Ryan's Journal

"My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?" — David Mitchell

Tag: 2014 World Tour

Chemin des Crabes

Posted from Anjajavy, Madagascar at 6:35 pm, September 14th, 2014

For reasons that no one seems to understand, the Anjajavy Resort operates in a time zone different from the rest of Madagascar, so we either got up at six or seven in the morning, depending on whether you reset your watch on arrival or if you refuse to partake in their cunning mind games. Audrey’s one rule is that she must have coffee before I can rush her off to start the day’s activities, but as soon as her cup of Nescafe was gone I got her out of the door and off on the “Five Coves” trail, which is along an amazing coast and past five secluded and beautiful beaches. The return loop went through mangroves filled with dinner plate-sized crabs that mostly hid in tiny mud holes, and thankfully today not a single one of them chose to attack me.

Following the hike we got back to the resort in time to enjoy a late breakfast on a patio overlooking the sea – Madagascar now rivals South Africa for my favorite bacon. A nap, some snorkeling, another hike under the blazing sun (Audrey wisely opted out of that one), tea with the lemurs, and a night hike completed our schedule for the day. All of the day’s activities were good ones, but the lemur tea in particular is one that everyone should find a way to enjoy at some point in their life – sitting in a garden with juice and cookies while little furry animals leap Evel Kinievel-style through the trees above you is an experience that even the grumpiest of sourpusses would have to admit is a pretty cool way to spend an hour.

Crested drongo in Anjajavy

The aptly-named crested drongo. During our morning hike this guy was also referred to as the “posing on a post” bird.

Scops owl in Anjajavy

Grumpy owl was unimpressed with our flashlights in his eyes.

Total Crab Attack

Posted from Anjajavy, Madagascar at 12:33 pm, September 14th, 2014

4:30 wake up yesterday to fly on a private plane to visit a destination on the northwest coast called Anjajavy. This resort sits on the beach with a 550 hectare private reserve surrounding it, and was called out in our guidebook as being a “best of” spot in Madgascar (something the resort apparently realizes, based on their prices – ouch). The plane ride here was scenic, with the mountains of Madagascar rolling along below us until we arrived at the “Anjajavy International Airport”, an open air hut with a thatched roof and room for perhaps twenty people to stand inside. The resort itself is beautiful – the water is turquoise blue, the sand is bright white, the villas are all on raised platforms and made of rosewood, and the animals also show up in large numbers to enjoy the scenery and amenities.

The highlight of the place is the five o’clock tea, which is served outside and coincides with the time that the brown and sifaka lemurs apparently like to visit the garden. Just prior to tea time Audrey made a sound best described as a yelp and ran outside, where a sifaka was leaping and dancing across our balcony. Having now seen them do the sexy dance, both of the girl’s trip requests have officially been fulfilled. During tea a steady stream of lemurs came through the garden, with lines of brown lemurs walking along the ground with their tails high, sifakas leaping kamikaze-style through the branches, and a few baby lemurs making short practice jumps before returning to their spots hanging onto their mom’s bellies.

In addition to the dancing lemur tea time, I also got in an afternoon hike under the blistering sun where a huge bat flew out from an overhang, just missing my head, and parrots, lizards and lemurs made less distressing appearances. After dinner Audrey and I went on our own night hike, finding one lemur and many more bats, before we got to the crab-covered beach. The crabs froze like deer when the flashlight was on them, except for one little brown one who took offence and proceeded to chase me along the beach for perhaps twenty or thirty yards – the “Jaws” theme was playing in my head as the angry little bugger zig-zagged at me repeatedly out of the pitch blackness before eventually moving off to find other victims to terrorize with his vengeful little claws.

Common brown lemur in Anjajavy

Nap time for lemurs. Later they celebrated tea time with us.

Coquerel's sifaka in Anjajavy

A new lemur species for us, the Coquerel’s sifakas that hang out at this resort are dancers, and Audrey is a fan.

Veloma Andasibe

Posted from Antananarivo, Madagascar at 8:56 pm, September 12th, 2014

Another day, more lemurs; like the elephants in Africa, I don’t think it will be possible to tire of these furry little creatures. Today’s stop was the Mitsinjo Private Reserve, which borders the national park and is a joint effort between someone and someone else (both of whom are probably very important, but I was distracted by singing lemurs) to, among other goals, plant three million native trees and create connections between currently-isolated stands of forest, thus allowing the animals more freedom to move around. In 2013 they replanted something like 500,000 trees on 7500 acres, so the effort seems to be making real progress.

