Shark Cage Diving

The first time we went to South African (two weeks after we got married to meet N's extended family), N and his brothers wanted to go Great White Shark Cage Diving. I thought it sounded cool, but none of the girls were going, it was expensive (~$150) and frankly I chickened out. 

Last shot of the day!

They came back with incredible stories and almost no pictures. I completely regretted no going and promptly added it to my bucket list. N always said that if and when we went back I would have to go. So when his sister announced that she was getting married in South Africa this year, the plans were set in motion.

Kleinbaai Harbour about 20 minutes drive from Hermanus

It felt like we had hardly fallen asleep and we were up again, although on the eight-hour time difference it felt like jet lag was finally on our side. We drove about twenty minutes from the Hermanus Backpackers to where the boats launch from Kleinbaai Harbour. My heart was in my throat just looking out at the sun rising over the waves and imagining the magnificent beasts I was about to see in the water.

It was a slow morning waiting for everyone to arrive, which only added to my anxiety. We had a strong South African instant coffee and a small breakfast, which later felt like a mistake. Then our leathery skinned guide gave us a bit of information. Great whites were obviously his life’s passion. He made me feel like they were no more fearsome than a kitten and that they are entirely essential to the ecosystem.

Disclaimer:

Cage Diving is controversial—I knew this before we went. We found out when we stayed with N’s aunt in Cape Town, that a close friend of his cousin’s had been killed by a Great White while spearfishing a few years earlier.

I am not an expert on this subject, by any means. I would encourage anyone interested in doing this to do their own research and form their own opinions. Do not take my word for it. I have been wrong before and will be again. That said, I do consider myself a conscientious consumer. I refuse to see animals that are being ill-treated, drugged, kept in small cages. I have little respect for people who think that is acceptable or fun to participate in these things because it’s what everyone does i.e. petting drugged tiger cubs in Thailand. It is not okay to destroy a population or an environment for the sake of an experience.

The Diving companies do not feed these sharks they are migratory, and they travel from as far as Argentina to hunt the seals on a small island off the coast. Seals eat 30% of their body weight every day, so it is important that they do no become over populated, or there will be no fish left in the area. So, my understanding was that the sharks are already in the area. They then do what is called chumming—dump some fish oil and some scraps skin, etc. into the water to attract the sharks closer to the boat. They told us Great Whites are like cats and they like something to chase. They put a few fish heads on a rope and drag them through the water to bring them right up to the cage so you can see them. They do not let them eat it though.

We were all prepped, got our swimsuits on and headed out on the boat. It is about the size of a small yacht. It was a chilly morning.

Shark Cage Diving Boat

Once we could not see the shore anymore, we put down an anchor. Everyone goes up to the second level, which is the best view of the sharks. As one approaches all thirty of us run to one side, and I thought, the boat was going to go right over. The second level is the best view of the sharks because you could see them approaching.

“If you need to feed the fish do it on that side,” our guide says, pointing to the opposite side of the boat from the cage. “It’s perfectly natural, don’t be embarrassed. And do not pee in the wetsuits. I will know. Not only is it disgusting we will not see another shark all day.”

On that note, he called out for the first group to go in the cage. N wanted to be the first in the water, I was less certain, but I regret not being eager now as they that group had one of the best sightings, and I was not yet seasick.

We went in next. The cage is attached to the side of the boat and I was relieved that it had a lid. As I lowered myself down into the water it was so cold it took my breath away. I was glad for the little wetsuit booties, but my head and hands were not covered. Despite the wetsuit, my teeth were soon chattering. You just have goggles on, no snorkel. There are two bars inside the cage for your hands and feet. You float there until the guide gives the signal.

“DOWN, DOWN, DOWN!”

 

You plunge under the water and hold your breath to watch the Great White shark swim past. I could not believe how fast they were. Suddenly it was just there. I never saw them coming. They are gone before you run out of breath. 

We were there in the offseason meaning that the water was very murky and you could only see a couple meters away. They would lure the sharks in close to the boat so that sometimes they would even bang against the cage. It was such an adrenalin rush.

N went in the high season (May/June 2011) the first time and said there were more sharks in the water, and you could see them approaching from further away. 

I was very surprised that the sharks did not seem that scary under the water though. I expected them to be terrifying, and teeth barred, like in all the photos you see, but I never saw the shark open its mouth, and N only did once at the very end. They just swim by just like big fish. They do not seem so ferocious with their mouths closed. Still to be so close to a wild animal of that size is awe-inspiring. It was very cool.

I love being out on the water. I have never been seasick in the past but after about an hour I began to feel quite woozy and did vomit. There were about three others who also got sick. I do not think I would recommend it if you get motion sickness easily. It is a long time out on the rough water, and I think staring into the sea waiting did not help.

