Sharks, Whales, Waterfronts
Trip Start
Mar 30, 2008
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Trip End
Mar 31, 2009
Cape Town,
Western Cape,
South Africa
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Elizabeth and Alex arose early enough to beat the heat of the day and make an ascent on Lion Head. This hill is close to Table Mountain and affords fantastic views of this as well as 360 degree panoramic views of Cape Town, Camps Bay and surrounding areas. The climb started very gently with a wide gravel path. Later this became a narrow path cut into the hillside with large boulders to climb up. Eventually Alex left Elizabeth to make a dash for the summit as the route was becoming increasingly steep. There are two options for this and Alex decided to use the chains to haul himself up the steepest sections. Unaccustomed to chains instead of ropes for this purpose and having ran to this point it was a treacherous option due to sweaty hands. After the chains the final climb along the ridge involved large boulders rewarding one in the spectacular views. Alex met a Rwandan at the summit called Roots. He took some pictures before the two of them made their way back down the hill picking up Elizabeth on the way.
After breakfast the five of us then made our way along Government Walk to the gold museum only to find it closed and having to backtrack to the South Africa Museum
11 Starting on our road trip in our Toyota Avanza
. We arrived there in time to catch a planetarium show before looking around the museum. The show went through the major constellations of the southern hemisphere. The rest of the afternoon we wandered around the museum looking at animal specimens and San Bushmen culture. After a Cape Malay curry cooked at the backpacker we rushed up Signal Hill to catch the back end of the beautiful but incredibly windy sunset over Cape Town.Monday 19th January - Heading East, tasting wine & cheese, deciding on adventures, first South African Braai
As we left on our eastward journey we were all looking forward to sampling some of the Stollenbosch fineries. This region boasts around a hundred of the Cape's finest vineyards and cheeseries. We had been recommended 'Fairview' where we could sample wine and cheese from the goats farmed on site. We were not disappointed; the wines were pretty good, but the cheeses were stunning. Once you pay for your tasting of 6 wines you are then free to sample cheese to your hearts content. We had so much that none of us needed lunch.
On our way down south we stopped also for a quick look at the KWV vineyard and factory where we purchased a bottle of their finest creamy liqueur for the long nights by the campfire on our camping adventure.
We were soon in Hermanus and had little difficulty finding our 'Hermanus Backpacker'. Tertius checked us in and as he did so we discovered that this 21 year old was a long way from his home in Florida, Roodeport! After a windy walk along the rugged coastline into the town we returned for a Braai
12 The Fairview Wineyard gardens
. We had found some Namibian Mepani wood which although a bit difficult to light burned quickly to produce great embers for cooking our pork & coriander boorewors and steaks. Good food, a few beers, great company and bed. We were all tired and looking forward to the next day, four of us had decided finally to cage dive and Elizabeth had preferred to go in search of whales.Tuesday 20th January - Southern Right Whales, Seals, Penguins, Great White Sharks and brown water!
The day started early, no one had really slept well. Must have been a combination of nerves, apprehension and excitement as the hostel for once was lovely and quiet. We left on time at 6am and headed out on a 40 minute drive to Gansbaai. From here it was only 5 minutes to Kleinbaai, from where the eight shark cage diving operators depart. We all went into the Shark Diving Unlimited office to find a spread of breakfast awaiting us. After breakfast it was time to split up; Tina, Steve, Clare and Alex were taken away for the cage dive briefing and Elizabeth remained behind for her Whale watching tour.
We were lucky on the cage diving as the boat, licensed to carry 20 people had only 12 on board this day, four of which were us. The cage could hold 6 people which meant two shifts and loads of time in the water. Excellent, all we needed now was to be lucky enough to find a Great White Shark. The boat, 'Barracuda' departed and we headed out to Joubert's Dam, just off the mainland, to anchor in around 15m of murky blue ocean
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. This is the preferred location for shark diving in the summer months. In the winter 'Shark Alley' is used; a strip of ocean between Dyer Island and Geyser rock where Great Whites patrol snacking on occasional seal pup sushi!Chumming began and for what seemed like an age nothing else much happened as we all stood around chatting trying to pretend that we didn't mind if there was a no show by the sharks. Suddenly a small 3m shark started to investigate the tuna head and dark grey polystyrene float both being trailed out downwind of the boat. Excitement broke out on Barracuda and was very infectious! The first 5 divers lowered themselves gingerly into the cage and took up the preparatory position. 'Standy' boomed the skipper in a deep Afrikaans accent. 'OK shark coming from the right, divers down!' This was the instruction to fill ones lungs with a huge breath and duck under into the cage with eyes wide open. The divers surfaced moments later whooping and hollering, we had our first shark!
After ten minutes or so the group swapped over and the four of us entered the cage. Alex was buddied up with Tina, Clare with Steve. For their first time with a face mask on they both did a superb job of getting under and viewing the sharks. It was exciting but as Clare said what was best was the quiet thoughtful way in which the sharks investigated the bait, and us! They clearly wanted food, but realising it kept moving just as they approached it they didn't waste energy striking every time or going into a feeding frenzy.