Our hike today started with the indri lemurs singing in the forest nearby, and we stumbled upon the talented lemurs munching leaves in the trees above us. The guides went to great lengths to tempt them with some local plants – wildlife etiquette is a work-in-progress here – and finally found one willing lemur who climbed down and put on a brief show of close-up leaf eating for the assembled group before disappearing into the trees with a few powerful leaps. While the guides were trying to lure them lower, Audrey and I very much enjoyed craning our necks up to watch the panda-like lemurs feeding in the tree tops, and occasionally launching themselves from tree-to-tree-to-tree in massive leaps. As noted previously, it’s not a sight (or sound, since their songs are so haunting) that I would soon get bored of seeing.

After a morning of lemurs we asked the driver to take us back to the capital, partly to get ready for our early flight on a tiny private plane tomorrow, and also because driving on the highways at night in Madagascar is an activity that is almost universally described as a terrifying ordeal that will lead to death in the worst case, and brown shorts in the best case. Since we were interested in neither of those things, we made sure our departure from the park got us back into Antananarivo well before sunset.

Indri lemur in Mitsinjo Reserve

For the second day in a row an indri lemur tried to poo on me, but I was intentionally keeping out of the target radius. Strangely, after his unseemly greeting he then climbed down the tree and ate leaves out of the guide’s hand.

Madagascar day gecko in Mitsinjo Reserve

“People will like it if you post something in addition to lemurs” was the advice I was given at dinner tonight when trying to choose a picture for this entry. The result: Madagascar day gecko, the only other animal in the photographs from today.

Covered in Lemur Spit

Posted from Andasibe National Park, Madagascar at 9:24 pm, September 11th, 2014

Audrey had two very specific (and difficult to fulfill) requests for the Madagascar trip – she wanted to hug a lemur, and she wanted to see them do the sexy dance; after today, one of her two requests has been fulfilled. Vakona Lodge, located just outside of the park, has an island on its property that is aptly named “Lemur Island” that is a home for lemurs that were formerly pets and thus cannot be released back into the wild. No sooner do you arrive on the island than lemurs are literally leaping on your shoulders to get to bananas that the guides hand out. The girl was beyond happy as she got to hug one of the furry little guys, and I was a fan of interacting with the little beasties and getting to see them so close up. They have soft little hands with giant fingers, and for whatever reason found me delicious, so I was licked repeatedly by lemurs and had to take a long shower when we returned home (for the record: there are far worse things in the world than to be licked by lemurs).

Prior to visiting the island of lemurs, we did a long hike through Andasibe National Park, a walk that started with a family of common brown lemurs. Yesterday’s wildlife lesson was that you can photograph diadem sifakas from four feet away, and today’s lesson was that the common brown lemur is fine with two feet of personal space. We would have been sitting there with wild lemurs on a log next to us for the better part of the morning had a grumpy indri not leaped over and scattered his competitors by turning their log into his toilet area – luckily we were out of range at the time.

When not forcing us to dodge their poo, the indri continued to impress as the various families sang their songs throughout the morning. They’re easy to find when singing, but at one point things went silent and the iPhone was used to “cheat” our way to indris, with a recording of the singing played back at full volume in order to entice the local family to join in the song and reveal their exact tree. We photographed that family, including a tiny baby, until our necks were sore from staring upwards – our morning was a good one.

The day finished with a night walk (chameleons, frogs, and four types of nocturnal lemurs, for those not sick of species lists yet). Tomorrow is our last day at this park, so we’ll have a morning walk in a private reserve that borders the park before making the three hour drive back to Antananarivo in preparation for a flight in a tiny plane on Saturday.

Common brown lemur in Andasibe National Park

Wild common brown lemur in Andasibe Natioanl Park. The journal may be all lemurs, all the time for a while. For those upset by this development, you may want to tune out for a couple of weeks.

As a rule I don’t take out the big camera for captive animals, but the iPhone was fair game for getting video of my new friend today.