By the end, when I was not leaving the opposite side of the boat for fear I would get sick. N got some fantastic shots of a shark coming up out of the water. (*note: my computer just flagged me that I have overused the word "amazing" in this document lol!)

The sharks we saw ranged from 2-4 meters. They have seen a shark up to 6 meters in that area.

St. Lucia—Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Game Park

Sunday June 5, 2011

St. Lucia

We left Pietermaritzburg on Friday.  Making a stop at the aquarium in Durban on the way.  It turned out to be quite a worthwhile detour with a lot of cool sea life. My photos do little justice to (especially without being allowed to use flash).  The giant sea turtle was the highlight for me.

We arrived in St. Lucia around 6:30pm but it felt very late because it was extremely dark. It was a relatively uneventful drive with the exception of a random guy walking at the side of the road charging into the side of the car and nearly running in front of us. We could not determine what he was attempting to do, but it startled us.

Tuesday June 7

Saturday we all wanted to spend time together, so we agreed on Cape Vidal as our destination.  It’s a lovely beach spot with a drive through a small game park on the way. The drive should take about half an hour, but as every warthog is still such a thrill to me at this point it took us over an hour. The cool thing about some of the smaller game parks is that even though they have much less variety of animals in them you see wildlife more frequently. We saw tons of Impala (herds of nearly 30), Tsessebe, Zebra, Kudu, a Secretary Bird and Red Duiker. The Red Duiker is tiny little deer-like animals, hardly knee high. They are the cutest things, and I keep trying to convince N we should have one as a pet, as a joke of course. The Red Duiker is an endangered species, but we have already seen six of them. On the way home from Cape Vidal, we spotted three white rhinos from far away. We also saw tons of monkeys. I thought they were cute at first, but they kept sneaking up and try to steal our snacks. As Oma puts it, “they are SO naughty!”

I am enjoyed soaking up some sun on the beach.  N and his younger brother spent most of their time snorkeling. Cape Vidal is not a great  spot for it, but N thought it was fun to see all the little fish. I tried it out, but it wasn’t my thing. Even N’s Mom and Oma gave it a try! They’re such good sports! They both really enjoyed it; until his Mom got caught in the current and nearly drowned the following day. Fortunately, N's brother was close-by to rescue her.

N’s Uncle made us delicious Afrikaans food all weekend! As we were eating, a man who worked at one of the other hotels, called us over to the pool to see some HIPPOS! They were about ten meters away from us. Everyone in SA tells you, “There are more people killed by hippos every year than any other animal!” They are massive animals. Apparently they can run up to 45km/hr on dry land.  N’s cousin (who is studying zoology) was also telling us that many people do not know that hippos are not purely herbivores; if provoked, they will eat people. Some of them are extremely aggressive. In St. Lucia, they come up to snack on the lawns. Later that evening through our fence they were even closer, less than five meters. It was quite terrifying.

St. Lucia Boat Tour June 5 2011
Hippo "Cuddle Puddle"

On Sunday, we went on a boat tour to see more hippos. It was a very enjoyable day. They hang out in the water in what my brother-in-law named cuddle puddles. It’s crazy; thirty or more of them all snuggled up together napping with their heads resting on each other’s backs. There were crocodiles in the water too.

Monday we visited the oldest game park in Africa; Hluhluwe-Imfolozi. In this park, you can just drive your own vehicle in yourself. It was a full day event. We got up at 6:00 am and drove two hours to arrive at 8:00 am. We drove all day in the car. You cannot get out because the wildlife are if fact wild and dangerous. We did not leave until the park closed at 6:00pm. Close time is quite strict—people receive quite severe fines for coming out late because there are issues with poachers.

Mornings and evenings are the best hours for viewing game because it’s cool, although it’s winter now, so it was cool all day. I don’t know if I would have survived twelve hours in the car if it had been hot.

I took 750 photos in the park on this one day!  (I’ve edited that down to 75 already and I was thrilled to have got some quite good shots. This is extremely challenging photography for a novice like me; animals move a lot more quickly than people do.

Seeing these majestic creatures up close and wild was quite an exhilarating experience. Sometimes you have to look quite hard to see some of the more species. The most exciting spottings of the day included: 3 Elephants, 4 Giraffes, ~15 Rhinos (including a nursing baby) and Water Buffalo (apparently fairly rare). At one point, we saw seven rhinos in five minutes. It’s often long periods of driving with seeing nothing but then you’ll come across a big clump of animals with lots of different varieties all together.

Everyone had been ready to leave the park at 5:00 pm but N had begged to stay in for just 20 more minutes. I was worn out and wanted just to go home because I didn’t think we’d see anything more. Then, of course, after we have placed wagers that nothing exciting will be spotted we see an elephant right next to the road ten minutes into the drive. Among the more common animals, we also saw: Warthogs, tons of Zebras, Baboons, Wildebeest, Impala, Kudu and Nyala (those last three are all different types of antelope).