For the next 1 ½ hours we took turns observing 6 different sharks that arrived, investigated, tried to feed, got bored or frustrated and left
14 Wine tasting entrance
. It is thought there are around 50 sharks that frequent the area. Seeing 6 of these was an exceptional day for cage diving standards. On board was Heidi, the daughter of Dicki (the co owner of the company with Mike, the world renowned Great White free diver) and her husband Romand (diving with the sharks for the first time). Even they were excited to see so much shark activity. At one point we saw a shark feed on one of the hundreds of small fish surrounding the chum bag. The skipper had to admit that in 20 years of his job he had never witnessed this!One 'Tommy' (local name for Great White) got extremely close. Alex was in the cage with two Israeli guys, also from our Hermanus Backpacker, when it came in towards the Tuna head. It left it too late to turn and at well over 4m this shark needs some space to turn! It's head rammed into the cage right where Alex was as he pushed himself underwater to get a better view and try to take photos. His hands were on the bar inches from hundreds of razor sharp teeth. As he struggled to keep all his fingers the two eyeballed each other and shared a few seconds of equal amazement. The shark finally managed to wriggle backwards away from the awful taste of metal cage and swim away. Everyone in the cage surfaced, the Israelis were delighted and Alex was wide eyed, but delighted.
We had much more time in the cage together until finally we were all too cold and the sharks fed up with being teased
15 Wine and cheese tasting
. We returned to Kleinbaai and after watching the DVD of the day decided we had to buy it. Dicki also kindly put on Mikes new documentary only just released in the UK, 'Great White Shark - Living Legend', containing the first ever footage of a shark attacking and breaching filmed from the wet side!Meanwhile on another boat, a huge RIB called 'The Whale Whisperer', Elizabeth had set off on a cruise to look for whales. We were all hoping that they had seen some and as they were out a long time after us we saw this as a good sign. Sure enough we found that Elizabeth had seen the lot: Southern Right Whale cows nursing their calves in the bay; seals on Geyser Island in their thousands; and penguins. This was a real stroke of luck as the whales should by now have left on their journey south to the Antarctic.
All objectives achieved 5 happy travellers set off on a long drive to Mossel Bay, almost without incident! We were flagged down by a lady with a broken down VW Beetle. Expecting her to ask for a phone or a lift somewhere, we were dumbfounded when it turned out that she wanted 100R towards an alternator. Allegedly a man was bringing one to replace her allegedly broken one and she allegedly didn't have enough money to pay for it! Smelling a Conger Eel and not wishing to find out who her female companions were, we made our excuses and left. On the way we stopped to inform the Police about what we could only think must have been a scam.
After checking in at our lovely 'Park House' guest house we set out to round off the day with a meal out
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. We found 'Jazbury's', which served fine South African fayre. So we delighted ourselves with: Portuguese calamari; Ostrich carpacio with bitong; and pickled fish (just like Mrs D used to make); followed by Bobotie (spiced mince with sweet fritters) all washed down with a superbly delicious bottle of chocolately red wine.Bed called early!
Wednesday 21st January - Mossel Bay to Knysna rtn, Knysa Heads & Beach, learning to open cultivated and wild Oysters
The time has come for a change. I have been deliberately writing this blog in some made up first person removed case to avoid confusion and to allow either Clare or I (Alex) to write it. As it has been 99% me I have decided to revert back to the first person, it should be easier for you all to read now!!
Today we drove over to Knysna and were greeted with a great view of the lagoon from the top of the Knysna Heads. We scoured the area looking for the unusual silhouette in the water that signalled a Hammerhead Shark, but were unlucky enough not to see any. A beach we spotted from the Heads gave us the opportunity to dip our feet in the ocean and take some photos of the waves crashing into the land from the swell just offshore. It was serene and beautiful here and we waited there for quite some time before moving on.
When we did move on we tried to find the 'Garden of Eden', but ended up on an unsealed road and couldnt proceed without risk of punctures
17 Views from the road on the way to Hermanus
. Instead we returned to Kysna and found the 'Oystercatcher'. Imported oysters are cultivated in the lagoon, which is not protected from development despite being ecologically very sensitive. Wild oysters are also harvested from the rocks nearby. Steve and I were taught how to open oysters with an oyster knife and how to identify a wild oyster from one that has been cultivated. We bought half a dozen of each, cultivated and wild, live and unopened!Before returning to Mossel Bay we had one more attempt at the Garden of Eden and found it. Suitably underwhelmed by an area that looked like Warsash common, we returned to Mossel Bay then. Before supper Steve and I practised our new found oyster opening skills. The wild oysters tasted much nicer and more creamy than the cultivated ones. Tina then filled our bellies with one of her special stir fries.
Thursday 22nd January - Long drive back to Cape Town, The Two Oceans Aquarium
We had a long drive back to Cape Town, but the route was very interesting with lots to see. Arriving back early enough to squeeze in another attraction we popped on down to the V&A Waterfront and went into the Two Oceans Aquarium there. There was loads to see and the displays were excellent. We were all impressed with the exhibit that followed the course of a river to the sea and most of all the huge Kelp Forest display and predator tank.
