6,000KM North of the South Pole (with Sharks)

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  Cape Town, South Africa
Saturday, June 25, 2005

We arrived in Cape Town, South Africa after a 28 hour journey that took us up to the Middle East. Qatar Airlines has to be the best airline I've ever flown, and it was relatively inexpensive. The plane was brand new (though an Airbus - those lousy...), had on-demand Movies for each seat, and all the free liquor an Infidel can drink (I hope that is not politically incorrect - though its true). We had a 9 hour layover in Doha and the airline even put us up in a 4 star hotel rather than forcing us to suffer the rather small but new airport for the whole layover. What a sweet deal that was, hot shower (Virginie's comment: "Which was needed"), and a lunch buffet to rival all others (I made the mistake of telling V about the dessert tray and she came back with the entire tray including cheesecake, tiramisu, Crème-Brule, and assorted chocolate. She then blamed me saying she was only going to have fruit until I told her about the desserts - You can't win, can you guys?). Anyway, we enjoyed our first trip to the Middle East - hope to return someday

01 Hiking on Table Mountain

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We arrived in Cape Town early at 8am and the weather was spectacular. I haven't seen a sky that blue and a sun so orange in months. Cape Town has to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world, situated on the Atlantic Ocean with the majestic Table Mountain dominating the background. It is fall right now in South Africa so it is rather cool, around 60 degrees, and with the sun out it is just perfect. Because the weather here is so fickle, much like Seattle, we decided that rather than hit the sack after only sleeping 3-4 hours on the plane; we would have to climb the mountain. We wouldn't have forgiven ourselves if we woke up and the clouds had rolled in.

Because I am cheap, instead of pay the 15 dollars each to take the cable car, we got on our hiking boots and got a ride to the base of the mountain. Table Mountain is called such because it is like a sheer rock plateau with a flat top. Hiking up it means that you have to climb up 1000meters in altitude - a full kilometer straight up. The hike isn't too long, about 2 hours, but it is nearly straight up. The hike is amazing though along the rocks, there are 1000s of different kinds of plants and still lots of colorful flowers. Also many streams and waterfalls as you climb up through the gorges to reach the top

02 Table Mountain from the Ferry

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We made it to the top (wheezing, but alive) and the view made us forget that our legs felt like Jell-O (also, I still was thinking about how I saved over 30 dollars between the two of us. 30 Dollars!!!) Clouds had run up to the back of the mountain and were floating along the coast, but the view of the entire city and coastline was spectacular. Truly a site to see. This city reminds me so much of San Francisco and Seattle. The weather, the vibe, and the uniqueness of its layout. It is also extremely metropolitan (aka expensive ;)

We enjoyed the view for a while then V wanted to take the cable car down until we were again reminded of the cost and decided to take the plunge back down the rocky trail. She just about divorced me half way down as coming back was much worse than going up. Sure I wasn't sweating like a thief, but going downhill that steeply is really hard on your knees. Plus, V was a little nervous because she hates heights and the path seemed a bit narrower on the way down than on the way up. We survived though and have the muscle cramps and soreness to remind us 3 days later.

Now that we are in very western South Africa we have to find ways to save

03 Hungry Great Whites

. In India we were able to get a reasonable guesthouse room for about 5 dollars a night. Here we get dorm beds for 12 bucks a person - with no income you gotta find a way to keep on budget. Cost here is about 20% less than the States, so quite expensive compared to SEA and India. We've started using the kitchen in the Backpacker Hostel we are staying and Virginie loves it. She's back in her element planning what we are going to eat for each meal of the day. She really has missed cooking and I love saving a couple bucks (though I do bitch about doing the dishes).

We've spent time wandering the city, enjoying the waterfront and having a few South African beers. We took a day trip out to Robben Island which was the Alcatraz of Cape Town, though it was mainly for political prisoners. It was where Nelson Mandela spent 18 of his 28 years in confinement. Our tour guide was a former political prisoner who spent 5 years in prison on the island from 1986-1991 which put the entire visit into perspective.

