Part 2 - Eastern Cape

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So we wake up at 5 o'clock for Shark diving. Starting to think - I bloody hope this is worth it!

We're on route to a sleepy town called Gaansbaai. The route has beautiful scenery, driving up, down and round the mountains. Turns out Brendon drives for 2 hours, Hannah sleeps! Oops. This seems to be a reoccurring theme throughout our trip! So, we arrive and its bloody freezing and a bit overcast. We were also the first to arrive because the rest of the people had been picked up by the minibus. gradually people arrive looking very moody n still sleepy,. But Hannah was rested and Brendon on his 2nd cup of coffee.

Then we get breakfast and a speech from the guide about how there's a possibility we might not see any sharks. As the group the day before didn't. GREAT! But the 15 of us all cram onto the boat and are still trying to remain optimistic.

We head out on the boat to where the sharks hang out, all suited up in our 1980's wet suits. First sighting was of a woman spewing over board, hopefully this attracts sharks! Turns out it doesn't, so the crew throw over tuna head as bait, and continually throw fish guts off the back of the boat to attract the sharks, we sit there for an hour or so thinking its now unlikely,. and then the skipper on the boat gets a call and one of his mates who has got some sightings elsewhere. So anchors up and we head towards them. We park up about a mile and a half off of seal island

So over the course of 2 hours the 15 of us jump in and out of the cages to see these massive sharks. Some of them were half the length of the boat, as big as 5.5 metres.

However you do forget they are 'Great White Sharks' when they come so close to the cage, you are tempted to lean out and touch them, forgetting they are feircly powerful predators, and you just don't mess with them.

Brendon managed to get some great shots of the sharks alongside of the boat, cos when they do catch the bait there is a lot of thrashing around, and some breaching the surface when they've caught hold of the bait.

We also got to see about 50 metres from the boat, a seal jump high out of the water, and then we realise what's happening. Its lunchtime. We see a lot of thrashing around, and then the seal jumps free. Everyone on the boat cheers. Go Seal!! Then the commotion stops sadly, its Shark 1 - Seal 0 :-( but pretty amazing to see. But over the trip we see about 7 different sharks so it was definitely worth it all in the end. Its so great, that you forget about how cold the water is.

Next day, we meet up with Jill and Sean along the wine routes of Stellenbosch, we went to Spier, Meerlust, Vergenoegd (or something like that). Managed to taste some lovely wines, and Han enjoyed her fanta. Really lovely day in all.

Didn't get back until about 11 o'clock that night, but driving past Mitchell's plain (the biggest Township/Slum in Cape town area) on the route back was 'eventful', not a good wrong turning to take. First we see a hit and run victim from the squatter camp, surrounded by police cars. Not nice to be honest. But I'm not stopping as its a pretty rough area, so we drive for another couple of miles and think we've possibly spotted the culprits as we see a Toyota truck surrounded by about 12-15 guys all washing it down in a garage. Now who washes their car at 11 o'clock at night!? Ahhh. Crazy! TIA - This is Africa!

But not far down the road we come to some traffic lights, and in this area is the first time I actually felt a bit scared in SA, because this is when a guy comes running across the road while were sitting at a red light. Its only when I see him running toward our passenger door that I start screaming 'drive drive drive' at Brendon. The car next to us had the exact same idea and we both skipped the red light. We make it home safely to camps bay and feel a bit relieved tbh. Phew!

Next day we head up Table mountain cos its clear, and then drive around Chapman'ss peak, Cape Point, Fish Hoek and NewLands. Very lush and green! Really stunning sights.

Our last night in Cape Town we had freak winds of 80km an hour, we didn't sleep much that night, as the whole house was creaking, the windows were flying open cos they managed to rattle open in the middle of the night we woke up to a sudden crash and glass smashing! Shit at 3 in the morning in our massive house we were staying in, it was pretty freaky. Thinking someone had broken in we were relieved to find that it was all the patio furniture had crashed up against the patio windows and the ash tray had smashed. Haha. In the morning we had to visit the neighbours and apologise because we had lost a couple of sun loungers, they had managed to jump the fence and end up in their back garden. Oops. He he.

So we sadly say goodbye to our house in Camps bay and head out to Hermanus. Lets just say that the most exciting thing about Hermanus was our Queen of England Themed Room and the free Wifi.

After Hermanus we head to Bontebok - the national park in Swellendam. It is beautiful! We stay in a cute log cabin over looking the River. It has its own Braai, and deck. So that day we just took a dip in the river and chilled out. Brendon heads back to get the suntan lotion as I won't let it go about his lack of suntan application skills. He takes a while and I presume he's just having a poo. Its not until the morning, after our Braii on the deck, and what seemed like a 2-3 hour long hike through the grass lands, that he tells me the reason he took so long getting the sun-cream was the fact that he had just seen a big ass snake crawl out from under our deck, and didn't want to freak me out. Probably best actually, as we had a great night sleep! Really enjoyed our stay in the Sans parks, really cheap compared to the rest of the places and one of our favourite spots.

Next town is Oudtshoorn, we stay in a Spa Lodge. So of course we have to take advantage of their facilities that night. It is stressful this travelling :-) But during the day we head to the Cango Caves, which have been around for millions of years, you will have to check out the pictures as it is pretty hard to explain its beauty!