All the Lemurs

Posted from Andasibe National Park, Madagascar at 6:37 pm, September 10th, 2014

Every animal has a distance that it will allow people to approach before it gets uncomfortable, and it’s both good etiquette and better for wildlife viewing when that limit isn’t exceeded. The first lemurs today were the uber-pretty sifakas, and based on our experience they require about four feet of personal space. Maybe less. While moving slowly to photograph one from thirty feet away, two more climbed down the tree next to me and started eating leaves; I am going to like Madagascar a lot.

The good karma on this trip continues. The haunting call of the indri lemur (best comparison: imagine a humpback whale’s song, but in a forest) was echoing through the trees when we picked up our park entry permit, and we then embarked on a bone-rattling drive into Mantadia National Park. The drive was followed by a hike, which began with a significant amount of time walking around while the animals hid, but then the long dry spell was abruptly ended with a magical moment. The sifakas suddenly appeared right next to the trail, with a black-and-white ruffed lemur above, and a group of indris leaping through the trees a short time later. Audrey was spellbound as the tiny beasts sprang thirty feet through the air from tree to tree to tree – given the dense brush and uneven ground, had they wanted to they could have left us completely in about five jumps, but instead they chose to munch leaves next to us. Happiness was abounding.

All told we found five species of lemur today during a morning hike in Mantadia and an afternoon hike in Andasibe (bamboo, black-and-white ruffed, sifaka, indri, wooly). Not bad for the first full day in Madagascar – 27 more to go.

Black-and-white ruffed lemur in Mantadia National Park

Although we had seen a bamboo lemur from the road earlier, this black-and-white ruffed lemur was our first lemur in the forest, and thus gets the unofficial distinction of first lemur of Madagascar. I’m a big fan of his (her?) haircut.

Diademed sifaka in Mantadia National Park

Photographing sifakas today involved a hike through dense forest, up hills, across streams, and followed by lemurs that climbed down the trees and ate leaves right next to us.

Dancing Queen

Posted from Andasibe National Park, Madagascar at 7:34 pm, September 9th, 2014

We’re in Madagascar, and I’m in a bit of shock that thus far everything has gone smoothly. Our Air Madagascar flight, which has a historical 50% on-time record, arrived in Antananarivo twenty minutes early, they fed us on the way (fish or duck), although they did somehow manage to squeeze enough seats on a thirty year old 737 that my legs only just fit into the space allotted. When we arrived the customs process went quickly, and there was no charge for our thirty day visa. Our bags were there to meet us, and we exited the arrivals area to immediately find our driver holding a sign with our names on it, smiling, and greeting us in English.

Money exchange was quick and painless, although at an exchange rate of approximately $1 to 2500 Madagascar Ariary, and in a country where credit cards aren’t in wide use, Audrey and I are now both carrying bricks of 10,000 Ariary notes, which feels very wrong when you see people pulling rickshaws filled with paving stones, with piles of firewood balanced on their heads, or in some other way demonstrating how lucky everyone born in America should feel for the many advantages we take for granted.

While I had been concerned that our pre-arranged transportation might not even show up at the airport, it has so far exceeded my highest hopes – our car is in excellent condition, and the driver is a former chauffeur for the American embassy who has also come up with an itinerary for us at the parks, complete with the required park guide. Our one errand for the day was to drive into town to make the necessary pre-payment for a hotel we have scheduled later in the trip, and my French was actually passable enough to deal with that minor adventure. In another shocking development, the Madagascar roads were paved for the entire three hours that it took to get to Andasibe National Park, a drive that was done with an ABBA CD playing, since everyone dreams of someday cruising through the Madagascar countryside while rocking out to “Dancing Queen”.

I’m now writing this post from our insanely nice lodge while watching Xena, La Guerrière on the TV. We’ll be up at six tomorrow morning to find the animals, with a very full day’s worth of activities planned; hopefully, there will be pictures of lemurs in tomorrow’s journal entry. Our luck can’t hold out in a country renowned for its unpredictability, but we’ll definitely accept our good fortune to start this part of the adventure.

Out of (South) Africa

Posted from Johannesburg, South Africa at 8:20 pm, September 8th, 2014

Another phase of the trip comes to a close – three months seems like an extraordinarily long time to be traveling, but somehow this voyage is sadly now two-thirds complete. Luckily, perhaps the most adventurous part of the trip still awaits – tomorrow there may be lemurs.

The past sixteen days have been a continuation of the magic of this odyssey – leopards, elephants, wild dogs, great white sharks, and plenty of others. The world we live in is a wonderful place, and I’m looking forward to seeing even more of it during the final weeks of this journey.

