Strandfontein: January 18

On our first day of driving to our campsite on the Atlantic Ocean we stopped for lunch by a beach full of mussel shells. I have never seen as many same type of shell on a beach in my entire life. These shells of mussels had clearly been brought in by the tide and were everywhere. We went down to the water and were able to look at all of the thriving biodiversity and biomass in the water. On the same beach different people in our group found many bones that were identified as fur seal skulls, ribs, and other various parts of the body.

After lunch we headed to Bird Island near Lambert’s Bay. This houses a large breeding ground for Cape Gannets. It is also home to Cape Seagulls and Jackass Penguins. There must have been more than a thousand Cape Gannets all living together. They are primarily white birds with black on their tails and yellowish heads with bright blue eyes. The eyes are so unique and really stand out. There is a building in the middle of all these birds where you are able to climb a set of stairs in order to view the birds and their behavior from inside a building. Bird Island is one of only a few breeding locations for this type of bird.

Although we were not fortunate enough to see the Jackass penguins, who got their name from the noises they make, we learned about much of the history and lifestyles. Bird Island used to house many more of these penguins than it does in current days and in the last 100 years there has been a dramatic decrease in their population, almost a 90% decrease. Jackass penguins used to live and nest in huge mounds of guano, which is bird droppings that were sometimes many meters tall, but throughout the 1900s this guano was taken to be used as rich fertilizer. This had a huge negative impact on these penguins and their population greatly decreased especially since some of their eggs were in this guano. Oil pollution has also negatively affected the lives of the penguins.

After leaving Bird Island we headed to our first campsite along the Atlantic Ocean. Looking back it was barely even camping; we had warm showers, running water, cool weather, and no sand. It was our last night in South Africa and the last night near civilization for a long time.