research boat with her within the next two weeks or so. Can’t wait!

Yesterday was one of the coolest days ever- the school group that was supposed to be here ended up cancelling, and since I had taken the train all the way down and didn’t have a pressing project or anything to get to right away, I decided to take advantage of the sun and calm seas and go surfing at Muizenberg (a few train stops away from Kalk Bay). I called up my friend Brocq, who works with Alison Kock’s husband, Morne, and since he also had the afternoon off he said he’d be happy to give me a surfing lesson. I grabbed my wetsuit and hopped off the train at Muizenberg, and of course on the first day I decide to surf in South Africa they spot a shark right off the beach. The Shark Spotters flag was red, which means a shark has recently been spotted and may still be in the area. Most of the surfers had gotten out of the water, but after 20 minutes or so people started swimming back out. We headed in and within about two minutes of paddling out I had completely forgotten about the shark. The waves were perfect for a relatively new surfer, and I managed to catch a good number of waves and stand up pretty well on most of them (although still a bit wobbly ☺. It was SUCH a blast and such an amazing workout (my arms are killing me today!) and I am pretty sure I’ve been bitten by the surfing bug. It’s so convenient for me if I bring my wetsuit to work, because Muizenberg is right on the way home, and I can just hop off there and meet up with people in the afternoons. I’m hoping the winds stay the way they are now for the next couple weeks so the waves don’t get too messy.



Aside from internship and surfing stuff, I have been enjoying the weekends with roommates and other interns by spending time at the beach, heading to the Old Biscuit Mill market on Saturday mornings (amazing local vendors with all sorts of food and other goods), and getting out to explore hiking and running trails. This past weekend I was able to go out on Animal Ocean once again with Steve, and we had an absolutely gorgeous day of sun, flat water, and clients who were very excited about diving with the Duiker Island seals. Steve, the Captain of the ship:



My favorite spot on the boat...



Of course there has been a night out here or there, and those are a great time as well ☺



I'm not sure if I included this in last week's blog, but last Friday I was able to take the day off from SOS and head to my roommate's primary school where she teaches and help her do some painting lessons with the younger grade. They were absolutely adorable and it was so much fun. Here are a few of the little painters :)



Alright, that is all for now! Miss everyone back home :)