Update: Internet access will probably be hit-or-miss in Madagascar, so journal entries may take a few days to get posted; don’t call the embassy unless I go missing for more than a week.

Elephant in the Timbavati Nature Reserve

An elephant, taken from ten feet away at Kambaku River Sands Lodge while he was drinking from the lodge’s pool.

Leopard in the Timbavati Nature Reserve

Rockfig, Jr. in the Timbavati Nature Reserve, my favorite leopard of the trip.

Go Browns

Posted from Stellenbosch, South Africa at 7:49 pm, September 7th, 2014

Ibises in the morning, homemade breads for breakfast, and wine country in the evening – life continues to be good. We moseyed along today, making one unplanned stop near Stellenbosch at the obviously-touristy but still fun Butterfly World since the girl likes butterflies. Our lodging for the night is in the heart of the Cape’s wine country, but we don’t really have time for wine tasting so the plan for the morning is to hit a nearby nature reserve before heading to the airport for our flight to Johannesburg.

South Africa has been fun. Kruger far exceeded my expectations, and you can’t go wrong with flying great white sharks. The people here have all been great, food has been excellent, and the roads have been easy to get around on, with the exception of the roundabouts which I believe are a horrendous thing to do to a motorist who is already struggling to remember to drive on the left side of the road. A return trip at some future date would not be out of the question.

Cattle egret in Montagu

A cattle egret, all poofed up for sunrise.

Sacred ibis in Montagu

Sacred ibis, sporting a haircut that I can support.

Ibis Trees

Posted from Montagu, South Africa at 9:44 pm, September 6th, 2014

The day started on the side of the road waiting to meet the owner of Meerkat Adventures, a guy who is both loved and reviled in Tripadvisor reviews but who has habituated several groups of meerkats to the presence of humans without using food – his secret is apparently to spend months around them reading books out loud. The end result of his work is that he can bring groups of fifteen people out to their dens, allowing them to sit a few feet away as the little guys wake up and start their day. Since the girl loves small, cute animals, this seemed like a must-do activity, and we trudged out to their burrow, folding chair in hand, as the sun came up. The first meerkat emerged shortly thereafter, and sure enough paid no attention to the people sitting nearby, and the remaining members of the mob came out a few minutes later. The girl was happy, I got a few photos, and the host of the event was someone we’ll remember for a while – think Crocodile Dundee, but with a South African accent and without the leather vest.

From there we were off to one of the many ostrich farms in the area since it’s such a unique thing to see, despite the fact that we knew it would be touristy. The tour was definitely touristy, although feeding the ostriches was exceptionally fun as they practically barreled us over in their rush to the food pellets. Riding an ostrich felt borderline wrong – the South African Animal Welfare Association has apparently given its OK to riding ostriches in farms subject to several rules (weight limits, not during hot weather, etc), but PETA would clearly not be happy. The experience starts with the staff putting a bag over the ostrich’s head to keep it calm, and you then hop on its back, tuck your legs under its wings, hold on, and then they remove the bag and the ostrich takes off running. Having done it once I wouldn’t want to subject the birds to carrying me around again, but from this day forward if anyone asks Audrey or me if we’ve ever ridden an ostrich, both of us will answer in the affirmative.

Tonight we’re in the town of Montagu, home to the “Ibis Tree”, which is my favorite tree in South Africa. The tree is lousy with birds, and I’ll be back tomorrow morning to try and photograph some of them in good light. The drive here included a stop at the former “Ronnie’s Shop”, a bar that was attracting almost no business until the owner got drunk, walked outside with a can of spray paint, and added three letters to the storefront, thus changing the name to “Ronnie’s Sex Shop”; now it’s a bar that just about every car on Route 62 has heard about in advance and stops to visit. Our plans for tomorrow are still TBD, but we’ll definitely be continuing to head in the general direction of Cape Town since we’ve only got one night remaining until we fly to Johannesburg in preparation for the next phase of the trip, aka Operation Lemur Recon.

Grass mouse in Oudtshoorn

Grass mouse, enjoying the crumbs from our pre-meerkat breakfast. The wildlife hotspots continue to be concentrated around picnic areas.

