So here I am - Ichaboe Island 23/12/2006
Door: Fleurebeur
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Fleur
31 Januari 2007 | Namibië, Windhoek
Ichaboe Island, Namibia.
23/12/2006
So here I am, Ichaboe Island. It took some time and just a few gag-occurrences later, there I was. The uninhabited island I would be spending about 6 weeks or so..
But let’s start off at the beginning!..
We left Cape Town for what was to be a loooong road trip! Left at 7 in the morning and after some last errands we were off.. First off the day started off in traffic along the townships and whatnot, interesting enough of course. People on horse and carriage as well as people trying to test out if a vehicle can ever really be fully capacitated. Out of traffic, out of the city we find our way along what is part of the winery and garden route. So now I’ve seen that as well! Quite interesting to see such a dry landscape and then once in a while a green carpet covers the land.. grapevines and fruit trees. Glad were we to see a lake where Ralf’s girlfriend, Lorien, jumped into right away, just to freshen up.. ha, niiice!.. Off again and then on our way to the border of Namibia where we were to stay along the Orange River (quite brown if I might say so myself!), the next day to cross the border and further our approx. 1400 km trip to Luderitz, Namibia. Quite a dry landscape along the way except for the few production gardens along the way.. we finally get there while having stopped off a few times to stretch the legs and get some groceries, as on an uninhabited island there are no grocery stores of course! At our lodge at the border we inhale the lovely landscape which I’ve been able to get quite a taste of on our way in the car. The desert is near and in Namibia the landscape is supposed to be even more interesting. The view changes tremendously all the time. We survived our first night ‘abroad’ and were off again, first to check yourselves out of south Africa and then check yourselves back into Namibia, I guess the part in between in no-man’s land?! But okay, made it through check-point and have seen a whole lot of nothing.. okay yes there were rocks and some plantation, but for the rest.. only at the end did I finally see some birds flying around again and then some ostriches.. then we actually reach the real ‘dune’ desert. Quite amazing when the winds are roaring at 60 km/hr there, the wind tends to blow real hard here and wonderfully enough it’s descended from the Antarctic so you can say it’s quite chilly! So we’re in a place called Luderitz and yes somehow I still don’t fully feel as if I’m in Africa, maybe the Afrikaans and the German (Namibia used to be a German Colony and Afrikaans sounds waaay too much like Dutch at times) everywhere along with the decent infrastructure kind of hides that all. Feels like Europe a bit, but hell, I’m here and I’m enjoying the fact that I can be here. Luderitz I might say is a damn boring town and we had the pleasure of staying a day longer because the boat couldn’t leave earlier due to the strong winds etc. We did do some site-seeing of course and when on the coast you know you have to stuff yourself with fresh local fish so I did my best! Yum! We took the car (which is not a 4x4) on an off-road trip and well yeah what could have happened, happened.. but we survived! Haha.. Lovely! Went to Shark Island where there are no sharks and it isn’t an island but a peninsula, we viewed penguin and flamingo island which as well were not inhabited anymore by the animals’ namesake, but when off to Diaz point, we saw flamingos, penguins, seals and yes, lucky me, dolphins! So that made up for some of the pushing we had to do when the city car got stuck in the sand on an uphill slope. Can we say exercise?! But the car made it in one piece as well as back to Cape Town where Lorien took it back to so she can go about her business while having a car on hand, very handy of course! We finally took the boat and yeah it’s a fishing boat (tending research) so it’s top heavy and it likes to roll with the waves. It wasn’t even that bad, especially when I saw dolphins again, twice, and a whole lotta seals. But yeah, lil’ Flower did have to puke again, 3 times to be exact. Haha, lovely info of course. Did I tell you I had eggs and sausage for breakfast aboard. Ha, yuck! But okay, thank goodness we didn’t go the route intended first off.. First to Mercury Island which is about 9 hrs by boat, stay a night in a bay and then furthering ourselves to Ichaboe. No, we just stayed aboard for 3 hrs, looong enough I think and then we were