Well, technically we got back yesterday, but yesterday was a day of playing catch up...mainly on sleep for me. Since we are off on Fridays we will be using the day to work on our portfolios and studying for our respective tests. It also looks like it's going to rain today so it seems as if that's our only option.
Here is our what our adventure in the Karoo consisted of:
We left Port Elizabeth at 8:30 in the morning and crammed 6 of us plus a chaperone from the university and our professor into a van that was not nearly as luxurious as the vans that we've been taking to the university. Addison and I were crammed into the back of the van with my room mate from West Virginia, Sienna. I'm using crammed to describe Addison's situation, but I was actually nicely nestled into my seat..one of the benefits of being short! My only complaint was that I was next to the window and the sun was shining rather brightly and I was getting really really warm. The Karoo is about 4 hours away, but it took us 8 hours to get there because we stopped just about every hour to explore.
Our first stop was to a quarry to looks for fossils. Our professor (we were actually never told his name or what to call him so the chaperone girl called him Doctor and we just followed suit) is a zoologist/geologist so he was all about this fossil digging stop. He told us that the fossils we would find in that area would be 390 million years old and we were mainly looking for fossils of shells and leaves. Addison found a fossil which he tossed back into the pile and I found none. Everything looked like a rock to me... I discovered that day that being an archaeologist/geologist/paleontologist is not a very reasonable profession. Our professor gave me a really nice fossil of a shell, but then told us that you're not allowed to bring them into the United States so we need to hide it in our baggage. It was cool, but I'm not sure I want to be held up at customs over this fossil of a shell.
We piled back into the van until our next stop; a little country store on the side of the road. The Doctor said that they had the best springbok pie. Springbok is basically their white-tail deer. They are everywhere. We didn't try the pie though. There was a precious dog named Rocco that lived at the store that we basically all fell in love with.
We continued on our way until we got to Camdeboo National Park. We stopped there for awhile and got to see a bird's eye-view of the topography of the Karoo. It was really beautiful. We looked over this area that was called the Valley of Desolation and looked over the town of Graaf-Renet that was on the other side. The town sits at the mouth of a dam of the Sundays River and if the dam ruptures that river will take it's natural course and wipe the town out. We stopped in that town and got lunch. I've mentioned that KFC is huge here. Well, KFC was our only option that was quick. I've actually never eaten at a KFC before, but it was different than in the US. They also did not have any sauces, not even ketchup. I get a little grumpy when I'm hungry and the guy that was working the cash register and I were not communicating very well. Needless to say, it was a kinda stressful moment for both of us, haha.
We went on, finally, to Ganora Farms. The farm was really nice and very interesting. We saw tons of sheep on our drive out to the farm from PE and the farmers at Ganora had lots of sheep too. Our accommodations were beyond nice! We had heaters and electric blankets. Oh! I forgot to tell y'all. None of the building here in South Africa have A/C or heaters. Everything is built out of cement blocks to keep the temperature locked inside. So, it was a treat to have a heater because it can get a little cold at night. They had two dogs and they have 13 cats. They are also rehabilitating meerkats at their farm. They said people get them as pets and then dump them in the wild and they no longer know how to survive on their own. So if you bring them to the farm they will help them get used to being in the wild again and they will then release them when they are ready. They had 3 and they were so sweet and cute. They would follow you around and they lived in harmony with the dogs and cats. They also had an owl with a broken wing that they were tending to. The farm sat on a huge piece of land and it was really nice.
We had dinner that night in the dining hall. We had kudo for dinner that night and it was actually delicious! We also had some pudding for dessert that was amazing.
The next day we began our day with a lecture on the Karoo fossils. We learned how fossils are made and where to look for them in general and tin the Karoo. He also taught us about mammal-like reptiles. He told us that in the Karoo you can find them and they are the link between reptiles and mammals. The doctor then showed us a museum of fossils that they had made for him there at the farm. They have found tons of fossils of mammal-like reptiles in that area.
After our lecture we walked to an area in the farm where they have bushman paintings. They also have drawings that a young man who hid on the farm during the time of the Anglo-Boer war in South Africa made. The bushman paintings were so cool. They date as far back as 7,000 years ago and they are still visible. Mrs. Steynberg, that owns the farm, has learned a lot about the bushman culture and lifestyle and was able to give us a lot of information on them.
We had lunch after that. They were called fete-cakes and it was basically fried dough. They were delicious with jam and butter. We then went on another fossil dig at a creek-bed that was nearby the farm. I did not find anything again, but some people found the fossil of leaves that we were looking for. At this point, Addison and I were kind of over the whole fossil thing and just took to throwing rocks into the creek or just breaking rocks in half to see if there were any fossils inside. The fossils they found dated back 240 million years, which was pretty cool!
We had mutton for dinner that night and some pineapple dessert that was pretty good. The mutton, on the other hand, was not my thing.
We were supposed to go on a canyon walk wednesday morning and look for more fossils (our professor is REALLY into them), but it was too windy. We ended up having a lecture on human evolution instead. It took a weird turn at the end, thanks to our chaperone, and we started talking about religion and all these different topics that had nothing to do with what we were talking about and things got kinda tense. After our lecture we went to Nieu Bethesda. This town sat at the bottom of the mountain from the farm. We ate at a local brewery there that makes their own beer and their own cheeses. The beer I got tasted like tobacco so that was interesting. Addison's tasted like iron and old man, I believe he said, so that was interesting too. All of the cheeses were made from sheep's milk so I thought it tasted really weird. Addison found one that he liked though.
We went on a walk through the farm with a man that was a descendant of the bushman. He showed us all of these plants that they use to cure certain issues that they are having. It was interesting, but some of the uses for the plants were kind of far-fetched. He taught us how to use a plant to wash yourself to get rid of bad luck, basically. It was interesting, none-the-less.
After our walk we had a break and then we had dinner. Our dinner was lamb with some pumpkin tart, which was really really good. I forgot to say that we had the most delicious breakfast every morning. they brought out all sorts f jams and they were all so amazing! I think I had 4 pieces of toast every morning so I could have a little bit of each one.
On Thursday morning, we packed up our van and traveled the 4 hours back to PE. We saw tons of monkeys on our drive back and lots of Springbok. Once again, I was next to the window and roasted thanks to the sun.
Anyways, we're off to study now! Hopefully tomorrow we get to go visit one of the Elephant Sanctuaries here in South Africa so I can finally be united with the most amazing creatures ever :)
We miss all of y'all and love y'all!
Natalia and Addison
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