Today was a lazy relaxing day. We found a fantastic coffee shop. We wandered down the street, to check out the vendors would give us. I bought a beautiful turquoise and gold scarf for myself that I was absolutely thrilled with this find. Some of our group headed back to Cape Vidal for more snorkeling and sun while the rest of the gang had a relaxing day here at the hotel.

We saw many of the same animals on the drive with the addition of Bushbuck (antelope). I’m getting half decent at identifying the different varieties, which is quite exciting.  And a very miscevious little monkey opened the Tupperware that Oma had packed for us with cookies and stealing a huge armful of biscuits before we noticed him. It was hilarious but also super annoying because then we couldn’t eat anything in the container.

We are about half way through the trip now.  The SA portion is on the home stretch, with only one last stop in Vryheid (where N’s Oma and Opa live) for the weekend. Then N and I will road trip to Botswana with his brother and sister, on Monday. 

June 6 2011 Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Game Park
Running Wildabeast

June 6 2011 Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Game Park
Impala Pair

June 6 2011 Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Game Park
Mother and Colt Zebra

June 6 2011 Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Game Park
Love this Baboon's Hairdo!

June 6 2011 Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Game Park
Giraffe picking its nose with its tongue.  

June 6 2011 Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Game Park
Rhino nursing.

June 6 2011 Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Game Park
African Elephant

City Guide || Cape Town

The trip has just been a whirlwind of activities and excitement in these first weeks in Cape Town. Hardly two weeks and I’ve taken over 1,250 photos! It feels like we have done so much in a very short amount of time. I lose track of the days. Jet lag finally seems to have worn off, and I am enjoying every moment of our stay in this beautiful country.

Cape Town Water Front

May 19th

We hiked up Table Mountain. It gives a view of both the Indian and Atlantic oceans and almost the entire city.

May 20th

We had a small family reunion of N’s dad’s siblings. The place, we stayed at, was quite cool it was called !Khwa ttu. It is a bushman museum. It was an excellent location for a group gathering. We slept in tents with sticks over them and the communal area it was all built with sticks. We went on a mini-safari, to see some of the wildlife and learn a bit about the culture.

May 21st

We went down to the Waterfront, which is just breathtaking. The place, where the ocean and mountains meet, is strikingly beautiful.

May 22nd

We toured a Vineyard/Winery. Groot Constantia established in 1685 is the oldest one in Cape Town.

May 23rd

We went to Boulder’s Beach to see the penguins. I thought they were pulling my leg first, but there are hundreds of African Penguins.

We drove up signal hill that night. You can see all the lights of the city. It’s a bit of a lover’s lane apparently and rightly so, it’s a wonderful view.

May 24th

We went to Cape of Good Hope/Cape Point. Tourists are often told it is the most Southern point of Africa but it is more a South Western Point, but it still offers quite a spectacular view. It is thought to be the place where the two oceans meet.

May 25th

We took a ferry over to Robben Island and took a tour of the prison where Nelson Mandela detained as a political prisoner. Our guide through the prison was a former political prisoner there.

We also went on a tour of the Langa Township. My understanding of  townships, based on what I have been told, is that townships were historically where all the black, coloured, Indian and Millay (people of Malaysian descent) people were forced to live. Everyone was separated by racial group and placed into designated areas around the cities.

They still exist all over the country even though people are no longer forced to live here they stay because they have strong communities in these places. They are areas associated with great poverty.

Our guide, who grew up and still lives in a township, was very positive and hopeful about the work of the government and the improvements happening in these communities.

It was a very interesting experience for us to walk around with him (it is not really considered safe to do this without a guide). We went into people's homes. Most live in hostel style quarters; these have six rooms per building. The hostels were originally built to house sixteen working men to live in while they were employed away from home. Now several families live in one small room. The one we visited had eight people living in an extremely tiny room, with three beds. It becomes easy to imagine how impossible it would be to protect yourself and your family against crime, violence and violation in this living situation. Families pay R20 ~$3/person/month in the older hostels. The more newly renovated ones rent for R 80 ~$11/person/month. The rest of the residents mainly live in shanties.  The occupants of these more temporary looking houses  families who have moved into the city for work. Some people live in stand alone concrete housing, and we did see a few quite nice homes of people who have chosen to stay in their township after becoming more successful.

We drank homemade beer in a kind of “pub” shack and sang with the men. And we visited a “traditional healer” aka witch doctor. He wore what looked like a whole raccoon on his head and a red sash and waved a wand made of some tale with long hair around. I was pretty sure he was under the influence of something—his hut was very cramped and filled with mysterious and creepy things. Between the smells, the tight space, the weird hanging everywhere and the flies, I nearly lost my lunch.

