So I've got just under two weeks left here in South Africa... I'll be gutted to leave such a beautiful, amazing and inspiring place. I've managed to get plenty of data for analysis and today is the day I'm going to try my best to tackle that analysis head on, starting with some graphs!
The past few days have been absolutely beautiful, which is what is making it even harder for me to comprehend leaving. Yes the air is still quite cold, but the sun has been glorious and any rain has been short-lived... yesterday on the way back from Cape Town, we saw a huge complete double rainbow, the inner rainbow being the brightest one I have ever seen. Everything here is so spectacular and dramatic, I don't think anything the UK has lives up to it to be honest, except maybe in Scotland!
So yes, I spent the day in a shopping centre in Cape Town, attempting to find presents for family. Somewhat unsuccessful (everthing I intended to get was either not there, or priced extortionately), I ended up just buying myself some new headphones (the old ones decided to break halfway through a run), and the first book of A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) because I love the series and have heard good things about the books! Also I finished The Hobbit ages ago, so I thought I'd get myself some new reading material for the long journey home. After shopping, I went to see The Dark Knight Rises. It was amazing! Much better than Prometheus. I had some South African wine gums, they taste a lot nicer than UK ones, possibly through several of what we would consider 'illegal' flavourings, but still, very nice!
After leaving the shopping mall, we went to pick up Ed's mum from Cape Town airport. We were all very tired at this point (especially Ed's mum after such a long journey) so much of the return journey was spent in silence. I lay back in the car, admiring the views of the mountains on the way home and wishing that I had another good few weeks here in Africa. I promised myself that I would return as soon as I could, after finishing my Master's and learning to drive (and also trying to earn a bit of money so as to afford coming out here again!).
So here's to a last couple of weeks in South Africa... may the weather be as lovely as it is today, and I hope to get a decent amount of analysis done before I head back home! I will try to keep updated on here with any shenanigans (and there might be some more now Ed's mum has arrived, there are talks of horseback safaris and wine-tasting!).
Monday 23 July 2012
Friday 13 July 2012
Amy's Birthday and FREEZING FRIDAY 13th!
Wednesday was Amy's birthday and I managed to make a surprise chocolate birthday cake for her! Everybody said it tasted nice at her birthday braai, so I must have done something right... I also helped Anna make a lovely trifle with vodka jelly and amarula custard... it turned out very tasty, if a little on the alcoholic side of things. A good few people came, and there was plenty of food to satisfy our appetites. I decided to have a steak, which tasted fantastic! I love grilled food - nice and healthy, but amazingly tasty.
Thursday was a relatively lazy day. We had planned on going out on a 'volunteer exclusive' trip at 2pm. Having gotten into our swim gear to dive in the cage with the sharks, and packed our cameras and towels up, we headed outside to go to the boat. There we were out on the terrace, facing the sea, and the boat we were supposed to be on drove past us out for the trip! Suffice to say, there were some quite rude gestures aimed at the boat as it drove past our chalet without us. Apparently, the trip had been re-scheduled at the last minute, and left an hour before it was supposed to! To top it all off, they saw a pod of bottlenose dolphins (pictures can be seen here, at the bottom of the Marine Dynamics blog for yesterday: http://www.sharkwatchsa.com/en/blog/category/513/post/1174/daily-trip-12-07-2012/), which makes me SO jealous of all those guys, and even more bitter that I missed the trip!
Today is the coldest day so far of all my time here. We went out on the 9.30am trip, only to be greeted by freezing winds, rain and even a brief hailstorm. The hailstones were about the size of peas! Glad I was in the cabin for that one... But when I came back, I went on a nice run which warmed me up nicely.
Unfortunately today is also the last day of one of my favourite volunteers, Jenna from Canada. I'll be heading over to the volunteer house in a bit to say goodbye, but I'm not going out with them because I've got to get up fairly early to go to Hermanus... although that plan might change after a drink or two (Although I'm not really planning on drinking either; what a granny I've become!)! I'm also looking forward to popping over to Ed and Anna's house to grab a slice of leftover birthday cake after my tea... tasty!
