When Ms. Penguin read her e-mail this morning, she got a mail from SANCCOB asking if it were possible to do the scheduled tour today instead of Friday. We had no plans for the day other than being lazy around Stellenbosch, so we arranged for a time for the tour, and headed out to Table View, where SANCCOB is located.
Table View is called that for a very obvious reason. It sports an amazing view of Cape Town and Table Mountain. I don't even want to know how much it costs to buy a house there, especially one that is close to the beach. The pristine white sand beach that is popular with surfers. Aaah...
Anyway, when we got to SANCCOB, we were met by our guide Karen, and shown around the different areas and told about the kind of work they do. Basically, they are a wildlife rehabilitation charity that survives on private donations. They rehabilitate mostly penguins (oiled penguins, abandoned chicks, penguins that have washed onto shore for some reason or other, etc.), as well as other seabirds. They are NOT a zoo or an aquarium; if you want to visit you have to make arrangements in advance. They also do talks for school groups; this alsoy has to be booked in advance, naturally.
It's not "just like that" rehabilitating penguins and seabirds either. For example, penguins are picky eaters. Their fish must be "just so" and clean (fish that drops on the floor cannot be used). And salty; the fish also has to be dipped in a brine before the penguins are willing to eat it. The chicks cannot eat very large pieces of fish, so fish has to be cut for them. In a certain way of course. One also has to make sure they eat enough (or not too much) and that they get their vitamins and necessary medication.
When the penguins arrive, they are first given a veterinary check. They are then moved between various pens, based on their stage of recovery. You could see the differences between the new arrivals (one was especially skinny, as in bones-sticking-out skinny), the ones partially healthy, and the ones ready for release, all feisty and skeptical to people. Only experienced volunteers are allowed to handle the penguins that are ready for release, because they are so strong and healthy and bite even harder than the weak penguins (who can also bite quite hard). We were shown some examples of the damage penguins can do with their beaks - some protective gloves that had lots of holes in them :-)
Washing penguins can also be quite a nightmare. They're just like little kids, dogs, and cats; they don't want to take a bath and will resist any attempt to bathe them! It took two people to bathe a penguin - one to scrub it and the other to hold it down. Sometimes the penguin would almost break free, and make quite a splash. It also took two people to rinse a penguin, and again, one to do the actual rinsing while the other held the penguin down. Both washing and rinsing are important jobs though, as they need to get the oil sludge completely out of their feathers, and then the detergent completely rinsed out. This takes time; around one hour per penguin.
The highlight of the day was a meeting with Rocky, a resident rockhopper penguin. Rockhopper penguins are not indigenous to South Africa, so they cannot be released into the wild. Fortunately, it's rare that rockhoppers (and other type of penguins that aren't African penguins) show up on the South African coast. Anyway, Rocky is quite tame and loves company. He's just like a little puppy. When Karen was in the pen, Rocky came up to her and started nipping at her leg; imagine a little kid hanging on to the leg of Mom. Just like that. Very cute! Rocky was then let out of his pen, and we started taking a closer look at him. At one point, Rocky nipped at a bug that was on Mr. Penguin's leg, and Karen said that it was OK to touch Rocky. So we did. Wheeee! Ms. Penguin managed to sneak in a rub on the belly and is thrilled that she has finally rubbed a real penguin's belly! :-D
Penguins are surprisingly soft, except for the wings, which are hard and bristly. The feathers are short, and the feather density is very high. Petting penguin feathers was almost like petting fur.
Rocky is allowed to walk freely around the area, and he loves to hang out in the SANCCOB offices while the employees are working. Oh, and they're called rockhopper penguins for a reason. He didn't waddle around; he hopped around! Like on a pogo stick! It was very cute! Boing, boing, there goes a penguin!
