Cape Agulhas and...Great White Shark diving ?????

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Alright, I had been looking forward to visiting Cape Agulhas the entire trip. We were going there initially at the beginning of the trip, while visiting Cape Town a few weeks ago. But we didn't have time and figured we could go there after we knew that our path to the Final would start in Durban, go by Port Elizabeth and back to Cape Town for the semi-final.

We got up early, got in the car and drove straight south towards Cape Agulhas. It took us about 45 minutes to get there and we basically had the place to ourselves. To be honest, there isn't much to see at the furthest southern point you can go in Africa. It's a coastline like any other, perhaps with a little more history, that has a little monument marking the supposed spot where the Indian Ocean meets the Atlanic Ocean. I lied a few weeks back when I said the Cape of Good Hope is where the oceans met; I always knew it was at Cape Agulhas that they met, and don't know why I said otherwise. My apologies. I read in our travel book that it is good luck to pee in the two oceans, so I made sure to deposit some just for good measure. Maybe I should have come here before Brazil played Holland. Hehe We spent an hour taking photos and visiting the place. I am happy we got to see it; in the future, every time I see the African continent on the map, I will look at it differently knowing we came here.

Our next destination was somewhat unknown. We were supposed to go to Hermanus to see if we could do some whale-watching, but not just your typical whale-watching. In this town, the whales come right up to the shore!!!! I kid you not, just google photos of this town. I had also wanted to do some cage-diving with Great White Sharks ever since I saw it advertized online. One of the places to do it Gansbaai (Gans Bay), which is about 25 minutes south of Hermanus on the west side of the peninsula Cape Agulhas is in. Since we were leaving Cape Agulhas around 10:45am, we figured we could roll into town and see if we could do the shark thing. I didn’t have much hope because lots of tourists are doing these things, but we would try. We also only had today and tomorrow to do it because we have a game in Cape Town on July 6.

Out of all the shark tour operators, our super-wise co-pilot Janel picked the flyer of a place that advertized taking care of sharks as one of their priorities...Shark Lady. We drove there and were told by the Shark Lady herself that they were fully-booked. She did offer us some coffee and told us she would try to find us a spot with someone for tomorrow. I could live with that, so we waited while she organized the group that was leaving at 2pm. 20 minutes passed and she came to me and said that we might be able to go on the next boat out because 2 people were running late and hadn’t showed up yet. With that, we went and observed the safety instructions that was being delivered by one of the tour guys. Just as he was finishing, the late couple arrived and our chances of going today were done. Well, almost done. The Shark Lady didn’t give up and started calling other places for us. The first 2 were full and ready to leave. The last one, she said, was our last hope...and lucky for us, had 2 spots available and were departing in 5 minutes!!! We paid for the trip, found our swimming trunks and suit and then followed the Shark Lady’s car down to the small port. It was like a high-speed chase in a movie, except that it was at 60km/h, and lasted less than 1km. In no time, we found ourselves on a boat towards Great White Sharks...so cool and unexpected, I was super excited. Janel, who has been the best travelling partner I have ever had, was such a trooper that she never hesitated or contemplated not going, not a single peep from her, not a single sign of being scared.

As excited as we were, we quickly ran into a small problem. With 18 people on board, who do you think started suffering from sea-sickness? I’ll give you a hint: they were the last two people to board the boat. Yep, Janel and I were fighting it as the boat sped towards the floating cage. We had no time to take any seasick pills or anything, and good thing we hadn’t eaten lunch yet. Once the boat parked, we went inside the cabin to get our bag, which is when it really hit. Within 5 minutes, I was puking off the side of the boat. Now, as bad as that was and as much as I have puked over the years after some boozing (and people that know me know that I have quite the puking history...8 times in 1 day anyone?), it is something else leaning off the side of the boat and staring down at a Great White Shark as you puke. So cool!!!! I’m not making this stuff up, this really happened. Unfortunately for me, I puked another two times on the trip. Hehe Janel tried to fight it but ended up puking once. Still, what an experience!!!