Thursday was a relatively lazy day. We had planned on going out on a 'volunteer exclusive' trip at 2pm. Having gotten into our swim gear to dive in the cage with the sharks, and packed our cameras and towels up, we headed outside to go to the boat. There we were out on the terrace, facing the sea, and the boat we were supposed to be on drove past us out for the trip! Suffice to say, there were some quite rude gestures aimed at the boat as it drove past our chalet without us. Apparently, the trip had been re-scheduled at the last minute, and left an hour before it was supposed to! To top it all off, they saw a pod of bottlenose dolphins (pictures can be seen here, at the bottom of the Marine Dynamics blog for yesterday: http://www.sharkwatchsa.com/en/blog/category/513/post/1174/daily-trip-12-07-2012/), which makes me SO jealous of all those guys, and even more bitter that I missed the trip!
Today is the coldest day so far of all my time here. We went out on the 9.30am trip, only to be greeted by freezing winds, rain and even a brief hailstorm. The hailstones were about the size of peas! Glad I was in the cabin for that one... But when I came back, I went on a nice run which warmed me up nicely.
Unfortunately today is also the last day of one of my favourite volunteers, Jenna from Canada. I'll be heading over to the volunteer house in a bit to say goodbye, but I'm not going out with them because I've got to get up fairly early to go to Hermanus... although that plan might change after a drink or two (Although I'm not really planning on drinking either; what a granny I've become!)! I'm also looking forward to popping over to Ed and Anna's house to grab a slice of leftover birthday cake after my tea... tasty!
Tuesday 10 July 2012
Spiders, storms and shark dissections
We have what seems to be a juvenile rain spider living in our shower. I am far too terrified to go anywhere near it to 'dispatch' it, so I have to just stare at it to make sure it doesn't get too close when I'm washing. Also, Amy found a large black-widow in her trousers! Strangely, I'm less scared of the black widow because the shape of them is pretty cool - I really like the shiny, black body! Obviously my fear of spiders is completely irrational.
The juvenile rain spider is like a small, long-bodied and brown house spider, and it seems to like wiggling its legs at me from over the top of the bathroom tiles. Terrifying!
We've had another string of no-sea days due to 'storms'. I thought here in Africa, when someone said "storm", they would mean something epic, but no, it's basically a very blustery day with the occasional bout of rain. Apparently we have storms all the time in the UK then! However ,the waves do look quite treacherous and I'm glad we don't have to go out there. There is a stand-by trip tomorrow at 11, whether it will be too full for me to go on is another matter!
I finally got to grips with my introduction and wrote a modest 950 words, it still needs some work, but I'm happy with what I've written so far!
Today there was a shark dissection of 3 puffadder shysharks, and a couple of pyjama sharks. It was really interesting to see, but I got a bit 'overwhelmed' when someone cut open the shark egg (mermaid's purse) and some really disgusting fluid came out - much like melted raspberry ripple ice-cream. I started to feel really dizzy and had to run away! Instead, I helped Anna by filming some of the volunteers making temporary sleeping bags for the homeless, which was a lot less gory.
The juvenile rain spider is like a small, long-bodied and brown house spider, and it seems to like wiggling its legs at me from over the top of the bathroom tiles. Terrifying!
We've had another string of no-sea days due to 'storms'. I thought here in Africa, when someone said "storm", they would mean something epic, but no, it's basically a very blustery day with the occasional bout of rain. Apparently we have storms all the time in the UK then! However ,the waves do look quite treacherous and I'm glad we don't have to go out there. There is a stand-by trip tomorrow at 11, whether it will be too full for me to go on is another matter!
I finally got to grips with my introduction and wrote a modest 950 words, it still needs some work, but I'm happy with what I've written so far!