Oh, and we can't forget Mia (we hope we remember her name correctly), the other young (three months old; Rocky is eight months) rockhopper who shares a pen with Rocky. We could pet her too, but she was a bit shy, so we let her be. She had two prominent scars on her torso - shark bites! This sweet little penguin survived a shark attack somehow. Tough little thing! :-)
After the tour, Mini Wolfgang and Mini Bobble (our plush traveling penguin and owl, for those of you who don't know already) adopted a penguin each! Since The Penguins already have a penguin called Wolfgang, Mini Wolfgang called his penguin Wolfgang II. Mini Bobble simply called his penguin Bobble (and it looks like a bobble too). Egocentric little things ;-)
We drove around the general area for a little while, making stops to take photos. We had lunch at a seaside Italian restaurant in a new development area of the posh kind; think pale men in those wussy golf sweaters who walk around with tiny non-dogs (you know, those kinds that are in fashion now, that eagles can take but don't because they have taste), and then headed back towards Stellenbosch. Along the way back to our apartment, we did two wine tastings. The first one was at Simonsig. They make excellent sparkling wine, both white and rosé. We tasted their higher range wines, as opposed to the last time we were there (as part of an organized tour in 2006) and tasted the regular stuff that they give to people who come to do tastings but don't know what to ask for.
The next tasting was at Beyerskloof. They had an interesting rosé sparkling wine using the Méthode Charmat method (where the second fermentation is done in stainless steel tanks, as opposed to bottles like with the Champagne method). It had a lovely foamy feel and a delicate flavor. Their Diesel Pinotage 2007, named after the winemaker's pet dog, was also fantastic.
Beyerskloof was the 30th winery we did tastings at during this trip!
Umami was the restaurant of choice for dinner. The concept is based on the umami taste, the fifth taste, and the food is prepared with the intention of bringing out its "umaminess." Fascinating stuff.
In our usual boring style (hah!), we ate the same thing, both for the starter and for the main. All vegetarian. Not because we were specifically after vegetarian food, but because they were the choices that looked most interesting. Our starter was a mushroom bento box - four different mushroom dishes beautifully presented in an elegant bento box. The dishes were: tempura shiitake with truffle mayonnaise; aubergine and roasted garlic stuffed brown mushroom; marinated king oyster mushrooms and beetroot salad; Thai green curry button mushroom turnover. Our favorite was the one with the aubergine, although all four were very tasty. This starter was also huge - huge enough to be its own main course!
For the main dish, we had waterblommetjie (water lily) risotto. It was served as a risotto with steamed corn, water lilies, and shiitake mushrooms, with a water lily tempura on top. This was absolutely delicious! Ms. Penguin is on a water lily kick now, and wishes she could get them at home...
With our meal, we had the Uva Mira Sauvignon blanc 2008, which was the suggested wine for both the bento box and the risotto:
color: too dark to see
nose: tropical fruits, slightly flowery
palate: dry, pleasant acidity, fruity, flavor of lemon and green gooseberries, relatively full-bodied. It was a nice match with our food, and would also be nice with fish and seafood.
Grade: :-)+
Showing posts with label penguins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label penguins. Show all posts
09 October 2009
2009-10-05 - Close Encounters of the Penguiny Kind
We had been looking at the weather forecast for the week, and it looked kind of dismal (forecasted rain) for Wednesday and Thursday. So we decided we had better go to Simonstown to see the penguins while the weather was still good.
The drive over there on the R310 and M5 is actually quite nice, especially once you get to the shores of False Bay. When we drove there in 2006, we saw whales from the shore (ca. Fish Hoek/Kalk Bay); they were hopping and frolicking about. But this time no whales jumping around, hmmf, although at one spot we did see some whales swimming around...
When we got to Boulder's, there was some kind of military activity going on, and this big noisy helicopter was circling around close to the penguin beach (but not over the beach itself). It seemed like the penguins weren't too thrilled about such an intrusion, and many of them were hiding under the boardwalk or in the shrubs. If they were out on the beach, they'd run under the boardwalk the moment the helicopter started getting too close. A lot of penguins were also moulting, making them a bit lethargic, but also rather funny looking, with all the pin feathers sticking out from awkward places. The rest of the penguins were out at sea to feed. Bad timing for penguin watching on our part, but oh well. We did see a lot of cute penguins...
There are several different places where people can visit the penguins. There's one place that is particularly crowded; this is where most of the busloads of people go. The other parts of the penguin colony are a bit more relaxed. At one of the more secluded areas, we spotted a pair of penguins hiding under some steps. Cute photo op right there, and Ms. Penguin tried to introduce Mini Wolfgang (our traveling plush penguin) to the real penguins. The real penguins tried to bite him though, hehe. And then, when we started climbing the steps, one of the penguins bit Ms. Penguin on the toe! How sweet! :-D
After penguin watching and buying a few souvenirs, we were hungry, and drove off to this farm where we had a great dinner in 2006, hoping to get some lunch. Unfortunately, the restaurant and most of the shops and activities are closed on Mondays. Bah. We just decided to keep it simple, and bought some ginger ale (Frankies!), droewoers, and tortilla chips to snack on, and drove back to Stellenbosch.