May 26th

Today has been a wonderfully relaxing day for me. I got to sleep in and then go to the beach and read. N and his siblings went surfing early this morning. Now they are off with some of his sister’s friends caving. I have had the perfect day sitting in the sun with my book and now taking refuge indoors as the day cools.

Yesterday’s tours were a lot for me to digest. Thinking about Mandela and the other political prisoners and what they fought so hard to have; what they sacrificed for freedom, what they endured not knowing if it would ever change anything. Looking at the lives of the people in the townships and the extent of their poverty. And beyond their poverty are the social issues that occur because of the poverty.

I could say, yes, that’s just how it is but at the same time it is hard for me to reconcile with my standard of living standing in this poverty. As well it forces me to confront the complacent way that I thoughtlessly pass my days. When you see these people, you question how you are justifying yourself. The suffering is very real. There are no easy answers. It greatly troubles me. I could just stop everything and change everything in my life but what good comes of that. I could give all my money away to whoever asks but is that the best way. Seeing these dirty children running aimlessly between the shanty houses, I felt sick about how comfortable I have become in my life.

It is not all bad. There are many positive things in these communities as well. There is hope.

 Tonight N and his brother drove a few hours from Cape Town to Hermanus where they will go shark cage diving. I have opted of this activity. I hope will not regret this choice, N has promised to take extensive pictures so I can live vicariously. The girls I will join them on Friday, to entertain ourselves more safely, and on dry land. 

Welcome to South Africa

May19 2011

Welcome to South Africa

Newly married N and I are headed off on our first ever trip together!

We are travelling to South Africa with his parents, four sibling’s and our four-month-old niece. There are nine of us travelling together to meet up with his extended family that all live there. I have never been to Africa before and am both nervous and very excited.

Our first official day in South Africa is coming to a close.

The flight was less grueling than I had expected. I have never experienced such royal treatment as you receive on South African Airlines. I’m guessing it’s more the way flying used to be. When we got on the plane there was a little travel pack waiting on our seats: a warm blanket, socks, sleeping mask, tiny pillow and a toothbrush/paste set. We’ve been served three hot meals so far, including a breakfast omelet. They also serve complimentary wine in half bottles.

We came out relatively unscathed, considering that there are nine of us. There was a delay with one suitcase, and the baby stroller broke. The case was recovered, and a voucher received to cover some of the broken stroller. Frustrating losses but manageable.

We are now settled into a Convent Guesthouse (no that is not a typo—real nuns still live here) for the week. N's Omi has the refrigerator stocked full of tasty meals and the cupboards with home made rusks. Rusks are a South African treat a bit like biscotti that everyone loves. They are disappearing very quickly.

The place is huge with enough space for everyone to have their own room. There is a large kitchen and sitting room as well. The grounds are lovely. I could sit all day our in the warm sun reading in the garden. N and I have a cozy little private room at the back of the house just off the living room. It has a bathroom and the extra room in its own sort of nook. It’s very pleasant.

The nights are much colder than expected, even though I had been forewarned of this. It makes for very uncomfortable sleeping. The days are lovely and warm, even though it is winter here. I feel conspicuous like tourists because we are in our shorts when the nationals are bundled up in tights, toques and scarves.

N's sister introduced me to the most fantastic lattes the world has ever known, or that I have ever known. I was thrilled that we purchased a zoom lens today. I can’t wait to go to the game parks and take pictures of the African wildlife.

We went down to a waterfront area and had a quick, cold look at the beach. We wrapped up the day with a big family dinner at this great pizza place.

Safety is a constant concern. Even if the way, we do things, isn’t particularly different (we still carry purses and cameras and lock doors at the same points) the mindset is always alert and cautious. It is a bit stressful. I am not sure I would notice as a tourist, but our local family is constantly reminding us. Everyone has a story of being robbed or worse.

There are many people working informally. One example of this is the self-assigned car guards. They wear neon reflective vests that look like they’ve seen better days. When we parallel parked the car in a free parking location someone came up to us and said hello and that he would watch the car. I didn’t pay much attention to him. When we returned though there another man, in a vest, who told us that he had been watching the car the whole time and asked for money. I assume they shift off.

We are currently in one of the wealthiest provinces in the country, and the poor are relatively out of sight. The infrastructure looks much like home, the shops are familiar; everyone speaks English, and it is comfortable feeling.

Cape Town is a stunning city! The oceans and the mountains and some truly lovely architecture caressed by lush plant life. Table Mountain sits at the center of the city. It is used to navigate which part of the city you are in because it looks distinctly different from each side.

It gets dark so early (around 6:30pm) that I feel I have not seen much of it much look forward to experiencing more of it.

I can’t get over the fantastic smell of Africa. I just love it here.

I still can’t get over, the fact that we are here.