Today there was a shark dissection of 3 puffadder shysharks, and a couple of pyjama sharks. It was really interesting to see, but I got a bit 'overwhelmed' when someone cut open the shark egg (mermaid's purse) and some really disgusting fluid came out - much like melted raspberry ripple ice-cream. I started to feel really dizzy and had to run away! Instead, I helped Anna by filming some of the volunteers making temporary sleeping bags for the homeless, which was a lot less gory.
Saturday 7 July 2012
Rain rain rain
I'm finally managing to catch up on my blog after far too long...
So I've got plenty of data, although more can never hurt (I'm a fan of large data sets!). I should really begin thinking about what statistics I will use and trying them out.
Today the trip is cancelled (hence me managing to catch up on the blog) due to bad weather conditions. Although I didn't actually know that the trip was cancelled until I came in this morning. I had dressed up in full waterproof gear, including some very fetching waterproof trousers that my dad lent me. Feeling somewhat like a big plastic Michelin man, I managed to slog in through the drizzle (I swear it was raining a lot more as I was putting my waterproofs on!). Now I'm waiting for someone to arrive who can give me a lift to the Spar supermarket, as all I have left at home is some couscous.
Things I have missed blogging about;
Hermanus for Ollie's birthday...
Fellow Brummie Ollie celebrated his 22nd birthday out here, so we all went to Hermanus for a nice meal. We had a bunch of shared starters, which included "Aztec Mushrooms"; dark chocolate, mild chillies and cream on some button mushrooms (amazing!), "Passion Fruit Crocodile Tail"; kind of speaks for itself, but yes, I ate some crocodile! It was so tasty, very much like pork, and quite unusual with the passion fruit sauce on it, kind of like sweet and sour sauce. For main I had a beautiful seafood pasta, with a tomato sauce. Everything was absolutely delicious!
Volunteer braai...
So the volunteers decided to host a braai last Wednesday, which was a lot of fun. There were a lot of people there too! Volunteers from White Shark Projects, the boat crew, all the volunteers from Marine Dynamics (of which there are quite a number now) and I'm sure there were a good few random people there as well. So the drinks were flowing and the food was braaing, courtesy of some guy I'm not sure anybody knew properly. It was brilliant! The lounge was converted into some sort of dance floor and my lovely Canadian friend Jenna had bought some coloured torches for us to dance about with, so it really felt disco-esque.
A few of us then decided to go to a bar called "Friends" I'm not sure what possessed me to go there, as I was really starting to flag, but it was fun all the same. I didn't really drink much at all, but the next day I was really, really ill. I'm guessing I ate something dodgy.
Introduction nightmare...
So I was assigned the task of writing a draft of my introduction, so that the lovely marine biologists here can have a look over it and see whether they have any input, as well as a general encouragement to keep as up to date with my work as possible. A task that was due to be complete this time last week. So far I have written 450 words, not [entirely] through laziness, but through a lack of papers about shark behaviour. The 450 words I have written, however, have been fully referenced and I have actually read quite a lot of papers... I'm just struggling with the structure and content of my introduction.
The knowledge that there is very little on 'personality' of sharks (or even any elasmobranchs - that's cartilaginous fish including sharks and rays, for you non-biologists out there) actually terrifies me. I mean I'm all for the glory of pioneering work, but only if I feel comfortable and confident in what I'm doing. I don't feel like I'm doing anything particularly *wrong* but I also feel like it's very haphazard and difficult to be 100% accurate in everything. I guess that's what behavioural ecology is like, but it scares me. I have a love of structure, accuracy and objectivity... but behaviour is so random and relatively subjective (although my categories of behaviour have been designed to be as objective as possible), and it is influenced by so many variables; not all of which can be measured, I feel like my data can't be altogether perfect. I hope all behavioural scientists feel this way, otherwise I am definitely doing something wrong!
Next step (once I've finished writing my introduction) is statistical analysis. If that shows some sort of pattern, I will be over the moon!
Blog soon!
So I've got plenty of data, although more can never hurt (I'm a fan of large data sets!). I should really begin thinking about what statistics I will use and trying them out.
