Save me from The World of Birds

We have now been in Cape Town for just over a month and AA has settled into his job at the University whilst The Ginger Prince and I have got ourselves into a kind of routine.

My days of route taxis are over for the moment and I can now be found taking TGP out for his morning activity in a hire car, gingerly ploughing along a variety of practiced routes that I know won’t take me onto the Freeway, whilst everything beeps at me for going too slowly.  Every week includes at least one visit to Gymboree, a kind of toddler gym, and one to Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. Not many places can remain tranquil once the Ginger Prince is in them but Kirstenbosch pulls it off beautifully. TGP collects sticks, paddles in streams and bothers local wildlife, whilst I sit in dappled sun at the blue green base of Table Mountain. 

Most places in Cape Town are relaxed and spacious but there are exceptions as we discovered when we visited The World of Birds in Hout Bay. Tranquil it is not. There is a never ending warren of ramshackle paths through aviaries full of literally thousands of birds from different countries bundled in together. To make the screeching and flapping even worse a colony of local wild Ibis have decided to make several huge nests on top of the expanse of chicken wire that forms the roof, giving the impression that there are so many of the creatures that they are actually blocking out the sun.

AA assured me it wasn’t cruel but, although TGP loved it of course, it gave me the creeps.

Whilst they called themselves a wildlife sanctuary the park looked like some eccentric individual’s bird and animal collection grown way, way out of control. There was probably a point in this person’s life when they could have stopped and thought, have I got enough birds in here? But they didn’t. Everywhere you look something flaps or a (wild) rat scuttles away from a bird feeder. There are also pens of multiple mammals including about 100 guinea pigs snuffling around a giant feeding bowl. It isn't that there isn't a lot to see; I particularly liked an area where tiny yellow monkeys frisk your bag for treats and play with your jewellery, but I have always thought moderation is appropriate where small animals are concerned.

TGP and AA are two of the most enthusiastic people I know and even they were shuffling feet as we traipsed through yet another circular Owl Walk and aside from AA registering his surprise that the eagle in the aviary wasn’t killing all the other birds no one said much. I became aware that we were actually walking through someone’s confused mind when we entered the Enchanted Garden which was an aviary full of literally hundreds of the kind of stone garden ornaments that can be found at any garden centre, piled up on top of each other, as well as the birds that had just happened to spill out of the other aviaries. 
The World of Birds is a modern day cautionary tale to hoarders, working on the principal that if you are going to have one of something you might as well have a hundred and fifty. The two strange notices below will allow you to make up your own minds. Suffice to say if you told me I had to live at The World of Birds in Hout Bay I would be straight back in that cupboard.