NG KiDS’ Junior Adventures Blog
Pepeijn and Romeq are living life on the road, exploring the world one country at a time!
Imagine living your life on the road, exploring the world one country at a time… That’s exactly what our NG KiDS’ junior bloggers, Pepeijn and Romeq, are doing right now. Globetrotting in their family’s motorhome, each day holds a new adventure, and every month they’ll be telling us about all the amazing things they’ve been up to!
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Penguin pals on Boulders Beach!
22 December 2016
In Pepeijn and Romeq’s latest blog, they take us on a special swim alongside African penguins!
Our latest adventure was to Boulders Beach near Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, which is home to a HUGE African penguin breeding colony — the biggest of the whole continent.
The beach is covered with beautiful ancient granite boulders — and of course, penguins!
These huge boulders give the beach its name!
The African Penguin is also known as the “Jackass Penguin” because of the braying sounds it makes.
Boulders Beach is a very popular place among locals and tourists, because you can swim and snorkel very close to the penguins.
African penguins make a ‘braying’ sound, like a donkey!
The penguins are very curious and won’t bite you, as long you don’t harass or scare them!
They can grow to about 60cm tall and eat mostly sardines and squid, which they hunt for in groups. They do their hunting around two miles out to sea.
African penguins swim out to sea to hunt in groups
After they have laid their eggs, both the male and the female penguins incubate and take care of them, until they hatch at about 40 days.
As penguins are very clever and creative, they place their eggs behind an egg-shaped shell to confuse seagulls. Hungry seagulls will then steal the shell instead of the actual egg. Smart, right?
The clever penguins use shells to trick predators and protect their eggs.
Baby penguins are so cute to look at. They look like a brown, woolly ball. When they get older, their fluffy coats change colour — into white and black feathers.
Baby penguins look fluffy!
Did you know that penguins are monogamous? This means that they will stay together as a pair no matter what happens.
Till next time!
Pepeijn and Romeq
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A whale of a time!
4 November 2016
In Pepeijn and Romeq’s latest blog, we meet a giant of the sea – the Southern Right whale!
Pepeijn and I recently went on a spectacular whale watching tour in South Africa! We saw 19 Southern Right whales – one even swam right underneath our boat!
A Southern Right can grow up to 16.5m long and weigh up to 60 tonnes – that is four times the weight of our camper truck, woah! Funny enough though, they only eat plankton and krill, which are tiny.
A Southern Right pops up to say hello!
See the rough, white patches on these gentle giants’ heads? Turns out they’re not shells, but “callosities”, a horn-like material that forms on their head and jawline. These patches give every whale its own unique pattern (like a human fingerprint) which makes them easy to recognise!
Did you know that when whales dive, they leave behind a ‘footprint? This large circular patch of water is made by the thrust of their tail – it’s impressive to see!
Ready to spot some whales!
Southern Right whales swim to the warm South African waters to give birth. When a baby (called a calf) is born late in the season, it doesn’t have enough body fat to survive the long journey back to their icy feeding grounds in Antarctica. So, mum will take her newborn on a snack pit-stop first! They swim to Namibia where the calf fills up on krill – gaining about 65kg of weight per day – for several weeks before they make their long journey back home.
Funny fact: It seems Pepeijn and I are not the only ones on a world tour… Scientists in South Africa and Argentina are currently studying the whale’s callosities to determine if they swim around the entire globe!
Farewell until our next adventure!
Pepeijn and Romeq
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Twinkle, twinkle, little stars!
30 September 2016
In Pepeijn and Romeq’s latest blog, they take us on a deep, dark trip into the Kalahari Desert!
Stargazing and sleeping under the African stars has long been on our bucket list so when my mum told us that we were driving up to Bagatelle Kalahari Game Ranch in the Kalahari Desert, Namibia, we jumped for joy! This lodge owns a cool, computerized telescope with tracking software, so it can hone in on galactic objects in the night sky.
“Hey, give me a turn!”
Did you know that the Kalahari Desert is not a true desert like the Sahara but in fact a fossil desert where it often rains like cat and dogs? This makes it home to a great variety of greenery and wildlife from scorpions, snakes, zebra, giraffe, oryx and meerkats to predators like the cheetah. We spotted loads of awesome animal tracks which made our upcoming survival trip even more exciting!
Pepeijn & Romeq came across these cheeky characters in the desert!
Ivan, a very friendly Bushman who seems to know everything about space, showed us the Milky Way stretching overhead, the rings of Saturn, the moons of Jupiter, and the Southern Cross. We also spotted the Jewel Box – to the naked eye this looks like a single star but it’s actually an orange supergiant (one of the largest types of stars) surrounded by smaller, blue stars. It was an incredible experience!
The red dunes of the Kalahari Desert glow intense red at sunset.
Until next time!
Pepeijn & Romeq
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Hello NG KiDS readers!
12 August 2016
In Pepeijn and Romeq’s first blog, we learn about the boys’ awesome African adventures!
Hey NG KiDS, welcome to our Junior Travellers Blog! My brother Pepeijn, (14) and me, Romeq, (12) have been travelling the world in an off-road truck for over 500 days now! Of course, we’re not on our own, but with our parents, Nelke and Frans.
Pepeijn and Romeq’s home is wheelie cool!
We have everything we need on board our truck which is a little bit like your house – only on big wheels! Sure we have less space, but we have the whole world to play in. Currently we are in Namibia, Southwest Africa. I suppose you may call us modern nomads… We love this lifestyle!
My school books, tests and exams are the same as yours, only my mum is my teacher, and my dad sends my work to teachers back home via the internet. So far, we’ve had good results – phew!
Our favourite part of our schooling are the hands-on field trips we get to do. We have spent time with the Himba and the Damara tribes, seen lions up close in Etosha National Park, been on an African drum course in the slums and touched a cheetah!
Pepeijn and Romeq’s school trips are pretty hands-on!
Constantly being on the move means we’re always prepared for the unexpected – we carry a camera, binoculars, a survival knife and pepper spray at all times.
We are now in the capital of Namibia. Do you know the name of it?
Farewell until our next adventure!
Pepeijn and Romeq
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so cool
I wish I could live like you!
Looks like fun
The Pengins are Soo cute and we should take action. I wish I was you but a girl. ( My gender) You have such a adventurous life boys. I wish I was a Boy!
it is amazing that you did that !
cooolllllll hey!!!! i wish i had the opportunity to see whales
cool
HAVE FUN WOW
OMG COOL!
I love this!
now that is what i call awesome!:)
I really love this website Its a Perfect Homework helper Im Interested in your magazines. Ive got the 2014 Infopedia and its amazing I recomend this website to the whole world!!! Jenny xxxxxxx
amazing
Have a fantastic journey!
Cool, I think
COOL!!!
Amazing
WOW BET ITS HOT
LOL!
AMAZING
Wow you are so brave
Wow, it sounds like you guys are having quite the adventure! You are so lucky that you get to travel the world full time with your parents, the whole world is your school! Namibia looks so awesome!
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