Today the trip is cancelled (hence me managing to catch up on the blog) due to bad weather conditions. Although I didn't actually know that the trip was cancelled until I came in this morning. I had dressed up in full waterproof gear, including some very fetching waterproof trousers that my dad lent me. Feeling somewhat like a big plastic Michelin man, I managed to slog in through the drizzle (I swear it was raining a lot more as I was putting my waterproofs on!). Now I'm waiting for someone to arrive who can give me a lift to the Spar supermarket, as all I have left at home is some couscous.
Things I have missed blogging about;
Hermanus for Ollie's birthday...
Fellow Brummie Ollie celebrated his 22nd birthday out here, so we all went to Hermanus for a nice meal. We had a bunch of shared starters, which included "Aztec Mushrooms"; dark chocolate, mild chillies and cream on some button mushrooms (amazing!), "Passion Fruit Crocodile Tail"; kind of speaks for itself, but yes, I ate some crocodile! It was so tasty, very much like pork, and quite unusual with the passion fruit sauce on it, kind of like sweet and sour sauce. For main I had a beautiful seafood pasta, with a tomato sauce. Everything was absolutely delicious!
Volunteer braai...
So the volunteers decided to host a braai last Wednesday, which was a lot of fun. There were a lot of people there too! Volunteers from White Shark Projects, the boat crew, all the volunteers from Marine Dynamics (of which there are quite a number now) and I'm sure there were a good few random people there as well. So the drinks were flowing and the food was braaing, courtesy of some guy I'm not sure anybody knew properly. It was brilliant! The lounge was converted into some sort of dance floor and my lovely Canadian friend Jenna had bought some coloured torches for us to dance about with, so it really felt disco-esque.
A few of us then decided to go to a bar called "Friends" I'm not sure what possessed me to go there, as I was really starting to flag, but it was fun all the same. I didn't really drink much at all, but the next day I was really, really ill. I'm guessing I ate something dodgy.
Introduction nightmare...
So I was assigned the task of writing a draft of my introduction, so that the lovely marine biologists here can have a look over it and see whether they have any input, as well as a general encouragement to keep as up to date with my work as possible. A task that was due to be complete this time last week. So far I have written 450 words, not [entirely] through laziness, but through a lack of papers about shark behaviour. The 450 words I have written, however, have been fully referenced and I have actually read quite a lot of papers... I'm just struggling with the structure and content of my introduction.
The knowledge that there is very little on 'personality' of sharks (or even any elasmobranchs - that's cartilaginous fish including sharks and rays, for you non-biologists out there) actually terrifies me. I mean I'm all for the glory of pioneering work, but only if I feel comfortable and confident in what I'm doing. I don't feel like I'm doing anything particularly *wrong* but I also feel like it's very haphazard and difficult to be 100% accurate in everything. I guess that's what behavioural ecology is like, but it scares me. I have a love of structure, accuracy and objectivity... but behaviour is so random and relatively subjective (although my categories of behaviour have been designed to be as objective as possible), and it is influenced by so many variables; not all of which can be measured, I feel like my data can't be altogether perfect. I hope all behavioural scientists feel this way, otherwise I am definitely doing something wrong!
Next step (once I've finished writing my introduction) is statistical analysis. If that shows some sort of pattern, I will be over the moon!
Blog soon!
Friday 22 June 2012
Dead White Shark :(
Two days ago, we got word that a dead white shark had washed up on Dyer Island, which was very sad news.
Unfortunately, the first day was far too rough for Marine Dynamics' whale rescue team to go out and retrieve it on the first day. However, yesterday it was calm enough for the team of three boats and crew to go and fetch it.
I managed to get to the harbour just in time to see the crew and the boat Calypso coming in, towing the animal behind it between two inflatable buoys. There were lots of people at the harbour, including a couple of film crews! I was keen to see if the shark had an obvious cause of death, but there were no marks on him whatsoever, except the skin that had been rubbed off by the sand as it had washed up.