The tour guides started throwing bait in the water along with some fish blood to get their attention. While that was happening, we were all putting on wet suits and grabbing masks (no snorkels of oxygen tanks or anything like that). Once we spotted sharks, in groups of 4, we were lowered into a cage that was tied to the side of the boat. This is how it worked...since the guides are on the boat, they can see when the sharks are heading towards the front of the cage, so they advise the divers when to go under water to get the best view. The first group stayed in the water about 15 minutes and were told to go down under water about 5 or 6 times. While the first group was in the water and everyone else watching and taking photos, Janel and I were changing into our swim trunk/bikini and trying to get into our wet suits. Janel was given one that was a bit complicated so I had to help her, and that was a lot of fun (not really hehe). From time to time, I had to pause to fight the sea-sickness. Hehe I tried taking some photos of the sharks, but was too sick to get some really good ones, or lots for that matter. On the travelblog, you normally see about 10% of the pictures we take on a particular day...but we only took 4 pictures on the boat...only 4!!!!! Hehe Oh well...

Janel and I were on the last group into the cage, and it turned out to be the best group because 2 sharks were surrounding the boat for us compared to only 1 for the other groups. YAY!!! We were being told to go underwater every 5-10 seconds, and got really nice views of the sharks trying to bite the bait. A couple of times, the sharks came within inches of the cage, almost touching it. It was absolutely insane!!!!! Like my Dad would say...A-MA-ZING!!!!!! We were in the water so long that Janel and I were ready to ask to get out because, you guessed it, we were getting sick again. Hehehe

While we are getting on the boat, getting ready, being in the cage and watching it all, one of the crew members video-tapes it all. One of the things he does is get your reaction once you step foot on the boat from the cage...only 1 of the 18 people was not able to do tell the camera what they thought...yep, ME again!!!!!!! hehehe I simply walked right past the camera to my trusted spot on the other side, and proceeded to puke for the 3rd time. Hehehe Good times.

After we got back on shore, we got some soup and felt a little better. I discovered that we ended up going with the premier shark-diving company, the one owned and operated , you guessed it, by Sharkman (no relation to Shark Lady)!!! Hehe I had seen a CNN piece Anderson Cooper did on Sharkman a few months ago, which is when I first discovered this area was a Great White haven. This man swims with Great Whites without a cage, just him and a camera. He says he has been pulled for a ride by a Great White before by hanging on to its fin. He is obviously insane!! On the wall, you see pictures of him with Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Anderson Cooper, the King of Jordan, etc... He wasn't there today because he is getting ready to begin shooting an IMAX movie tomorrow. Anyway, we got to preview the edited video and ended up buying it. You can see a lot of what we saw, with the exception of underwater shots. You can see me walking by the camera ready to puke, so that is worth the video right there. Hehehe

Before heading towards Hermanus, our original destination, we visited the Shark Lady to thank her for her kindness. She didn’t have to try to find a spot for us either on her boat or on another company’s boat. From what we understood, we would have to wait 1 week to find spots if it wasn’t for her...so peeing in the oceans at Cape Agulhas already paid off...YAY!!!!! Cheers to peeing into oceans!!!!!(Janel has a picture of that too, don’t worry)

A little side note to my brother Rico, who is an expert in all things animal-related (growing up, I was the sports guy and he was the animal guy): what we did today you would love, you would appreciate it much more than I did, and I was blown away. The sheer size of the beasts is impressive, and for them to come so close to us in their own habitat was something else. I hope you get a chance one day, that's for sure.

Anyway, on the way to Hermanus, we called and booked another double at a hostel. So, if my uncle Djalma is keeping track, we are on day 16 and Janel has yet to sleep outside on a park bench. Hehehe

In Hermanus, we got settled at the hostel, showered and went out for dinner. We had a nice dinner at a restaurant overlooking the new port. It was a nice way to close out a wonderful, exciting, seasick-filled day. Yes, sometimes, you have to cater to the lady and eat a nice meal and drink a bottle of wine while looking out at the ocean from the restaurant patio. No offense to my previous World Cup companions (cousin Claudio in France in 1998, university buddies Peter and Joey in South Korea/Japan in 2002 and my cousin Stefan in Germany in 2006), when dinners were the cheapest thing around, sometimes just plain beer. Tonight 's dinner was wonderful, a really nice date night with my Great-White-Shark-diving wife from Saskatchewan of all places. YAY for Saskatchewan!!!!

Tomorrow, we will check out whale-watching tours and see if it suits us. We are not crazy about experiencing sea-sickness once again, but it might be worth it, and I'm up for it if we can find a spot on a boat. Stay tuned for more upcoming (puking ?) news.

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