For dinner, we went to a restaurant called De Volkskombuis. We were also there in 2006 and liked it so much we were determined to go back if we were ever in Stellenbosch again. Mr. Penguin didn't get a starter, but Ms. Penguin was getting her appetite back, so she ordered the Cape Malay wontons - one wonton filled with bobotie and served with homemade chutney, one wonton filled with waterblommetjies (water lilies) and mushrooms, and one wonton filled with snoek (a sort of mackerel-like fish) and served with grape and rooibos syrup. All of these were lovely, but the waterblommtjies were quite fascinating. It was the first time Ms. Penguin (and Mr. Penguin too) had ever tasted them, even after so many trips to South Africa.
For the main, Ms. Penguin had the Cape Country Sampler - a dish with bobotie, waterblommtjies bredie (water lily stew with lamb), and chicken pie. All three were delicious in their own way. The bobotie was nice and fruity, but without chunks of fruit like Mr. Penguin makes. The stew was very flavorful. The chicken pie was very tasty and "comforting." Mr. Penguin got the oven-roasted honey and orange duck legs, served with risotto and steamed vegetables. We both had the Middelvlei Pinotage 2008 with our meal.
The drive over there on the R310 and M5 is actually quite nice, especially once you get to the shores of False Bay. When we drove there in 2006, we saw whales from the shore (ca. Fish Hoek/Kalk Bay); they were hopping and frolicking about. But this time no whales jumping around, hmmf, although at one spot we did see some whales swimming around...
When we got to Boulder's, there was some kind of military activity going on, and this big noisy helicopter was circling around close to the penguin beach (but not over the beach itself). It seemed like the penguins weren't too thrilled about such an intrusion, and many of them were hiding under the boardwalk or in the shrubs. If they were out on the beach, they'd run under the boardwalk the moment the helicopter started getting too close. A lot of penguins were also moulting, making them a bit lethargic, but also rather funny looking, with all the pin feathers sticking out from awkward places. The rest of the penguins were out at sea to feed. Bad timing for penguin watching on our part, but oh well. We did see a lot of cute penguins...
There are several different places where people can visit the penguins. There's one place that is particularly crowded; this is where most of the busloads of people go. The other parts of the penguin colony are a bit more relaxed. At one of the more secluded areas, we spotted a pair of penguins hiding under some steps. Cute photo op right there, and Ms. Penguin tried to introduce Mini Wolfgang (our traveling plush penguin) to the real penguins. The real penguins tried to bite him though, hehe. And then, when we started climbing the steps, one of the penguins bit Ms. Penguin on the toe! How sweet! :-D
After penguin watching and buying a few souvenirs, we were hungry, and drove off to this farm where we had a great dinner in 2006, hoping to get some lunch. Unfortunately, the restaurant and most of the shops and activities are closed on Mondays. Bah. We just decided to keep it simple, and bought some ginger ale (Frankies!), droewoers, and tortilla chips to snack on, and drove back to Stellenbosch.
For dinner, we went to a restaurant called De Volkskombuis. We were also there in 2006 and liked it so much we were determined to go back if we were ever in Stellenbosch again. Mr. Penguin didn't get a starter, but Ms. Penguin was getting her appetite back, so she ordered the Cape Malay wontons - one wonton filled with bobotie and served with homemade chutney, one wonton filled with waterblommetjies (water lilies) and mushrooms, and one wonton filled with snoek (a sort of mackerel-like fish) and served with grape and rooibos syrup. All of these were lovely, but the waterblommtjies were quite fascinating. It was the first time Ms. Penguin (and Mr. Penguin too) had ever tasted them, even after so many trips to South Africa.
For the main, Ms. Penguin had the Cape Country Sampler - a dish with bobotie, waterblommtjies bredie (water lily stew with lamb), and chicken pie. All three were delicious in their own way. The bobotie was nice and fruity, but without chunks of fruit like Mr. Penguin makes. The stew was very flavorful. The chicken pie was very tasty and "comforting." Mr. Penguin got the oven-roasted honey and orange duck legs, served with risotto and steamed vegetables. We both had the Middelvlei Pinotage 2008 with our meal.
