Little Richard, Cape Town, Baboons & Robben Island

K-Staters in South Africa Blog Monday, May 24, 2010

We have seen springbok antelope, a penguin colony, climbed to a lighthouse on Cape Peninsula, seen white beaches dotted with surfers and beautiful waves, listened to traditional African music in a restaurant and revolved in another restaurant high over Cape Town. All good stuff. So I asked Little Richard (not the musician, but the Texan) what he liked best on the trip so far. His reply, “Um, when I got to ride that fat pet seal in the parking lot.” Yes, thanks Richard. We’ll get back to you later…much later. Like in the fall.

I must state again how great the weather's been. On the Cape Pennisula for example, it can be cloudy and windy much of the time, but it was 70, calm and sunny. We got good pictures at all places. At one spot I thought there might be an international incident when we were taking pictures at the Cape of Good Hope sign, the most South-Western point in Africa. Maura and Emma were posing for a picture behind the sign when a large number of Chinese tourists poured out of an arriving bus and immediately gathered all around them. One even wedged himself in between Maura and Emma before they had their picture! It seemed quite rude to some of our kids, but they took the highroad and just left the scene. I think this is just a cultural difference that comes up on these trips, and how you react is important. Our K-Staters have been very well-behaved so far. Had I been down there at the time (I believe I was playing poker in the bus with the driver at the time…jk!) I may not have reacted so nicely.

We did have an interesting event traveling down the road after leaving the Cape Point. Baboons hang around some of these rural tourist areas, and there are signs that say, “Baboons are DANGEROUS wild animals; Please do NOT feed them.” They cruise around buses and cars in parking lots and look for food. Our driver told us that even shutting the door of a car isn’t good enough because some of them have figured out how to open doors. Not long after that story, we come upon a car along the road with the driver side door open. We noticed a baboon outside the car and so pulled over to get a picture of it. Once we got closer it looked like the driver was inside his vehicle. But as we realized that it wasn’t a man in the driver’s seat.. but another large baboon sitting behind the wheel, munching on something. The owner was standing well off to the side trying to decide how to get his car back. (Sure, the baboon might have had a driver’s license, but I’m pretty sure he didn’t have insurance.) So our tour guide, Marianne got out an apple and just waved it inside our windshield. That baboon piled out of the car and marched right back to our bus. Great distraction, Marianne! The car owner sprinted back to his car, jumped in and locked the doors. He drove off while the baboon was trying to figure out how to get into our bus. No, we didn’t open the doors, although I heard a couple of our students said, “He’s so cute!” Cute? Have you seen the fangs? And who do you guess said they were cute? Yep, Evan and Jose. These guys are such softies. Well, anyway, baboons: apparently smarter than some humans now.

Robben Island was just fascinating. Again, we are so thankful for the weather. Marianne, our guide, has tried 6-7 times to take groups out there, and they have never made it out due to bad weather. Our day was calm and clear. A 30 min boat ride to the island and then a bus tour before getting off and seeing some of the buildings and Nelson Mandela’s cell. They have former prisoners actually give the tours. If you don’t think that gives some credibility to the tour, you’ve not had a black man talk in terms of “we’ and ‘I’ when explaining the conditions, the food, the gaurds, etc. We talked to him one-on-one after the tour and he just doesn’t have any bitterness. It’s quite amazing. Lots more to say about this, but I’ll let your kids tell you about it.

Gotta go, I need sleep, even though it’s only 4:30pm your time, you guys are soooo behind the times.

DrG