Fun times

Hi!!!!! Sorry it has taken me so long to post a blog, but we have had issues with the internet. It should all be fixed now.  I plan on blogging weekly now.  Bye for now.

The Cradle of Humankind 

We decided to go back to the Cradle of Humankind because Nate chose to go there. I was happy to go there again because there is so much to learn. 

First, we did something called the Long March to Freedom. The Long March to Freedom is a tribute to people who played a role in South African history. We saw tons of amazing people. Here are a few: Autshumato, He was born in 1625-1663 he was only 38 when he died. Aushumato was the leader of the Goringhaikona and was the first political prisoner of Robin Island. Robin Island is a jail on an island in Cape Town.He also was a Interpreter, Negotiator, Tradesman and a rebel leader. 

King Shaka, King Shaka was born in 1781 to 1828 he was 47 years old when he died.That was old back then.He was killed by his brother, Dingane, . He was the leader of one of the Zulu tribes King Shaka was also a strategist. He helped all of the Zulu tribes become one big tribe!! He also lead an army of the Zulus called Impi. Here is a song by Johnny Clegg about the Impi when they were in battle with British. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vhWhX3ZkW8 . Did you like it ? I love it. 

Nelson Mandela, was there of course.  He was such an amazing man.  I did a presentation on him at school this year.  

Then, we went into The Cradle of Humankind. 

 I leaned about the 5 mass extinctions. I thought this one was really interesting and I enjoyed learning about it.There have been 5 major extinctions in the earth’s history.   An example you probably all know is the dinosaur extinction. Scientists believe that we are causing the sixth mass extinctions. If they are correct it will be the first mass extinction that was caused by a species :0 !! So, remember to be green!

Another one of my favourites was the wall timeline. It tells you what happened and when it happened. Did you know that 1.5 billion years ago life started and that 251 million years ago the third and greatest extinction occurs destroying 90% of life and 19 million years ago the first humans arrived. 

Road Trip to Hout Bay.

On Thursday we started our trip to Hout Bay ( a place near Cape Town ). We took 3 days to get here!!! First, we drove to Kimberley it took 5 hours! :( on the way we say a big fat cow, in the back of a truck. It look scared. Poor thing.  

We also went into a storm!! It was huge.  When we finally got there we there we had dinner and then went to sleep. 

The next day, before we left we went to “The Big Hole”. The Big Hole is what you might think is, it’s a big hole but it was used for mining diamonds. It was discovered in 1871 and ended in 1914. It was huge.  The big hole is full of water that is 41 meters deep. 

Do you know that diamonds are created by carbon, heat and intense pressure?  They are formed 150 feet below the Earth's surface and is pushed by heat up till it goes into a volcano and spits out lava and with that lava there are diamonds!    

toilet from when they used to mine here

We went to have a tour of the Big Hole.  We learned that many people came to the mine to hopefully find their fortunes. A lot of people died when they were mining.  It was a dangerous job.  We were able to see different machines, and tools they used.  They also showed us an old toilet.  Then, we went down an elevator into the mine. We got to explore and hear a fake explosion.  It turns out the mine was not a mine it was a floor below the main floor :( . After that we looked at real diamonds that were soooo pretty. Then we watched a movie about the diamonds. It gave us a little bit of history on the Eureka diamond and how everyone came to come to Kimberley in hopes to get rich.  

Then, we left and drove Oudtshoorn. That took 7 hours :(. We went through another HUGE storm, but we were ok. 

Finally, we got to the place we were staying and decided to stay an extra night because we didn’t want to miss out on exploring Oudtshoorn and because we were sick of driving.   The next day, we went to go do fun stuff and explore.  We decided to go to the Congo Wildlife Ranch. 

 We went on a tour and learned about animals like giant flying foxes (not foxes but actually bats), and ringtail lemurs. 

Did you know the ringtail lemurs rubs it’s poop on a tree saying “ this my area stay away”.There were lots of different animals to learn about.  

Next, we got to pet a baby cheetah cub!!! The one that we got to pet was Troy. He was 4 months old.  He was sleeping but he woke up for a bit.  He was so soft. I loved it. 

Then, we got to do something really cool.   We got to swim with Nile crocodile!!! dun dun daaaa !!! Well...we were in a cage so he couldn’t eat us if he wanted to but it was awesome!  The croc was so close to us.  If I had wanted to, I could have just reached my hand out and touched him.  I decided against this. He put his snout right up to the cage and also his claws were inside the cage literary !! The Nile crocodile is the second largest croc in the world.  

before the swim

hello

I survived!

After that, we went to a place called Chandelier. It is an ostrich farm and we got to feed the ostriches!!!!!! We got to stand on their eggs because they are so strong and hold the egg.  It was awesome.  I also got to pet the ostriches. 

When we were there we got to feed a toddler giraffe.  Her name was Shirley, and she was 3 years old.  She was sooo cute.  We fed her with a bottle.  She was so soft and so cute. I loved hanging out with her. Then, we went back to our room had a good shower to make sure we got all of the gross crocodile water off of us and then went for dinner. It was a great day.  

When we woke up we go ready for our last day of driving to Hout Bay.  It  would take 5 hours to get there.  We drove through another storm and had a very slow lunch but it was awesome. When we got there, we checked out the town quickly, got a few things from the grocery store, had dinner and went to sleep.

 Today, we went to the beach and swam it it was freezing but I was so much fun:). We saw 3 seals, at the harbour. 1 swimming and 2 out on the dock.  It was pretty cool.  They were just hanging out.  

If you what to follow Nate's blog I can give you the link. 

See you later bye bye . Sammy

BYEEEEEEEE