there. But yeah, I kinda really expected an island but you can kinda more say it’s a… rock?! But it is very interesting and yeah, no vegetation and just a lil’ cluster of housing built behind a wall. Glad to be on land we get to manually haul up the supplies and wheelbarrow them to our lovely temporary home. I’m welcomed by a damn lotta birds and I finally get to see the Cape Gannet, which is the reason I’m here in the first place. Lot’s of gulls and of course it’s full of penguins. You can watch them for hours, they are so clumsy and funny. Hilarious! We get to our ‘house’ and it’s a pigsty and lovely enough the people who stayed before didn’t believe in doing dishes so yeah, they nearly grew legs and were walking out of the sink and the rooms and bathroom were damn nasty (not the toilet as this is a lil’ house with a hole to sit on and let gravity do the rest) so the rest of the day was spent cleaning as well as a part of the next and yeah .. you understand.. And the flies! Oh my goodness, haha.. They have calmed down a bit (when the wind picked up) but they are still annoying, they are kelp flies, damn slow so you can kill a whole bunch in a just the shortest amount of time, but they suck! Our first night was interesting as to there was a bit of a storm and there is a little island next to us (Little Ichaboe) where there is a large colony of seals that sad enough due to the storm lost a lot of pups, some washed onto the island and in front of our ‘house’. These pups make the saddest of noise, which is just hart wrenching.. Some didn’t make the storm and some were placed in an area closer to the island hoping the mother would hear them or so, but due to high tide this took 2 days or so before I could sleep without hearing them cry! We’ve had a tour of the island, walking the wall that protects the guano from being washed away and I’ve taken waaay too many pictures of course, me again like usual! But it’s worth it, now I can at least upload them onto a pc and start filling up my memory stick again. The island is ‘run’ by Tony who lives here, funny talkative guy and we’ve already had our first ‘braai’ (BBQ) with him as well, he also fills his time here with rehabilitating penguins, especially the ones abandoned and the ones that have survived a seal attack (which here it’s like watching the discovery channel, I’ve seen a seal strike about 3 times already and a helpless penguin flying up into the air, but all at a distance thank goodness!) The island also habitates 4 species of cormorants which is supposed to be quite unique (I’m not a birder so I wouldn’t know) and it’s a damn shame that the Benguela current here, which causes the ocean here to be so full of activity, is form the Antartic cuz the water looks damn nice and I’d love to swim, but it’s about 12 degrees or so. COLD! And yes it’s summer but the wind here as well is cold so mostly im in a sweater, but my arms and feet are damn tanned! Haha... Dinners so far are good, hoping the fresh produce while last us a while. Shamefully enough, it was thought that the situation here with the Gannets would be better than in South Africa as here they are a more stable colony I guess so to speak. Malgas (South Africa) had a high predation and they were laying about a month late and thus when reaching there not having much to do if there are no chicks, well guess what?! The situation here is even worse,.. so far in our area of observation etc there are 8 chicks and thus not much work to do. I’ve already gone through too much of my books, should have brought more! But we have been thinking up stuff to do and I’ve gotten to observing some behaviours as well now so it’s alright and I’ve been shat upon enough times and the fleas from the chicks are damn itchy.. but hopefully soon there will be more chicks so we can have some more interesting work to do. Glad the island has electricity (solar and a generator) and I now can type a bit as well as well as (warm) running water. So far no mobile connection, seems not to be working at all this year which sux and yeah there’s actually supposed to be internet, but it’s not working,..haha.. sucks and that is the same for the satellite TV. Oh well, didn’t think I would have that anyways so nothing is lost, but it would have been nice to still somehow stay connected to friends and family, but who knows maybe soon there will be some reception on the phones.. until then.. I’ll just type a bit once in a while for you to stay up to date with what has all gone on in Fleurchah’s life while she was secluded from the rest of the world!…
Tata for now!
