Finally, our last day in Cape Town! I've tried to post this a hundred times but the internet on the ship hasn't been very good and every time I uploaded the pictures they wouldn't save. So here we go, almost a month later.
Our last day in Cape Town we signed up for a SAS trip called Animal Whispers. Our first stop was the Spier wine estate to check out the wild bird rescue and do some wine tasting.
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| The beautiful Spier estate |
The wild birds were even cooler than we imagined. The trainer had kites, buzzards, owls, and other birds of prey that had been injured. Some could be released later into the wild and others never would be released. The birds flew around, came when called, and landed right near us.
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| We got to hold Glory the owl. |
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| No photos, please. |
They also had some dancing owls! When you played music near them they swayed back and forth to the beat. It was so cute!
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| Dancing owls! |
They also had some baby owls. This one was cute....
And this one was terrifying!!
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| Demon owl! |
Jason's favorite bird was Goliath, who was in fact really big.
Birds of prey rely a lot on sight, so if their eyes are closed it's as if the rest of the world doesn't exist. So that the nervous birds didn't freak out they make them tiny little helmets that cover their eyes. Then they stay totally calm, even when surrounded by many people.
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| Tiny bird helmet! |
The next stop was at the Cheetah Outreach, where we learned about cheetahs and got to pet one! They purr just like house cats and they shed like them too. It really was like petting Ricky or Lucy, but much bigger.
After our program ended we headed back to the ship to meet our very special guest, the Archbishop Desmond Tutu!! He's a big supporter of Semester at Sea and has sailed with the program before. Faculty and staff got to meet him at a private reception before he talked to the students. He was incredibly inspiring but also really funny. His laugh was amazing!
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| Me and Desmond Tutu |
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| Jason and Desi :) |
South Africa was absolutely amazing. Next came 13 days of crossing the Atlantic!
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