The shark was immediately taken by the South African government's marine scientists to go to Cape Town for dissection in a couple of weeks. Maybe then we will find out what caused the death of this beautiful creature.
Below is the picture of the shark (it is bloated due to decomposition) taken by Marine Dynamics skipper, Hennie Otto:
Marine Dynamics actually lost a lot of money in fuel and personnel charges retrieving it, which goes to show how much they care about the wildlife in this area. Wilfred Chivell, the founder of Marine Dynamics and Dyer Island Cruises, is clearly extremely passionate about these animals.
That is why, and please don't judge me too badly for promoting this company so blatantly, I would definitely recommend Marine Dynamics as a shark diving or whale-watching company. The money that is spent on your trip really does go towards marine conservation; these guys perform whale rescues, animal corpse retrieval for post-mortem analysis (an extremely important factor in conservation - if you have a dead animal, you need to find out what killed it to aid possible prevention of killing other members of the species in the future!), penguin housing placement on Dyer Island as well as education of the public about the area. I have witnessed first hand where this money goes, and can vouch for the company's positive actions towards conservation.
So, if you're considering coming on a shark diving tour/whale watching trip in South Africa (and I would really recommend it), I can honestly say Marine Dynamics is the best choice for a responsible eco-tourist.
p.s. I'm not getting paid by them!
Unfortunately, the first day was far too rough for Marine Dynamics' whale rescue team to go out and retrieve it on the first day. However, yesterday it was calm enough for the team of three boats and crew to go and fetch it.
I managed to get to the harbour just in time to see the crew and the boat Calypso coming in, towing the animal behind it between two inflatable buoys. There were lots of people at the harbour, including a couple of film crews! I was keen to see if the shark had an obvious cause of death, but there were no marks on him whatsoever, except the skin that had been rubbed off by the sand as it had washed up.
The shark was immediately taken by the South African government's marine scientists to go to Cape Town for dissection in a couple of weeks. Maybe then we will find out what caused the death of this beautiful creature.
Below is the picture of the shark (it is bloated due to decomposition) taken by Marine Dynamics skipper, Hennie Otto:
Marine Dynamics actually lost a lot of money in fuel and personnel charges retrieving it, which goes to show how much they care about the wildlife in this area. Wilfred Chivell, the founder of Marine Dynamics and Dyer Island Cruises, is clearly extremely passionate about these animals.
That is why, and please don't judge me too badly for promoting this company so blatantly, I would definitely recommend Marine Dynamics as a shark diving or whale-watching company. The money that is spent on your trip really does go towards marine conservation; these guys perform whale rescues, animal corpse retrieval for post-mortem analysis (an extremely important factor in conservation - if you have a dead animal, you need to find out what killed it to aid possible prevention of killing other members of the species in the future!), penguin housing placement on Dyer Island as well as education of the public about the area. I have witnessed first hand where this money goes, and can vouch for the company's positive actions towards conservation.
So, if you're considering coming on a shark diving tour/whale watching trip in South Africa (and I would really recommend it), I can honestly say Marine Dynamics is the best choice for a responsible eco-tourist.
p.s. I'm not getting paid by them!
Wednesday 20 June 2012
Catch Up
Hi everyone! Sorry I haven't updated in a few days, it has been a very busy week!
So I've been on a couple of shark trips, one of which featured a cape fur seal swimming around the boat. I also went on a whale scouting trip with some of the whale scientists and skippers who work here, saw a couple of humpback whales and followed them for a good while. I love them! Saw a great deal of sea bird life, including the shy albatross, cape gannet
I also went out scouting for sharks on Lwazi (meaning 'knowledge' in the Xhosa language... one of the local languages of South Africa). Lwazi is a small research boat, so I got to do some crew-work which was fun (another thing for the C.V.!) and took a few fin pictures for I.D.
Last Thursday was the official gathering to celebrate the construction of a southern right whale skeleton in the great white house, which was brilliant, there were some fantastic presentations, along with an amazing time lapse video of it being constructed (by the amazing Anna).