Fleur
It’s all gonna be long so to see but okay this is about info of a week and a half..haha.. 5 more weeks or so to go! Lotsa reading pleasure!
23/12/2006
So here I am, Ichaboe Island. It took some time and just a few gag-occurrences later, there I was. The uninhabited island I would be spending about 6 weeks or so..
But let’s start off at the beginning!..
We left Cape Town for what was to be a loooong road trip! Left at 7 in the morning and after some last errands we were off.. First off the day started off in traffic along the townships and whatnot, interesting enough of course. People on horse and carriage as well as people trying to test out if a vehicle can ever really be fully capacitated. Out of traffic, out of the city we find our way along what is part of the winery and garden route. So now I’ve seen that as well! Quite interesting to see such a dry landscape and then once in a while a green carpet covers the land.. grapevines and fruit trees. Glad were we to see a lake where Ralf’s girlfriend, Lorien, jumped into right away, just to freshen up.. ha, niiice!.. Off again and then on our way to the border of Namibia where we were to stay along the Orange River (quite brown if I might say so myself!), the next day to cross the border and further our approx. 1400 km trip to Luderitz, Namibia. Quite a dry landscape along the way except for the few production gardens along the way.. we finally get there while having stopped off a few times to stretch the legs and get some groceries, as on an uninhabited island there are no grocery stores of course! At our lodge at the border we inhale the lovely landscape which I’ve been able to get quite a taste of on our way in the car. The desert is near and in Namibia the landscape is supposed to be even more interesting. The view changes tremendously all the time. We survived our first night ‘abroad’ and were off again, first to check yourselves out of south Africa and then check yourselves back into Namibia, I guess the part in between in no-man’s land?! But okay, made it through check-point and have seen a whole lot of nothing.. okay yes there were rocks and some plantation, but for the rest.. only at the end did I finally see some birds flying around again and then some ostriches.. then we actually reach the real ‘dune’ desert. Quite amazing when the winds are roaring at 60 km/hr there, the wind tends to blow real hard here and wonderfully enough it’s descended from the Antarctic so you can say it’s quite chilly! So we’re in a place called Luderitz and yes somehow I still don’t fully feel as if I’m in Africa, maybe the Afrikaans and the German (Namibia used to be a German Colony and Afrikaans sounds waaay too much like Dutch at times) everywhere along with the decent infrastructure kind of hides that all. Feels like Europe a bit, but hell, I’m here and I’m enjoying the fact that I can be here. Luderitz I might say is a damn boring town and we had the pleasure of staying a day longer because the boat couldn’t leave earlier due to the strong winds etc. We did do some site-seeing of course and when on the coast you know you have to stuff yourself with fresh local fish so I did my best! Yum! We took the car (which is not a 4x4) on an off-road trip and well yeah what could have happened, happened.. but we survived! Haha.. Lovely! Went to Shark Island where there are no sharks and it isn’t an island but a peninsula, we viewed penguin and flamingo island which as well were not inhabited anymore by the animals’ namesake, but when off to Diaz point, we saw flamingos, penguins, seals and yes, lucky me, dolphins! So that made up for some of the pushing we had to do when the city car got stuck in the sand on an uphill slope. Can we say exercise?! But the car made it in one piece as well as back to Cape Town where Lorien took it back to so she can go about her business while having a car on hand, very handy of course! We finally took the boat and yeah it’s a fishing boat (tending research) so it’s top heavy and it likes to roll with the waves. It wasn’t even that bad, especially when I saw dolphins again, twice, and a whole lotta seals. But yeah, lil’ Flower did have to puke again, 3 times to be exact. Haha, lovely info of course. Did I tell you I had eggs and sausage for breakfast aboard. Ha, yuck! But okay, thank goodness we didn’t go the route intended first off.. First to Mercury Island which is about 9 hrs by boat, stay a night in a bay and then furthering ourselves to Ichaboe. No, we just stayed aboard for 3 hrs, looong enough I think and then we were there. But yeah, I kinda really expected an island but you can kinda more say it’s a… rock?! But it is very interesting