Cape of Good Hope, The Flu, and Shark Diving

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On Wednesday, I rented a car with Heather and Jaron and we drove down to the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point. I thought the drive fell far short of its reputation as being one of the best in the world. However, Chapman's Peak was closed due to maintenance so maybe that's where all the scenery is. Nevertheless it was another day of perfect weather and still a great drive.

We first stopped in Boulders Beach which is allegedly the only place in the world where you can swim with penguins. The water was ridiculously cold but I probably wouldn't have done it anyway. There really are penguins everywhere though. A few miles up the road there were baboons crossing the road so we stopped for some pictures. They're pretty nasty and will literally run up to you and steal food right out of your hand.

We drove all the way to Cape Point and walked to the lighthouse. The land itself was a lot higher than I expected seeing as how it is a narrow peninsula jutting out into the ocean. The views were amazing but it smelled awful up there. It must have been from the baboons or the ostriches (yeah, there are wild ostriches too).

After Cape Point we drove up to Simons Town to eat but we didn't find anything so we went to nearby Kout Bay. We had some disappointing fish. The food here has been less than spectacular so far.

The next night, I woke up at 3 am to begin what ended up being one of the worst nights of my life. At first I thought it was food poisoning but we later determined it was 24 hour flu. The hostel staff said it's been going around lately. Heather ended up getting it too but Jaron was surprisingly fine. The next day I just bummed around and slept all day.

Today (Friday), I woke up feeling 100%, which was crucial, because we went shark diving!! It was a long ride out to some town near Hermanus on the Southern coast. It was cloudy and a little rainy but that meant there was only 13 in our group; they take up to 40. So we had almost unlimited time in the cage. The visibility was 10 meters and we saw about 20 sharks. They said that these are all exceptional numbers and we were there on one of the best possible days. Some of the sharks were massive (largest one was about 4 1/2 meters) and they swam within inches of us. They threw some tuna heads in to lure them towards us and would tease them with it by pulling it back. Sometimes the sharks would go for the bait and sometimes they would bite the cage. It was one of the greatest things I've ever done, hands down.

Cape Town is awesome but I'm excited to move on. I might go out to Robben Island tomorrow (the prison where Nelson Mandela was kept) and then my 42 day overland tour leaves on Sunday.

My camera lens has been getting repaired for the last 2 days which is why I don't have any pics. But Heather and Jaron are going to send me theirs so hopefully I'll be able to post them soon. There are some really good pics of the sharks and of the Cape.

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