The Okkie Jooste Camp

The Okkie Jooste Camp

On Monday the 31st of August myself and my fellow Life Sciences 152  fellows were headed to Okkie Jooste practical camp, which is in Stellenbosch. We left the campus (UWC) at about 10:00am and arrived at Okkie Jooste at 11:00.

 What a beautiful area Okkie Jooste is located at, surely we are going to have a dazzling time in this four days. We first took all our belongings and food to the hall and kitchen respectively. We than had to chose our rooms and who we were going to sleep with, my roommates were Aphiwe and Abongile. I was in the green team. We first did an ice breaker for us just to be in a camp mood, where ten members of a team were supposed to drink 25 litres of water and interestingly I was among those who drank water. After lunch we than had a talk about the Okkie Jooste Nature Reserve, where the presenter was telling us about the reserve and what animals and plants it conserves. We were amazed on how big the reserve was, when they show us topographically. Our first supper was the best supper we had, prepared by the blue team. We than had another talk, but we were released early to sleep since we were going on hike the next morning. I woke up at about 06:00am and was a bit cloudy and cold showed no signs that it is spring. We went for the mammal trap where we had to trap mice by using the trapping instrument and peanut butter and oats.
We then went for a hike of which was about six kilometers. It was not that exhausting I thought it was, I expected we were going to hike higher than we did. We observed how the fires negatively affected the nature reserve, as some plants were still totally burnt. However it was surprising to find out that the reserve need fires for its species composition, new information gained. Interestingly on our way due to thirstiness we drank the water from the river of which was not bad at all. It started raining along our way, oh what a day this turned to be. We than returned back, and went for our lunch duty with my team. I chopped onions, tears just went out, that was funny, clearly showing I'm not used to this. We made hot dogs. Lyle did a presentation on frogs, and was shocked that there is a frog that does not make a sound, interestingly frogs use sounds to attract opposite sex, thinking what I'm thinking hahahaha!! I enjoyed the snake talk where the presenter gave us some facts about snake. Surprisingly snakes can eat organisms bigger than them and I'm like they are just a tube with two holes. We went for star gazing, where I enjoyed seeing the scorpion of which is my star sign. We had a talent show and presentations on the third day. The following day we went back to campus, what a CAMP WE HAD!!!

EXPERIENCE ON CAPE POINT NATURE RESERVE

At the tip of the Cape Peninsula 60 km South West of Cape Town lays Cape Point, a nature reserve within Table Mountain National Park declared Natural World Heritage site. On the 23^rd of September 2014 the whole of Life Science 151 ECP students were headed to the 7750 hectare of rich flora and fauna. This was an exciting journey for me as it was a first that I was going to the Cape Point Nature Reserve (CPNR), as I even made sure that I am not late as I usually be during lectures. I enjoyed seeing different beautiful places along the way but I did not think that the trip will take more than 2 hours I even thought that the bus driver is driving slowly. We finally reached our destination and the weather did not look promising as there were possibilities of rain but even if so that would not have stopped us from observing the nature on the reserve. Before we went off the bus we were told that there are baboons in the reserve and that they can be dangerous if provoked and this made to be scared but on the contrary I wanted to see the baboons for experience.

Our first task was to walk up the strenuous hill to the Light House; this took me about 10 minutes to reach the light house and that I was thinking about the baboons also had an impact of me taking too long to reach the desired destination.  Along the way I saw a couple of creatures namely: lizards, butterflies, birds and some beautiful plants. The view from the light house was exceptionally tremendous as I saw everything on that part of the reserve clearly and of course the ocean. We then had to go to our next stop of which was the beach (Diaz Beach) of which I can say it was my best destination we occupied on the CPNR. While busy enjoying our trip we also had to answer questions as this was a formal practical, this made me to not be too excited and forget the purpose of trip. After answering some of the questions my friends and I did not hesitate to hike to the top of the cliff of which was also not easy, surely I lost some kilos on this trip. On the top of the cliff was the best moment ever for me as it was about 2km high, though the wind was very strong this made us to quickly go down after we also took a few pictures. I then went to the beach with the expectation of seeing sea animals of which disappointingly I did not see. I wished to take a short swim but I would not be able as the area was the “Marine Protected Area”. We were then summoned to the buses for the next and last stop at the Cape Point shops.

From this stop we had a chance to answer some of the questions and also observe some plants. I went to East from the shops where I saw man-made dam of which sort of has drain. On my way back I saw a tortoise, lizard and springbok waste of which showed there were springboks around the area and then we were called by our practical organizers. This was the end of our outing, I really enjoyed it and gained a lot of knowledge!!!!

Nature Reserve Reflection

On the 7^th of March we were at the Nature Reserve of our school (UWC). We were going to observe things/organisms as the upcoming professional scientists but in sort of a race.

By doing the Nature Reserve race I learnt that many different organisms can live in a single environment without any harm. I learnt on how to differentiate between shrubs and grasses and also how some certain trees/plants compete in terms of growing. I learnt a lot of things about plants and animals on how they interact with each other. I got knowledge on how to name different trees with their scientific names.

Firstly I enjoyed just being in the nature reserve observing things like a professional scientists of which was very interesting. I enjoyed being able to detect that animals live there, by the evidence we got of footprints, shells and other things that showed animal life. I also enjoyed where we had to observe different kinds of bird species and the different sounds they make. It was very interesting to do these observations if the form of a race. I did not like the fact that the things we had to observe were not that many and most were plants. I feel that if we had to observe more things on animals that would have made the practical to be more interesting.