and yeah, no vegetation and just a lil’ cluster of housing built behind a wall. Glad to be on land we get to manually haul up the supplies and wheelbarrow them to our lovely temporary home. I’m welcomed by a damn lotta birds and I finally get to see the Cape Gannet, which is the reason I’m here in the first place. Lot’s of gulls and of course it’s full of penguins. You can watch them for hours, they are so clumsy and funny. Hilarious! We get to our ‘house’ and it’s a pigsty and lovely enough the people who stayed before didn’t believe in doing dishes so yeah, they nearly grew legs and were walking out of the sink and the rooms and bathroom were damn nasty (not the toilet as this is a lil’ house with a hole to sit on and let gravity do the rest) so the rest of the day was spent cleaning as well as a part of the next and yeah .. you understand.. And the flies! Oh my goodness, haha.. They have calmed down a bit (when the wind picked up) but they are still annoying, they are kelp flies, damn slow so you can kill a whole bunch in a just the shortest amount of time, but they suck! Our first night was interesting as to there was a bit of a storm and there is a little island next to us (Little Ichaboe) where there is a large colony of seals that sad enough due to the storm lost a lot of pups, some washed onto the island and in front of our ‘house’. These pups make the saddest of noise, which is just hart wrenching.. Some didn’t make the storm and some were placed in an area closer to the island hoping the mother would hear them or so, but due to high tide this took 2 days or so before I could sleep without hearing them cry! We’ve had a tour of the island, walking the wall that protects the guano from being washed away and I’ve taken waaay too many pictures of course, me again like usual! But it’s worth it, now I can at least upload them onto a pc and start filling up my memory stick again. The island is ‘run’ by Tony who lives here, funny talkative guy and we’ve already had our first ‘braai’ (BBQ) with him as well, he also fills his time here with rehabilitating penguins, especially the ones abandoned and the ones that have survived a seal attack (which here it’s like watching the discovery channel, I’ve seen a seal strike about 3 times already and a helpless penguin flying up into the air, but all at a distance thank goodness!) The island also habitates 4 species of cormorants which is supposed to be quite unique (I’m not a birder so I wouldn’t know) and it’s a damn shame that the Benguela current here, which causes the ocean here to be so full of activity, is form the Antartic cuz the water looks damn nice and I’d love to swim, but it’s about 12 degrees or so. COLD! And yes it’s summer but the wind here as well is cold so mostly im in a sweater, but my arms and feet are damn tanned! Haha... Dinners so far are good, hoping the fresh produce while last us a while. Shamefully enough, it was thought that the situation here with the Gannets would be better than in South Africa as here they are a more stable colony I guess so to speak. Malgas (South Africa) had a high predation and they were laying about a month late and thus when reaching there not having much to do if there are no chicks, well guess what?! The situation here is even worse,.. so far in our area of observation etc there are 8 chicks and thus not much work to do. I’ve already gone through too much of my books, should have brought more! But we have been thinking up stuff to do and I’ve gotten to observing some behaviours as well now so it’s alright and I’ve been shat upon enough times and the fleas from the chicks are damn itchy.. but hopefully soon there will be more chicks so we can have some more interesting work to do. Glad the island has electricity (solar and a generator) and I now can type a bit as well as well as (warm) running water. So far no mobile connection, seems not to be working at all this year which sux and yeah there’s actually supposed to be internet, but it’s not working,..haha.. sucks and that is the same for the satellite TV. Oh well, didn’t think I would have that anyways so nothing is lost, but it would have been nice to still somehow stay connected to friends and family, but who knows maybe soon there will be some reception on the phones.. until then.. I’ll just type a bit once in a while for you to stay up to date with what has all gone on in Fleurchah’s life while she was secluded from the rest of the world!…
Tata for now!
Fleur
It’s all gonna be long so to see but okay this is about info of a week and a half..haha.. 5 more weeks or so to go! Lotsa reading pleasure!
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