Meerkat in Oudtshoorn

Meerkat sentinel, given the awesome responsibility of ensuring that bad things weren’t going to try to eat the rest of the family when they emerged from the den.

Audrey and ostriches in Oudtshoorn

HUGELY touristy, but it would be tough to pretend that playing with ostriches wasn’t super fun.

Old Horn

Posted from Oudtshoorn, South Africa at 9:05 pm, September 5th, 2014

This evening’s journal entry comes from Oudtshoorn, ostrich capital of the world and former home to the infamous “feather barons”. The many ostrich farms in the area advertise tours that include the opportunity to ride an ostrich, and while I’m unfortunately over the 75 kg weight limit, it’s possible that there will be an interesting video of Audrey in tomorrow’s post.

Today was a travel day, so we took our time getting started, enjoyed breakfast at our comfy lodge/B&B, then drove a couple of hours east to the coastal town of Mossel Bay. I expected the town that marked the start of the Garden Route to be similar to Monterey or Carmel, and was a bit disappointed by its lack of character, but I gave it two bonus points just as we were about to leave when we spotted five humpback whales and at least thirty dolphins feeding within a stone’s throw of the shore.

From Mossel Bay we drove inland through the mountains and clouds, and then down to the town of Oudtshoorn, which any idiot would immediately realize is pronounced “Oats Horn” (I had to ask the owner of our B&B to pronounce it for me, twice). After arriving, and on the advice of the B&B owner, we went for a mid-afternoon lunch to the Bufflesdrift Game Lodge, which is essentially a giant ranch with animals in it. My mango and chicken salad was consumed while watching three hippos across a lake, while Audrey ate her venison bobotie while enamored with the big fish that populated the lake and swam below us begging for food.

Tomorrow we’ve got a couple of morning activities planned in Oudtshoorn, including the aforementioned ostrich farm tour, and from there the travel plan is still TBD, although we’re pretty sure to be heading back in the direction of Cape Town since our time in South Africa is winding down, with the final stage of the odyssey set to begin in just four more days.

The Overberg

Posted from Swellendam, South Africa at 9:37 pm, September 4th, 2014

Today was obviously not going to improve upon yesterday’s airborne sharks, so I told Audrey to sleep in while I did a quick walk along the coast searching for whales. Breakfast at our B&B provided a reminder that no matter how similar a foreign country seems to home, there are tiny differences – our pancakes were served topped with apple (not particularly unusual) and sour cream (yowza). After checking out of the sour creamery we did a loop through town looking for whales, encountering the Hermanus “whale crier” who stood on a point with a vuvuzela that he blew whenever he sighted a whale – even with the vuvuzela, his was a job that I coveted.

Our drive to Swellendam was through very pretty farmland and included flocks of huge blue cranes, and the town of Swellendam turned out to have a tremendously nice place for us to stay at Gaikou Lodge, and incredible food hosted by a very pleasant Scottish man at the Powell House. The afternoon activity was a visit to Bontebok National Park, a place we targeted mostly because we noticed that it was along our route, but that provided more than enough animals to keep us entertained for several hours.

Tomorrow we’re heading in the direction of the town of Oudtshoorn, aka “the ostrich capital of the world”. This portion of the trip continues to be unplanned, with a nightly perusal of the map giving us a general idea for where we go the next day, subject to detours for any interesting distraction we might discover en route.

Cape weaver in Bontebok National Park

Cape weaver, with weaving material in-beak, in Bontebok National Park.

Airjaws

Posted from Hermanus, South Africa at 7:48 am, September 4th, 2014

For those wondering if we had better luck with sharks today, twice a great white leaped out of the water and destroyed the dummy seal we were towing, so it was an all right day, to say the least. The first shark was totally airborne – tail completely out of the water – while a photo of the second is posted below in order to ensure you never go in the water again.

The cage diving was again slow – the other two boats both got good looks, but the sharks were ignoring our boat for some reason. We actually had the opportunity to get in the cage this time, and we got a couple of passes from big sharks, but there weren’t enough sharks staying around for everyone in the boat to get a chance to sit in a flimsy cage in freezing water with a massive predator swimming a few feet away. GoPro video will have to follow in a future post as I haven’t had time to look and see what I got, much less edit it down to just include the parts with a massively scary shark in them.