22 September 2009
2009-09-19 – Penguins and wine
NB: This entry will eventually be edited to add photos, links, and maybe fix some of the content a bit...
Finally at Cape Agulhas Backpackers – yay!
The flight itself was, well, a flight. The usual crammed like cattle into tin boxes. Mooooo. The main meal they served wasn't too bad though. It was a cottage pie, served with salad and bread and butter, with some kind of chocolate mousse cake thing for dessert.
The breakfast was kind of bleh though. Microwaved scrambled egg with some kind of bacon and sausage, with tomato and mushrooms. At least they had some yogurt with the whole thing, and that was OK. The coffee was very weak. Financial crisis, you know...
When we got to immigration and passport control, we were met by a really friendly, smiling man who was joking with us about going wine tasting. Why can't every country have immigration control officers like this one? *sigh* :-) The immigration control area itself has changed quite a bit since the last time we were there (in 2006) – it was a lot nicer now, and they seemed relatively efficient. And no more filling out of those stupid immigration forms!
After we were done with all that, we got the details about our car and then went to News Cafe for some breakfast. We both ordered these “health” pancakes; on the menu they said they were müsli pancakes with yogurt and fruit. What it ended up being was rolled up crepes filled with yogurt and müsli, with fruit and some more yogurt on the side, but hey... it was good. And filling. Ms. Penguin had a regular filter coffee with milk to go with her breakfast and Mr. Penguin ordered a cafe latte – it was served as a glass of hot milk with a shot of espresso on the side.
Getting the car was a bit of a feat. Because of all the construction going on at CPT, some of the signs were a bit confusing, to say the least. We went in the direction they pointed to for car rentals, but then the signs disappeared, and then reappeared in the domestic arrivals area. So of course we thought everything had been moved there, temporarily or not. No big deal. Until we got there, and were packed into a big BMW (that we, for a moment, thought was the car we were going to get!) and shuffled off back to the international area. Geez. But the guy was cool about it, and admitted there was a lot of confusion due to all the construction. So no BMW for the penguins, but a Nissan Tiida instead. It doesn't have cruise control, and the air conditioning system is a bit primitive, and a slow motor compared to the Mercedes we had last year, but Mr. Penguin feels it's an OK-ish car to drive.
Our first stop was the Stony Point Nature Reserve at Betty's Bay, to see the penguins. Penguins! Development in the area has really picked up since the last time we were there (in 2007). There's now a café – Southern Cross Café – next to the penguin reserve area. Which is nice, because we were missing that kind of thing the last time we were there.
The penguins were as cute (and lustful – hey, it's spring) as ever. They are such funny little birds who behave in such funny ways. There were a lot of “blue” penguins this time – young penguins who don't have that silly fuzz but who don't have adult plumage quite yet either. There weren't as many fuzzy babies as last time, but there was one that we saw that was particularly pathetic. It looked like a bunch of dirty lint, and it was trying to crawl around on its knobs of something that will become wings/flippers some day. We suppose it wanted food from its mother, but mum was more interested in preening than her pesky chick ;-)
Other birds in the bay included cape cormorants, white-chested cormorants, gulls, as well as hadeda ibises, wagtails, thrushes, and other small birds.
The original plan was to eat lunch in Hermanus, but because of the delays with the car, we were running late and decided to drop it. We picked up some biltong at a random Spar, and drove on to Raka Wines for a tasting. Now this is a winery we are very familiar with; we've been enjoying their wonderful wines since 2006. We had also visited in 2006 (after our trip to Cape Agulhas that year) and knew we wanted to go back. We tried five different wines, starting with a white blend and then a rosé (both were quite OK), and then onto the amazing reds – Spliced, Quinary, and Biography Shiraz. And we are now the proud owners of bottles of a Biography Shiraz and a Merlot.
It was getting late by then, so we drove right to Cape Agulhas Backpackers. We were met by the lovely Steffi, who showed us to our room (the Bella room) and let us know about how things worked with dinner and breakfast (if we wanted to order), tours, etc. Since we were quite exhausted, we decided to just relax with some drinks from the bar (beer and cider), and we decided to stay here for dinner as well. Which was a good choice for two exhausted penguins, who ended up having to waddle off to their room/nest to take a pre-dinner nap...
