Great White Adventures

Day 42 - Cape Town -9/9/09

Arrived in Cape Town at 11 and was met by the driver of my transfer to the hostel, we discussed in great details the 2010 World Cup that is being held here in South Africa, about what the locals expect from the national team and his reply was not a lot, we expect to go out in the first round but what we will do very well is hold an excellent party for its duration. Walked into the hostel, which was located in a huge purple high rise building on the 6th floor, it was actually a pretty funky little hostel; defiantly the best one I've stayed in so far, I’m in the 20 bed mixed dorm (good for meeting people) in a room called to Fantasy Forest Room, each of the dorm and rooms have a particular theme to it. This room is a pastel green with a distinctive smell to it which I can’t actually place my nose on. I got to reception and enquired about a shark dive tomorrow, the lady at reception phoned a couple of different companies to check availability and then she booked me onto one.

I walked into the bed and collapsed onto the bed like a sack of spuds, waking everybody up in the process. Everybody looked half cut still as they woke; looks like a good night was had last night. Later on that morning I got talking to everybody, when they were slightly more with it. There were only 4 people staying in the dorm; Juliette from Germany, Francoise and Adrian from France and Johan from the UK. After chatting and chilling I set off with my list of things to do on my return to Cape Town; today was mainly focused on just chilling and doing a few of Cape Town's many museums. Firstly, I went to the Slave Lodge on Addison Street; I really enjoyed this museum, particularly as since I've arrived in Africa been very interested in the slave trade. It looks at the role slaves and the slave trade played in making the Cape what it is today. I left the museum thinking that whilst slavery in the form displayed here has disappeared, it is still very much alive and kicking just in a different format. My next stop was the Castle Of Good Hope; I only had about half an hour here so it was a quick wonder round. I decided to spend most of my time in the Military Museum which had two sections; one about the Anglo Boer War and about the two periods of rule by the British; both exhibitions were actually very interesting and being honest I wish I had more time. By the time I got back to the hostel everybody was upstairs in the bar and it wasn’t too long before we got chatting and had organised a late afternoon game of poker. After a couple of hours, the final hand decided the winner; I ended up beating Winslow. Later on that night after plenty of beers in the hostel we decided to sample some of Cape Town's night life and wind the evening away; an electro club called Bang Bang!

Day 43 - Cape Town - 10/9/09

Was really excited this morning, well as excited as I could be with a mighty hangover. I woke up late and was running about like a headless chicken in World War 3. Ran down stairs and jumped into the minivan that was taking us to the dive site. I spent most of the journey with my head slumped against the window; letting out a little moan every now again, as my head was still banging and none of the window seemed to open and I was gagging for some fresh air.

We stopped at Hermanus for 20 minutes to do some whale watching as September is the start of the whale watching season here in Cape Town, we all pilled out and stood on the rocks overlooking the sea but nothing ... no whales. The guide called us all back to the minibus and the people who were last in shouted out “Whales” as them came to the shore and emerged out of the water. The guide gave us another 15 minutes for watching and taking photos; they are totally amazing animals.
I don’t know how much longer was left of the journey but eventually we arrived in Gansbaai and got out of the minivan and sat down in the reception where we were treated to lunch, well, a small sandwich, carton of juice and a piece of fruit, better than nothing. We filled in our limited liability form and paid; in case of being eaten by a shark blah blah blah, I'm getting to be quite an expert in filling these forms out! We got a little briefing about the Great White Shark; telling us that a typical adult great white shark measures 4-4.8 meters (13-16 ft) and has and weight somewhere between 680-1,100 kilograms (1,500-2,400 lbs). After all the technicalities were done and dusty we got back onto the minivan and headed off to the harbor and the boat.

When we had all boarded the boat, it launched onto the great open sea, I was still feeling a little precious but feeling a lot better than earlier on that day, we bobbed up and down on the ocean waves as the wind went though our hair and the spray soaked us all. The journey only took 20 minutes to get to the dive site and whilst the crew were busy setting up the cage on the side on the boat and attracting the Great White Shark, we all were told to climb up onto the roof on the boat and were told the best way to avoid being seasick and what to do if we were. Getting back down we all took it in turns to pile into the cabin and strip off and get into the wet suits; it’s harder than it looks especially when the boat is rocking on the high seas!! The first group of people jumped into the cage as the shark approached, we saw it on top of the water with its fin out of the water; wow, its a truly beautiful animal. Everybody rotated in the cage and eventually was my turn to get in it. I was slightly nervous and excited at the same time, I slid into the far right off the cage, I had some weights on to help me under the water when the shark approached, we were above the water and when the shark approached the guide would shout “Down, Down, Down!!” We would all go under the water and take pictures like a madman (with a disposable camera which I tried to use as a digital one to start with; it’s so difficult to use a disposable camera under water!) as the Great White circled the bit of tuna put out to attract them closer. I can't explain how awesome looking they are up close; they are absolutely beautiful creatures. Sometimes the sharks would hit the cage head on or with it's tall as it went pass, out guide had told us that the sharks isn’t trying to get us but is going so fast that he just clips the cage.

The waves started to get stronger, really choppy and the boat was getting battered by the sea; that's when we had to go back to the shore. On the way back the waves were so big that the boat was feeling like it was falling on to the sea, dropping your stomach. We landed on the shore, got changed and got back into the minivan and back to the reception where we had a quick debrief; we were told that the White Sharks we saw were baby ones, only measuring in at about 2.5 to 3 meters; they still looked fucking huge to me! We watched the video and then made our way on the 2 ½ hour journey to Cape Town, everybody fell asleep.

When I got back to hostel, I grabbed some money and went and got a pizza. Everybody was sat in the common room watching TV, they asked me how I was feeling this morning; I answered “rough”, they then proceeded to tell me about the evening; the fact that I drank about 14 to 15 bottles of beer and danced with a prostitute. We all laughed about it and then I fell asleep; knackered!

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Part of trip: African Adventures Of A Nobody

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