There was free food and wine, which was really really tasty!
I've also been socialising a lot more with the volunteers and interns, who are a lovely bunch of people from the likes of Canada, USA, Switzerland and the UK. We had a night out to a bar called "Captain's Corner" which was one of my favourite nights out here so far!
Yesterday, we saw a southern right whale come extremely close to the boat, the sun was shining and it was just a lovely day in general. I helped to clean the boat after the trip and did some of the volunteer's work, as the majority were at Cape Augalas. Productive day!
I've also started 'project keep fit in Africa'; trying to eat as healthy as possible and go jogging and do some other exercises. Hopefully I will be able to maintain some good willpower and keep it up. I've been jogging two days in a row, and hope to go later (even though I went this morning)...
Later tonight, we're having a pasta night at Nicola's house, one of the marine biologists on the boat.
So I've been on a couple of shark trips, one of which featured a cape fur seal swimming around the boat. I also went on a whale scouting trip with some of the whale scientists and skippers who work here, saw a couple of humpback whales and followed them for a good while. I love them! Saw a great deal of sea bird life, including the shy albatross, cape gannet
I also went out scouting for sharks on Lwazi (meaning 'knowledge' in the Xhosa language... one of the local languages of South Africa). Lwazi is a small research boat, so I got to do some crew-work which was fun (another thing for the C.V.!) and took a few fin pictures for I.D.
Last Thursday was the official gathering to celebrate the construction of a southern right whale skeleton in the great white house, which was brilliant, there were some fantastic presentations, along with an amazing time lapse video of it being constructed (by the amazing Anna).
There was free food and wine, which was really really tasty!
I've also been socialising a lot more with the volunteers and interns, who are a lovely bunch of people from the likes of Canada, USA, Switzerland and the UK. We had a night out to a bar called "Captain's Corner" which was one of my favourite nights out here so far!
Yesterday, we saw a southern right whale come extremely close to the boat, the sun was shining and it was just a lovely day in general. I helped to clean the boat after the trip and did some of the volunteer's work, as the majority were at Cape Augalas. Productive day!
I've also started 'project keep fit in Africa'; trying to eat as healthy as possible and go jogging and do some other exercises. Hopefully I will be able to maintain some good willpower and keep it up. I've been jogging two days in a row, and hope to go later (even though I went this morning)...
Later tonight, we're having a pasta night at Nicola's house, one of the marine biologists on the boat.
Wednesday 13 June 2012
No sea day AGAIN :(
Oh dear, the weather is not our friend... although it appears sunny enough, there is a strong wind forecast for later on today, so the trip is cancelled. Not all is lost, though... it has given me the chance to catch up on inputting my data, and I can start to make some preliminary graphs to see what my data might look like.
Later Amy and I will be contributing our efforts towards the DARWIN database, a piece of software originally designed to help identify the fins of bottlenose dolphins, which are unique to each individual. Marine Dynamics are applying this software to the fin identification of white sharks, using photographs taken on the boat and then putting them into a database via the DARWIN software, which then maps out the shape of the fin. I'm really happy to be a part of this, as it's always good to get some new experience for your C.V!
I'm not sure what will be happening this evening, but it will probably involve getting another early night for the trip tomorrow (if there is one!).
p.s. I've just realised, I've been here a total of 2 weeks! Wow. That went extremely quickly... 7 weeks to go!
Later Amy and I will be contributing our efforts towards the DARWIN database, a piece of software originally designed to help identify the fins of bottlenose dolphins, which are unique to each individual. Marine Dynamics are applying this software to the fin identification of white sharks, using photographs taken on the boat and then putting them into a database via the DARWIN software, which then maps out the shape of the fin. I'm really happy to be a part of this, as it's always good to get some new experience for your C.V!
I'm not sure what will be happening this evening, but it will probably involve getting another early night for the trip tomorrow (if there is one!).
p.s. I've just realised, I've been here a total of 2 weeks! Wow. That went extremely quickly... 7 weeks to go!
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