So here we are, back at the bar again, waiting for our chicken braai dinner. Life is good...
Finally at Cape Agulhas Backpackers – yay!
The flight itself was, well, a flight. The usual crammed like cattle into tin boxes. Mooooo. The main meal they served wasn't too bad though. It was a cottage pie, served with salad and bread and butter, with some kind of chocolate mousse cake thing for dessert.
The breakfast was kind of bleh though. Microwaved scrambled egg with some kind of bacon and sausage, with tomato and mushrooms. At least they had some yogurt with the whole thing, and that was OK. The coffee was very weak. Financial crisis, you know...
When we got to immigration and passport control, we were met by a really friendly, smiling man who was joking with us about going wine tasting. Why can't every country have immigration control officers like this one? *sigh* :-) The immigration control area itself has changed quite a bit since the last time we were there (in 2006) – it was a lot nicer now, and they seemed relatively efficient. And no more filling out of those stupid immigration forms!
After we were done with all that, we got the details about our car and then went to News Cafe for some breakfast. We both ordered these “health” pancakes; on the menu they said they were müsli pancakes with yogurt and fruit. What it ended up being was rolled up crepes filled with yogurt and müsli, with fruit and some more yogurt on the side, but hey... it was good. And filling. Ms. Penguin had a regular filter coffee with milk to go with her breakfast and Mr. Penguin ordered a cafe latte – it was served as a glass of hot milk with a shot of espresso on the side.
Getting the car was a bit of a feat. Because of all the construction going on at CPT, some of the signs were a bit confusing, to say the least. We went in the direction they pointed to for car rentals, but then the signs disappeared, and then reappeared in the domestic arrivals area. So of course we thought everything had been moved there, temporarily or not. No big deal. Until we got there, and were packed into a big BMW (that we, for a moment, thought was the car we were going to get!) and shuffled off back to the international area. Geez. But the guy was cool about it, and admitted there was a lot of confusion due to all the construction. So no BMW for the penguins, but a Nissan Tiida instead. It doesn't have cruise control, and the air conditioning system is a bit primitive, and a slow motor compared to the Mercedes we had last year, but Mr. Penguin feels it's an OK-ish car to drive.
Our first stop was the Stony Point Nature Reserve at Betty's Bay, to see the penguins. Penguins! Development in the area has really picked up since the last time we were there (in 2007). There's now a café – Southern Cross Café – next to the penguin reserve area. Which is nice, because we were missing that kind of thing the last time we were there.
The penguins were as cute (and lustful – hey, it's spring) as ever. They are such funny little birds who behave in such funny ways. There were a lot of “blue” penguins this time – young penguins who don't have that silly fuzz but who don't have adult plumage quite yet either. There weren't as many fuzzy babies as last time, but there was one that we saw that was particularly pathetic. It looked like a bunch of dirty lint, and it was trying to crawl around on its knobs of something that will become wings/flippers some day. We suppose it wanted food from its mother, but mum was more interested in preening than her pesky chick ;-)
Other birds in the bay included cape cormorants, white-chested cormorants, gulls, as well as hadeda ibises, wagtails, thrushes, and other small birds.
The original plan was to eat lunch in Hermanus, but because of the delays with the car, we were running late and decided to drop it. We picked up some biltong at a random Spar, and drove on to Raka Wines for a tasting. Now this is a winery we are very familiar with; we've been enjoying their wonderful wines since 2006. We had also visited in 2006 (after our trip to Cape Agulhas that year) and knew we wanted to go back. We tried five different wines, starting with a white blend and then a rosé (both were quite OK), and then onto the amazing reds – Spliced, Quinary, and Biography Shiraz. And we are now the proud owners of bottles of a Biography Shiraz and a Merlot.
It was getting late by then, so we drove right to Cape Agulhas Backpackers. We were met by the lovely Steffi, who showed us to our room (the Bella room) and let us know about how things worked with dinner and breakfast (if we wanted to order), tours, etc. Since we were quite exhausted, we decided to just relax with some drinks from the bar (beer and cider), and we decided to stay here for dinner as well. Which was a good choice for two exhausted penguins, who ended up having to waddle off to their room/nest to take a pre-dinner nap...
So here we are, back at the bar again, waiting for our chicken braai dinner. Life is good...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
