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Published: October 30th 2007
Cape Town - Table Mountain
Its a Mountain, thats like a TableWith Sam’s continuing troubles and a new fasting period, the least I could was to eat both of our meals on both flights that saw us from Dar Es Salaam to Johannesburg and then from Johannesburg onto Cape Town. She didn’t appear to be that grateful as she sat there feeling hungry, which I thought was a little selfish.
We shared our row of three seats on the first plane with a South African who looked like your stereotypical game keeper. He was dressed in a canvas shirt and shorts like the ones you’d were on safari and a pair of leather ankle boots. He was sporting some pretty impressive scars and was even missing a finger. I can only guess he must have lost this when a pride of lions tried to hijack a buffalo that he’d just wrestled to the ground for his breakfast. He was a strapping fellow who looked like he could single-handedly come to the aid of an elephant stuck in the mud.
We got chatting, and he was somewhat relieved to hear that we weren’t stopping in Johannesburg. He had nothing good to say about the capital and it’s seemingly ever spiraling lawlessness. Further exposing
Table Mountain - Cable Car
Yeah......you can walk up if you wanted to in this heat his unexpected softer side he gave us a few safety tips whilst in South Africa. It was mainly common sense stuff, but a good reminder never-the-less, and we were grateful for his concern.
The only other thing of note to happen during the flights was I opened the in-flight magazine and read about a reserve called Addo Elephant National Park that apart from over 200 elephants is also home to black rhino, which would complete our only failing in our quest for the Big 5. We decided as part of our South Africa adventure we’d take a road trip out to Addo stopping in various places en route before returning to Cape Town. It was an example of just how free we were to make spontaneous additions to our itinerary.
After two good flights we arrived in Cape Town at night, which I prefer because then a new place retains a certain degree of mystery until daybreak and gives you a good reason to be up early.
We’d arranged a hostel for our first two nights and they provided a pickup service from the airport. What they forgot to mention was that we would have to push the minibus a
On top of the world
Taken from behind...if you know what I mean. hundred yards through the car park in order to bump start it. It was a novel introduction, and after all that food on the plane I for one was glad for a bit of exercise……….. no honestly.
The hostel was a lively place with it’s own bar, live music on our arrival, although not specifically for us I don’t think. It also had a large balcony area above Long street, arguably the busiest street in the city.
Sam was quick to point out that not all hostels were like this one, it was pretty basic, our room especially. Not that I minded, I had no preconceived ideas. For me it was somewhere to sleep and drop our large rucksacks and swap them for our much more manageable daypacks in order to explore.
Daylight revealed that we could see a small section of the majestic Table Mountain from our window. With Sam managing a few bread rolls in the morning we didn’t wander too far, instead we planned our road trip to Addo, organized our Australian visa’s and some flights that needed to be booked before we left South Africa. However, infinitely more exciting was booking our cage diving experience where
1086m
If Carlsberg made rope slides.... we would hopefully come face to face with the ocean’s most notorious predator in a few days time.
The following day, with Sam feeling better for the first time since Zanzibar we jumped into one of the rikki’s (small taxi) and headed straight for Table Mountain. It was a beautifully clear morning with no hint of the
tablecloth*.
It is possible to hike up to the top of Table Mountain, but we chose the Cableway that runs from 8:30am to 7pm at this time of year. Although opened in 1929 the cable cars were updated in 1997 and can now carry 65 passengers instead of their previous maximum of 25. As well as the increase in size and capacity they also have 360 degree revolving floor allowing for excellent panoramic views during accent and descent, although you still need to be stood by the window.
At 1,086m (3,563ft) the views on a day like this are simply stunning, in all directions. Spending the best part of two hours on arguably the worlds most recognizable mesa we looked out over the city bowl with Lion’s Head to our left, Devil’s Peak to our right and the infamous Robben Island out in
the bay above and beyond Signal Hill. We plan to visit Robben Island after returning from our road trip, so there’ll be more on that in the next blog.
After strolling round and taking lots of pictures we’d built up an appetite and headed down to the Victorian and Alfred Waterfront, the most visited destination in South Africa. Once the historic heart of Cape Town’s working harbour it’s now a tourist’s haven with a marina, aquarium, hotels, luxury apartments, designer shops and numerous bars and restaurants serving a never ending supply of good food and drink.
We sat outside and had something to eat, an ostrich kebab to be precise. More like steak than chicken, it was very nice and with Table Mountain as the backdrop it was hard to think of a better way to spend an afternoon. Then a bizarre thing happened. From being sat outside on a warm and clear sunny day, a mist came rolling in off the sea and in the space of 20 minutes it had turned cold and Table Mountain was no longer visible. It would have been easy to wander straight into the large shopping mall and indulge in some retail therapy,
Cars on the road below...
if you look carefully. Base jumping anyone??! but with no room in our rucksacks for luxury items it was window shopping only.
