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!!!
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!!!