The best part of my trip here was yesterday when I went out in a boat and got to swim with Great White Sharks. I did a Great White cage diving trip and though I wanted V to go with me, I knew if she came, I'd never get her back in SCUBA gear again. I have to tell you, I was pretty anxious about the whole thing, heck the brochure pictures alone make you ask yourself why you want to go out in a boat, throw blood and guts in the water to get sharks to swarm around you

04 Great White Cage - Yeah They get close

. What if the boat got a leak? What if a big one tipped the boat? I was betting that there was going to be a slower, fatter swimmer on the boat (yeah, I know, long shot).

Once on the boat with our crusty old skipper Brian McFarlane who had been doing this for almost a decade since this "sport" started, I didn't worry too much. We took the boat out to False Bay, which is just in from Seal Island where over 74000 seals live. It is because of these seal colonies that there are so many great whites circling around looking for a chance for lunch. When we arrived at our dive spot, Brian had already anchored his dive cage and had a mesh bag of fish guts floating in the middle of it - really get those big bastards fired up about some food. Immediately after anchoring, I was standing on the roof and saw a dark grey shadow aft of the boat, I called it out, but thought I'd pulled a Virginie (On our last whale watching trip in Monterey, she continually called out "whale!" only to have it turn out to be a sunspot or seaweed- she claims she was cold and wanted to have everyone take their dang pictures so she could go home). Sure enough, it was about a 10 footer slowly cruising around the boat - I was relieved I'm not as blind as I thought I was.

Brian spent the next few hours using his various tricks to draw the sharks up close to the boat and to the dive cage we had floating off the side of the boat

05 Watch out for Penguins under your Car!

. He used a plywood cutout of a seal that floated along the surface to draw them close, then he had a huge tuna head tied to the end of a rope that he used to tempt them closer. Only one quick one that launched up from the bottom got the bait all day, the others just got close. It was amazing watching the sharks circle, then dive deep, then launch up at the bait from the bottom. On the surface, you got to see the shark surface and go for the bait, its huge jaws wide open in anticipation. I thought I'd be scared and was rather disappointed in a way that I wasn't terrified (I should have been after seeing Jaws - I know what those things are capable of!). Just seeing the a shark approach along the surface, dorsal fin carving through the waves, knowing that those huge teeth were ready to rip anything that got near it up, brought back flashbacks from that film. The best part though was getting in the cage (an ordeal in itself, don't miss the cage in that chummed up water!) and seeing these massive creatures glide through the water. We saw over 10 different sharks that day, the biggest was over 14 feet long. Underwater you could see them glide in and out of visibility (about 25 feet). Underwater you knew you were in their territory. It was the ¾ inch steel bars that surrounded me that gave me comfort. They came from all angles, left, right, from straight down all trying to get to that bait before it was pulled away. They were very peaceful looking underwater though, just swimming around. I swear if I saw one while diving now, my first thought would be "wow, a great white" rather than "oh Sh*t!! Shark! - I am gonna die" (Similar to Matt and my hiking trip in Kenya where we ran into a herd of elephants - Babar wasn't among them to say G'day, that's for sure).

There was a rather tense moment when a shark came right in at the cage following the bait, missed the bait, but took his frustration out by biting down on the cage and one of the big flotation buoys. Its 3 inch long teeth sinking into the soft rubber and deflating it. He shook the cage a while then moved on. I got a nice shot of it as I was up on the boat probably 5 feet from that bad boy. The guy right in the cage must have been praying. Pretty amazing experience, one that gives me a whole new respect for these creatures. I was thinking of going for a dive off Danger Point which is about 8 Kilometers from the point where we were doing this. Apparently it is great diving, similar to Monterey with nice kelp forests, and no diver has ever been hit by a great white there. We'll see if we have time.

Cape Town has to be one of the best cities we've ever visited. Tomorrow we are heading down to the Cape of Good Hope for some hiking on the southern tip of Africa. V also wants to see the Penguins. We are also taking a new step in our travels and renting a car. We decided rather than rely on local transport, we'd rent a car and head north to Namibia for 14 days. It promises to be an amazing drive along the coast up to the Namib Dunes and the Kalahari Desert.

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