Sea-bird Rehabilitation at SANCCOB

I had a morning flight from PE to Cape Town, arriving mid-morning on what promised to be another very hot day.  I had my case shrink wrapped and left it at left luggage before catching the myCiti bus into Cape Town – wish I had known about this before as it’s a very clean, safe and efficient rapid transport route into the city, is direct with no stops and much cheaper than a taxi.  The trip took about 30 minutes, and at the Civic Centre I changed bus for Table View.  The next bus did stop, but it had a dedicated bus lane for much of the way, and gave me chance to see a different part of the city.

I arrived early at Table View so had lunch at the nearest convenient place – MacDonalds. I then walked to SANCCOB about a mile away. Once I had crossed the very busy main road, it was an easy walk along the side of a nature reserve with up-market houses on the other side. I was comforted by the proximity of the police station and quiet of the area, otherwise I wouldn’t have walked myself.
 
I was still a bit early when I arrived at SANCCOB, the sea-bird rehabilitation centre, so watched the resident penguins in their pen before my tour commenced. These are the penguins that cannot be released back into the wild for various reasons – some are amputees missing a flipper or foot, one had a disfigured beak. Others seemed healthy, but they have genetic or other diseases which means they are not wanted to breed and spread the problems further.

During my 1:1 tour I saw all the different stages that an incoming bird goes through. Oiled birds are washed, which takes four people two hours; there is an Intensive Care Unit for the most needy; then the birds progress through various groups as they recuperate until they are finally fit enough to leave. There is also a hatchery and chick rearing unit where abandoned eggs are artificially incubated until they hatch, and the young penguins are hand fed every two hours until they are big enough to join other penguins on the path to release.  It was really interesting to see the work SANCCOB do.

To finish I had a cuddle with Rocky the rockhopper penguin, who is too far from home to be released and is now acting as SANCCOBs penguin ambassador. She was a lot friendlier than the penguins on Robben Island!

The trip back to the airport was hot but uneventful – bag recovered, checked in, cleared security, and ready for the long flight back to the UK.