Now getting up at 0430 on any normal day whilst on "HOLIDAY" would seem ridiculous or at least be met with a reasonable degree of apathy, but when that said morning promises the chance (albeit in a cage) to take the plunge when there are Great Whites in the water, you'd be surprised at how easy it was getting out of bed on Saturday 27 October. We had a 2 hour drive to a place called Gansbaai, reputedly known as the Great White capital of the world. Dyer Island and Geyser Rock are two islands that sit just of the main coastline of Gansbaai and are home to thousands of Cape Fur Seals, and this food source which makes this area a prime hunting ground for the Great Whites. In fact, the shallow channel between the two islands is known as ’Shark Alley’.
On our arrival we had some breakfast whilst listening to a briefing on proceedings that included safety as well as some background into Great White behavior. It was here that we learnt that most of the time the sharks that are
Lizard
10 of which could make a small wallet lured in by the bait and chumming are in fact juveniles. The younger sharks are more inquisitive and will follow a scent whereas the adults tend to be more fussy eaters, instead choosing to hunt their prey. We were also told that we wouldn’t be using scuba for the encounter. Instead we only required wetsuits, facemask and snorkel. This was followed by a twenty minute boat ride to get us into position for the chumming to start.
There was approximately 20 people on board, but not all were willing to get into the cage. This was one of our first experiences we wrote down on our tick list when we first started to plan our trip and as soon as a sighting was confirmed we were among the first five to enter the cage.
The sea was much colder than I’d expected and a shock to the system as it penetrated the wetsuit, and within minutes we were shivering. It was difficult to keep warm as there wasn’t much room to move around, but as we held onto the inside of the cage it wasn’t the temperature that was on my mind. Instead, completely subconsciously, I’d already started to hum
Auditions for 'Jaws 6'
Sam beat the shark purely on size of mouth..... the theme tune to Jaws.
Visibility under water was less than 10 metres but as it came into view it was an awesome sight. Drawn in towards the cage by a lure consisting of a couple of tuna heads on a rope, it swam almost nonchalantly past no more than a few feet away. It was approximately 10-12 feet in length, and juvenile or not, it was a humbling sight. The fact was, if not for the cage, you wouldn’t catch me getting in the water if I was on fire!
Carcharodon carcharias, white death, white pointer, Great white, it goes by many different names but the oceans largest predatory fish is a magnificent specimen to behold, and nobody was disappointed.
We climbed out of the cage so that the next five could get in, and the wind chill made the shivering almost uncontrollable. Most at this stage, having been in the cage once chose to get changed, but Sam and I decided that now we were here we’d deal with the cold and wait for a another opportunity to get back in for a second bite as it were.
We were rewarded with that second chance, and this time
Great White Shark
"We're gonna need a bigger boat" watched as the crew allowed the shark to take the bait right in front of us. As the eyes rolled back, and the huge gums extended to allow those numerous serrated, weapons of mass destruction to do their thing, I pitied the seals that inhabit the waters of shark alley.
It had been a real ’big kid’ experience and one that both of us will never forget. One of our pre-trip highlights had been realized, and as we arrived back shore I half expected to be greeted by Jimmy Saville, together with Roy Schneider ready to hang our ‘Jim’ll Fix It’ badges around our necks.
On the way back to our hostel our guide and driver stopped off at a small town called Hermanus. I’m not going to go into it in this blog, but this will be our first stop of our road trip. I’d never heard of it before this day, but what an amazing place.
We arrived back in Cape Town still on a high after our Great White encounter, and after booking our hire car we settled in a restaurant called ’Mama Africa’ where we brought out our inner carnivores by having the mixed grill containing
Bait!
Lucky for him we're in a cage.... some African game including kudu, springbok, ostrich and crocodile.
Our road trip will be over ten days in which time we’ll make our way East up the picturesque ‘Garden Route’ stopping at several locations on our way to Addo Elephant National Park. We enjoyed the safari’s and game drives so much in Tanzania that we’ve decided to experience a few more whilst still on the perfect continent in which to do so. There is of course some unfinished business with regards to our quest for the ’Big 5’; we’ve still yet to see a rhino!………………..
*
The ‘tablecloth’ is the colloquial term for the cloud that often drapes over Table Mountain. FOOTNOTE: We learnt later during the course of the year, that whilst on the same cage diving experience that we did, one of the boats left the shore in near perfect sea and weather conditions. Once out to sea and thankfully before chumming had started, the boat was capsized by what was later described as a ‘freak’ tsunami-type wave. All on the boat went into the water, and although other boats in the area were quick to come to the rescue, and there were no sightings
Robben Island in the distance
Once used as a prison, much like Hayling Island today..... of any sharks, in the confusion and panic, 3 tourists tragically drown.
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