After a morning of watching sharks fly through the air we headed east and spent the night in Hermanus, a seaside town known for having a huge concentration of right whales viewable from its shores. That said, as I write this at sunrise from the B&B’s balcony overlooking the sea, the whales are being shy, although I’m told they also swim into the old harbor so we’ll give that a look after breakfast before we meander further along the coast to see what we find.

Great white shark in False Bay

Bad day to be a seal decoy.

Great white shark in False Bay

(Update) I originally put only one picture on this journal entry, which Audrey pointed out is a crazy thing to do when there are multiple shots available of a great white flying through the air like a superhero. So here’s another one, for anyone who was still on the fence about ever swimming in the ocean again.

Cableways

Posted from Simon's Town, South Africa at 8:55 pm, September 2nd, 2014

We were told that taking the cableway to the top of Table Mountain was a “must do” in Cape Town, so this morning we drove the scenic route along the coast and to the base of the flat-topped mountain that dominates the region, and then boarded a contraption with a rotating floor that holds 65 people and travels along a flimsy cable slung from the top of the mountain. We emerged impressed and alive at the top, where extraordinary views of the entire peninsula awaited – this one lived up to its “must do” billing.

After a lunch at the cafe on top of Table Mountain that consisted of ostrich stew (which set us back a mere $8) we were back down the cableway and off to the national botanical gardens. Audrey was most impressed by South Africa’s national flower, the protea, while I was a fan of the “Boomslang Canopy Walk”, a walkway that sat on thirty-foot tall metal supports and led through the tree canopy, and that we were forewarned was designed to sway disconcertingly in the wind (it definitely did). Our final activity of the day was a return to the Cape of Good Hope, where we again saw ostriches and a new antelope for me – the bontebok – and Audrey got to do her first driving on the left side of the road.

Tomorrow it’s back to shark diving in the morning. Heavy wind at sunset had me fearing I would need a barf bag for our five hours on the water, but the marine forecast is still calling for calm seas, so hopefully the sharks will be playful, the sea gods will be gentle, and my breakfast will stay where it’s supposed to.

Table Mountain cableway

The cableway cars, hanging on thin cables about a thousand feet above the ground. An exhibit at the bottom of the mountain showed various incarnations of the cars over the years. The second version was noted to have had a perfect safety record; ominously, the first and third versions mentioned nothing about safety record.

Bontebok at the Cape of Good Hope

Bontebok and Bontebok, Jr.

The Cape of Good Hope

Posted from Simon's Town, South Africa at 8:51 pm, September 1st, 2014

For anyone hoping for shark videos: we saw lots of shark attacks from above the water, but the big fish weren’t feeling playful and never came near the cage today; of the three boats at Seal Island today, only one got a shark, and he didn’t even stay long enough for everyone on the boat to get a chance in the cage. We have another trip scheduled for Wednesday, so hopefully we’ll get a chance to jump in a flimsy metal cage with the ocean’s most powerful predator then.

Despite not seeing them from the water, watching the sharks attack seals, with many of the seals escaping from those attacks, was pretty incredible. One of the gals on staff noted that the hunting activity was the best they’ve seen in a couple of months, and the entire crew seemed a bit baffled as to where all of the sharks had gone once they had their breakfasts.

After the morning sharks, our afternoon was filled with many penguins at Boulders Beach, followed by a drive to the Cape of Good Hope via Table Mountain National Park. We got our first two right whales of the trip just offshore, and Audrey got her first ostrich and baboon. We finished the day with a drive down to the tip of the cape and a short hike up to an overlook where we could look out at two oceans while simultaneously hoping that our car was secure from the baboons patrolling the parking lot. The view was great, the car survived, and we may be back tomorrow to see if we can find more whales and perhaps a zebra or two.

Great white shark in False Bay

We’re gonna need a bigger boat.

Two’s Company

Posted from Simon's Town, South Africa at 8:40 pm, August 31st, 2014

After waking up before five o’clock this morning I made the two hour flight to Cape Town, and the girl arrived a short time later, so the adventure will now be a shared experience for the next six weeks.

Audrey was coming off of 32 hours in airports or on airplanes, so I navigated us to our lodging in Simon’s Town, took her out for some food, and then put her to bed for a while. We later made it down to the water to look at the comical African Penguins – we’ll visit them again, and hopefully get some photos for the journal. Tomorrow should be more adventurous, with an early start planned so that we can go out to look for really, really big sharks. Stay tuned.