Please do not feed the baboons

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Let me start by saying that we're not in Nelspruit in spite of what it says on this blog. We are in fact in Hazyview (the Bootjack of South Africa). I no longer know what's been happening for the last week and am not even certain of what I wrote about last time. Here's a quick recap.

For those who don't know, Brick and Fred are Ashley's parents at whose home we lived for four (three?) days while in Wilderness. Ashley is a co-worker of mine at George's office. She is South African. Wilderness is a beautiful coastal town scarcely on the eastern side of the point on South Africa where (supposedly) the Atlantic meets the Indian. Now for why I've lost total track of time..

The Bungee jump. There's a brief moment at the instant when you realize that your center of gravity has moved out beyond the point to where you can change your mind when you instantly realize that you've just (consciously and in complete control of your faculties) decided to throw yourself off a bridge (We have tapes of the jump and this moment is very visible in mine). Then there's also the fact that while the man responsible for keeping you alive is tying your legs together and explaining to you what he is doing, you realize that you can't understand him and rather than asking him to repeat himself, you simply smile and nod (As Brick would point out later, not the time to pretend you understand).

Driving. For the last week or so, I've been driving everyday, on the wrong side of the road, on the wrong side of the car and making what it turns out, are illegal left turns on red lights (red robots as they're known here). Now I'm doing the same thing but with a manual transmission.

The Cango Caves. These are a tremendous and pretty amazing series of caverns in South Africa. I may have contracted some kind of cave madness there that is contributing to my current scatter-brained rambling.

Yesterday we flew to Johannesburg and then drove out to Hazyview, but more on that adventure later...

Now let's take a few moments to recap our shark diving adventure. A few days ago, the four of us headed out to sea to try and swim with the Great White population that South Africa is famous for. We headed out in the early morning on a little catamaran captained by Ron (or Roy?) a salty old, burnt-out hippy of a captain with a knack for asking awkward questions (to the Carribean pediatrician who came with us, "So you smoke right?" and her hilarious response, a guarded "Why? Is it legal here?"). For the first bit of the trip we motored out into a bay where we tracked along the coastline and skirted an island full of sea lions (Sidenote: Sea lions, cute yes, but in large numbers, horrendously smelly. Horrendously. Good God.) Eventually we turned around and headed back to Stink-pit island where we anchored. Turns out we'd been trailing herring oil behind the boat to lure in the sharks and had camped out by the Isle o' Food. The crew dropped some chum and began tossing out our incredibly realistic plywood cutout shaped like a sea lion. This is how we'd attract the sharks. Within five minutes we had a small shark (6-7 feet long) circling our plywood sealion. The cage was dropped and two little kids and their Ma hopped in the water. At this point, our blood was starting to really get pumping. Devan went and got ready to hop in a wetsuit, I was eagerly filming our curious little sea-predator, and then he got bored and left. For the next 8, 12, 42 hours, whatever it was, we did nothing but sit, sleep and wait for a shark that would never show. That was the whole day. Nothing but empty water below us, the sun above us, and a blanket of sea lion stink draped over us. Fantastic. By the end of the day I was starting to go a little "Cast Away" and had made friends with the biscuit tin Captain Ron had ever so thoughtfully provided us with.

By the time we got off the boat it was too late to do anything else, so we went to dinner and ate baby sharks as a form of vengeance. Childish? Maybe. Cruel? Perhaps. Delicious? Absolutely.

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Photos

The Cango Caves
Nobody should be this excited about a hole in the ground.

Devan gives up on sharks
As you can see, Devan was very helpful with the whole "let's find some sharks" thing.

Adrift and Asleep
This nap lasted like, 5 hours.

Glamour Shot
I've never looked more inspirational. And Devan's hat is nice too.

Comments

[Brian B.]

Bungee Jumps
Now because of your proximity to the south pole, do actually float upwards rather than fall with gravity? Someone once told me about the toilet bowls flushing the wrong way and I'm pretty sure they explained that it was because gravity doesn't understand itself down there. Bungee jumping, in my humble opinion is like looking at the Reaper and whispering slyly, "Go ahead, try and take me." It's on my list of things to do. That and play chicken with an elephant while driving a SmartCar. Speaking of cars....the tranny fell out of my Camry. Surprise. Surprise. Surprise. So I'm taking your Saturn out for more than just a few spins. This weekend, Laura and I drove to Las Vegas and had that threesome we've always been talking about with this really nice stripper from Nebraska in your very cramped back seat. I tried to get the love stains out but to no avail. Will discuss later. No but seriously we're having a good time here. It's worked out well that your car is here as mine remains crippled at the shop awaiting a used tranny. So my question is, belated, may I drive your car around in a city that condones the complete disregard of all traffic laws? Please? Your funk, B

[Laura]

oh, and by the way-
did he mention the part where his tranny broke at work, so i had to get my 18 year old brother to drive your car up to his work with me leading in my car???? oh. he didn't? nevermind.