The last days...

The plan for the weekend was to go walking with baboons and kayaking with penguins.
Immediately after getting back from school on Friday I walked to the Metro train (we are supposed to take the MetroPlus cars) and headed for Fish Hoek where I was met by a taxi and taken to Sun Valley, headquarters of Baboon Matters. Jenni Trethowan is the Jane Goodall of Baboon Matters, a group which seeks to protect the several troops of the Cape Peninsula from baboon/human conflict. Baboons have lived near humans in Africa forever, but as human populations increase and as baboon habitat disappears, these two primates come into conflict. And we all know who ultimately suffers when any animal comes into conflict with humans. Baboons are very adaptable beings – opportunists who will eat almost anything they can find. (Does any of this sound familiar, Wintergreen folks?) African natives used to chase baboons away from their crops with rocks – now they are chased from communities with guns. Indeed, baboons can be very destructive. What Jenni has set up since 1990 is a system where the several troops on the Cape Peninsula are monitored daily by hired and trained men from the township areas, and when they try to leave the bush and enter human communities, they are chased back.

Troops are composed of up to 30-40 individuals, with a dominant male, older and younger males, numerous females and babies of various ages. We were taken to an area of Table Mountain National Park where George’s troop lives. We first spotted them halfway up the ridge on some rocks. As we hiked closer we saw individuals digging for roots, eating grasses, geranium leaves and some protea flowers. The dominant male and other males were off by themselves and the moms and aunties were grooming each other on the rocks. The young baboons (some as young as 4 weeks, our guide said) were scampering about,jumping on and off the rocks and playing tag with each other. One of the very young ones was being held and groomed – and then we observed a fracas when the auntie which was holding him wouldn’t give him back to his momma. There was bareing of teeth, screaming, and pushing – and then the momma and her baby headed for another rock. The mommas call their babies with a distinctive grunt. We saw some males being groomed by females, too. Apparently the females groom each other, but the males are only groomed by females. Fascinating, but the experience ended all too soon because the French folks we were with decided they had seen enough. I wouldn’t have seen enough if I had stayed four hours instead of two.

That night I stayed at a place called Top Sail House in Simond’s Town, a former convent. The place is casually run by a couple who had gone off to their club, but were reached by phone to come back and check me in. Tiny rooms, as you can imagine, but very cheap.

The next morning I was supposed to go kayaking – but again the wind was up and the waters in False Bay were too rough (they call the breakers white horses here). Even the excursion boat that just goes around Simon’s Town harbor was out of commission. So I walked to the penguin beach instead – not where the boardwalks are but where you can actually swim among the penguins. Except the penguins weren’t swimming – they were hunkered down in rock crevices, combating the wind. There were some up on the rocks, though, and of course I climbed as close as I could safely and respectfully get. And just sat there among them. Then I went swimming – the water was so cold, I could only stay in for five minutes without getting numb. And they say False Bay is warmer than the beaches on the Atlantic side of the peninsula!

Have I mentioned the Great White Sharks incidents? Several in the last year – some which just took human body parts and others which took whole humans. So the surfers have shark watchers up on the hill who signal an alert when they spot a shark, and the swimmers don’t go too far out – and don’t swim alone – and the divers hope that the sharks will go after the swimmers and surfers first. Many say these incidents which happening increasingly often, are due to the popularity of shark cage diving. That experience puts the daring/dumb human in a cage lowered into the water surrounded by chum to attract the sharks who, of course can’t get at the individual in the cage but gives him an up close and personal experience. Some think that this relatively new practice encourages the human/food association in the shark’s brain, resulting in more recent shark attacks.

The baboons and the penguins made for a very pleasant last two days in South Africa – except for the crowds on the Metro on the way home. Shades of the NYC subway at its worst! I literally had to be pulled and pushed off the train (by a very helpful elderly lady) against the tide of the individuals getting on when I reached my stop at Rosebank. The crowds were due to a South African Navy festival of ships in both Cape Town and Simond’s Town – there’s always something on here in what they call the “Mother City” of South Africa.

I write this at the Jo-berg airport, during my very long layover. Almost time to board…