The KZN Museum of Natural Science Research Centre

2 weeks back, Amanda(my sister-in-law), Hiram (my brother) & their 2 boys, Tracey(my sister) and her 3 kiddies and yours truely, with my 4 monkeys set off for the KZN Museum of Natural Science Research Centre.  What thrilled me the most about this trip?  2 Things. 1. Entrance is free (which goes along with my theory that Education & therefore knowledge of any kind should always be accessible and free) and 2. Since it is a Research Museum, there were bound to be rows and rows, and drawers filled with creatures being constantly researched. The 2nd point excites me alot. A LOT.

The kids all love each other, and LOVE being together - since they're all cousins, and that always gives me goosies, and makes me happy.  So I also get a thrill from just watching them interact.  The girl cousin's are generally more sedate and composed and can be trusted to ask all the questions and make all the observations.  The little boy cousins (Rogan and Jonah) made the most noise and ran around more than anything, and Noah worships his older cousins; Ethan, Warrick and Liam - to the point of cetain hero worship that I believe we will need to have a chat one day about that whole,"If your cousin's says jump off a cliff should you really???".  

There were plenty funny moments.  I laughed alot. Our guide, Lee Richards, took us all over - we saw bugs of all sizes and types, trays and trays of them pinned down and numbered and studied, and documented.  Spiders, ants, moths, bees, flies(yucko for sure - who cares how many flies there are and what type and where they were found - a fly is a fly and should always be destroyed!). 

Then we went into a very stinky room.  With floor to ceiling shelves of preserved fish, birds, insects, mammals, arachnids.  They had bottles of fruit bats, tiny baby whales (that were found in their momma's when they were killed at the old whaling station in the Bluff), lambs, baby leopards (it's mommy was killed in the early 1900's and it was sent to the museum then - I LOVE HISTORY),snakes, moles, rats, you name it - they probably have it.  It was a very stinky room.  And the kids were instructed very sternly that they were to walk in single file with their arms folded and not touch a thing!  Like that worked.  I gave up eventually and waited outside.

We headed upstairs to a secure location where the children were again instructed to not touch anything and all animals had been treated with very specific chemicals to help preserve them and protect them from happy little bugs who like to eat their flesh.  Gross.  Warrick wouldn't go inside when he heard that.  He slumped on the floor outside - paranoid that something terrible would happen to him. Jonah kept running up and down the stairs - that's Jo, he runs constantly and struggles to concentrate at times.  Noah declared after a while of standing and listening to Lee, that it smells like his room in there so he wanted out (Hiram & I almost cried with laughter - I was of course also slightly embarrassed - who wants to hear their son publically declare that he has a smelly room??? By the way - I have since entered his room many times and can state that it certainly DOES NOT smell bad).  Noah also got to show how 'obedient' he can be when Lee said:"Now, please promise me that you won't touch anything. ANYTHING". He put out his hand and stroked the closest animal fur.  All the adults in the room yelled, "No!!!".  I just smiled.

The last room we walked through was for the study of birds.  You should know by now that i LOVE birds, and may possibly one day enter the field of Ornithology.  They had some birds up on display, a couple of Maccaws, an African Fish Eagle, pigeons, a common Mynah(no longer called the Indian Mynah btw), penguins etc, and then they had endless rows of cabinets - and in those dear sweet cabinets were drawers and drawers of birds.  Lee opened one up for us to see, they were stuffed full of black eagles and fish eagles, and every type of beautiful eagle you can imagine.  Thrilling.  I did sigh a lot - I will admit.  A sigh of having found my niche in life.

The tour over, we headed over to Mac Donalds for their famous R 2.50 cones, and then had an easy drive home - Durban has become so much easier to negotiate through these days, thanks to the 2010 World Cup - nice new freeway that bypasses all the crappy parts.  Lovely.

And that, my dears, was or trip.  Good memories.

xxxx