After our massage we have chow at an amazing restaurant called Jemimas, where we get to taste the local delicacy Ostrich and Kudu. In the morning we both feel a bit guilty when we head to the Ostrich farm up the road, and Hannah gets to sit on an Ostrich. (unfortunately Brendon was 4kg too fat haha).Only after we've watched the ostrich riding we stand up to find we were practically resting our feet on a deadly scorpion. Nice!

Next was Knysna, which was pretty grim compared to how Brendon described it. Unfortunately anyone who wants to relive their childhoods memories of this area. DON'T! It certainly won't live up to them. It probably made it worse that I booked pretty crap accommodation. But never mind, next town!

Haha. I just asked Brendon what happened in the next town that's worth writing about. Ermmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Oh yeah. We jumped off a big fuck off bridge.

Ok so we arrive at Misty mountain reserve in Tstsikamma. Get to stay in another lodge style accommodation, but it was called the Zebra lodge and had zebra print all over it, but done tastefully. We checked in and had to leave straight away to go do our jump.

We arrive at the jump site, we get weighed up, and neither of us have put weight on (yet), even though our diet has consisted of pretty much meat for breakfast lunch and dinner, then snacks of dried meat throughout the day. Shocking.

Brendon and I signed up for the double adrenalin thingy ma jig, which means you do a 200metre zip slide to the bridge, then you get to jump off it. Woohoo. But its all pretty relaxed when we get to the start of the zip slide, you can hear dance music pumping from the jump site on the bridge. Then you start to worry that the guys I am trusting with my life could be on some kind of high, or simply just mental! Haha. When you slide 200 metres across this valley its hard not to look around, and especially down, which is when you first see the sheer height that you're going to throw yourself off. To put it into prospective, the jump is as high as the Canary Wharf tower. This is the highest bungee jump in the world! Slightly pooping it!

Ok so me and Brendon are trying to dance to this blaring music on the top of a very high bridge, and try to forget what is about to happen. But after each person jumps you get to see what happens on a TV screen, so its pretty hard to forget. Haha. One guy who had done a couple of jumps before did his jump backwards! Crazy!

So Brendon's turn is first. And I was too nervous about my own jump that I totally forgot to watch his. I got to see it all on the screen though. But I will let him explain his own jump. Ye thanks Han.... jumping off a bridge and it could be the last time that you ever see me and you are picking our nails.. NICE! Actually its over pretty quick... I was a bit nervous and all tried to be brave and when I got to the edge I froze a bit and did a stupid ungraceful jump, and the rebound I start to flap my arms like a chicken... like that is going to help. Then the guy that come to pick you up in a harness clips me the right way up and I ask him if he gets any discounts or jumps every day. He says “Jump off a bridge.... Are you MAD!!” haha Well it was great in the end and I will definitely do it again and try not to look like a retarded chicken being flung out of a car window.

Finally its Han's turn. So I'm the last person standing on this fricking bridge waiting to jump, and we've all been cattle prodded with our numbers, and the guide shouts out number 106, and we look around, everyone ignores him, '106' and i'm looking at my hand and it says 108, i'm thinking great, someone's screwed up and im not going to get to jump. So were all standing around for about 5 minutes, and nothing is happening. Then he finally calls my number, and I start thinking, shit, I don't even want to do this, I'm only doing it cos Brendon is. The guide doesn't give shit, and doesn't really give you a chance to back out of it either. The next thing you know is, they've picked you up under the arms, like a scarecrow, and plank you on the edge with your toes hanging over. Obviously your ankles are bound together and you cant move, so they're shouting at you to look at the horizon and not look down, but of course you do the opposite to what they say. But the next thing you know is they're counting 54321 so quickly that you throw yourself forward instinctively on 1. but everything about it just doesn't feel right. Your knees want to buckle, and suddenly you feel weightless and totally out of control of everything, cos you're free-falling. It is soi hard to explain the feeling.

Your looking down, and the floor is coming closer at you, then all of a sudden the rope pulls tight, even though I don't feel any whiplash, I got flung around like a rag doll, (which obviously looked worse on the video cos of my lanky arms and body) but you then brace yourself to ping back up, and both Brendon and I, had the exact same response to the second bounce, when you reach the top, we automatically started flapping our arms like a bird. On the video we look chicken oriental! But you do it, because you experience the same feeling of weightlessness again, and once again you have no control. But on my 2nd descent - me being my camera shy self, start waving frantically and poke my tongue out. Such a poser! Haha. most people are still in shock at this point. NOT ME! Haha.

Next thing you're hanging upside down for what seems like 5 minutes, but im sure its not, as one of the helpers taps you on the feet, and harnesses you in to take you back up. So you're hoisted back up onto the platform to join everyone again, and its pretty slick. I have my own welcoming home party, who are all shouting 'Hannah Montana' even the bloody south Africans know who she is. I'm sure I'm going to get this all round the world!

Brendon's is laughing, and smiling as I'm back up on the platform, his eyes are still glazed over from the adrenalin. He asks what I thought of the jump, my response being 'yeah it was alright!' Haha. I had been imagining it to be a lot lot more scary, but infact it was just pretty amazing and fun as opposed to scary. But I did explain to the guide that I would never have to do it again as that is the highest one in the world, so whats the point. His reply was 'no next time u can do it backwards'. Mine was 'fuck off'.

We brought the pictures and dvds, so you can all enjoy and laugh! We will upload them onto facebook.

Anyway, thats all we have time for now, will catch up soon

Brendon and Hannah x

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