Penguins, Sharks, and Ostriches, Oh my!

Another action packed few days here in Cape Town. I’ve been here a week, and at times I feel that it has flown by and other times I feel like I’ve been here forever.

On Friday night as I mentioned, we went to the New Zealand vs. South Africa junior world championship rugby game. What an exciting and electric atmosphere! I didn’t realize what a big game this was, but the stadium was packed and the South Africans LOVE their springboks (a south African gazelle), or Baby Boks as the junior team is called. The Baby Boks beat the New Zealand All-Blacks (or baby blacks)! Most of us didn’t follow the rules of the game very well, but it was easy to get swept up in the excitement of the crowd.

The next day, we went on an all day Cape Point and Wine tour. The day started at 10 am with a wine tasting at a gorgeous winery founded in 1685. Off to a pretty great start. The views at Groot Costantia were amazing. Our guide, Gru, lead us around the winery explaining the process, and ended with a tasting of 5 different wines. YUM. My favorite was the Shiraz.

A little giddier and sleepier, we headed back to the bus to our next stop, Chapman’s Peak Drive. This was voted the most scenic drive in the world. And I’m gonna go with heck yes, it is. We stopped for a few minutes to take lots of pictures and enjoy more gorgeous views. (We are seriously spoiled with the scenery here.) We went to a beautiful ostrich farm next. Let’s be clear- the views were the beautiful thing, ostriches were as weird/ugly/cool/dirty as ostriches anywhere. Most of the brave ones fed the ostriches, almost losing a finger or two along the way.

Next we headed to Table Mountain National Park, which is a huge national park with many different species of animals and flowers. One of the coolest things we saw was a ton of baboons hanging out right on the side of the road that we were driving along. Within the park, the cape of Good hope is popularly known as the spot where the Atlantic and Indian Ocean meet (although geographically, it is not) It is the most south western point in Africa. From there, we went to Simon’s Town, a beautiful little resort town along the coast. This is where Boulders Beach and the African penguins are. These penguins were originally called Jackass penguins because of the braying sound they make! The penguins were so cute and funny to watch. Before we left, we went to a restaurant on the water, where I got a delicious plate of fish and chips. Phew…quite the day! Napping on the bus on the way home was lovely.

The next day, Mike, Kate and I work up at 4:45 am (ew) for cage diving with great white sharks! The only nice thing about that time of day was the beautiful sunrise we were treated to on the 2 hour drive to Gansbaii, one of areas in the world most densely populated with great white sharks. When we got there we learned a bit more about the great white shark. One of the guides explained how much he hates the Jaws series because of how it demonizes these animals. Great white sharks are normally not man-eaters, and it is believed that most attacks happen when a human is mistaken for a seal. There is very little known about the great white shark. Great white sharks will die when kept in captivity so the only place to see them is in their natural habitat.

We headed out onto the boat and drove about 20 minutes out. We stopped pretty close to Seal Rock. They threw out the bait (chum) and waited for the sharks to bite. About half an hour in (and lots of rocking back and forth on the boat, hello nausea!) we saw the first shark! He came right up to the surface. As soon as that happened, they lowered the first 6 divers into the water. We wore wetsuits, but ahhhhh still so cold. The cage is attached to the boat, and a little bit of it is above the water so that you can come up if you need to. You are also given a breathing apparatus that lets you breathe underwater. They give you a weight to wear around your chest that makes it easier to stay down. Once you are down there they continue to throw the bait close to the cage so that the sharks come within a few feet, and sometimes inches of you! Pretty amazing stuff. We saw two different sharks while we were there, that keep coming back and forth to the cage to the bait. We were able to rent an underwater camera and take some great pics of our new buddies.

That’s all for now! Love!