This will be my very last blog post from South Africa! Boo
hoo. This is a little story about the awesome time we had in Cape Town.
Another early start-1.30 in the morning as the dive started
at 7am from Simonstown (near cape town). We weren’t particularly impressed
because we were told we would get a nice big Catamaran for our two hour boat
ride to the dive spot (our dive was about 25 miles out from the coast, they had
to find the place where the Atlantic meets the Indian ocean and creates a warm
current), but we were given one of those rubber dingy boats. It was very, very
cold, and we were made to suit up and boot up there and then. It was not a particularly
pleasant journey as the swell made us go flying up into the air on the boat and
hit our bottys very aggressively whenever we landed! The journey definitely
brightened up when we only saw some bloody Humpback whales! Oh yes. The only
whales I’d seen so far over here were Bryde’s whales and that was from miles
away. These guys were about 20 metres from our boat and it was very exciting to
see them travelling and blowing (heh heh).
We were getting sceptical about every finding this supposed
dive spot, they kept saying “we’re going to find the blue water” because
apparently the water we were flying over was “very green” (it definitely all
looked the same!). About 2 hours later, we FINALLY pulled up to the right spot
(definitely no bluer than before), in order to hunt some blue sharks and mako
sharks! We were all in 5mm wetsuits with ridiculous hoods to squeeze our large
heads into ungracefully. It was another baited dive because we were literally
in the middle of the open ocean with nothing around us but some greedy
Albatross’s, so we had to lure the sharks in. Also, being that far away, we
were told not to do anything stupid because medical help would also take up to
2 hours, so no sticking your arm in the sharks mouths is the advice we were
given.... Thanks for that! Reeeeeal helpful. After an HOUR of chumming, some
glittering silver slithers started appearing around the bait box, so we were
ready to go in. Further advice- don’t get lost at sea. We were at a drop off of
2000feet (yes, 2000 feet!!!) so no swimming too far down. We all flopped in and
boy, were these sharks beautiful (first picture). There is no picture that will
do a Blue shark’s colourful back justice. They sport a rainbow of iridescent,
glittering blues and silvers, and they were just beautiful. They ranged from
about 0.5m to 1.25m (baby lil sharks compared to our great white friends!).
They were so curious and friendly, they literally behaved like puppies who are
just learning to use their feet. They would swim up to you, nudge you, push you
around, and even nibble on anything they could get their teeth around (my
wetsuit zip was a favourite!). If they got a little too nibbley you had to give
them a little smack on the nose, again like a puppy. But they just wanted to
play and it was such a fantastic experience tickling sharks bellies and
stroking their gorgeous blue backs. There is just nothing like being that close
to an animal that most people will never get to see in their lifetime!
In the last half an hour of the dive, a shark suddenly
darted into view. It was swimming lightspeed so we knew it wasn’t a Blue who
are pretty dosile. We finally got a better look at it when it charged full
speed towards us (I definitely peed a little at this point, it was s%&t
scary!!!), and it was confirmed-a Mako shark!! They are the ugliest, most evil
looking sharks in existence (second picture). It was faaaantastic to see one!
They swim SO fast it’s unbelievable, one blink and theyre gone, which is part
of the reason they were so scary, you didn’t know when they would appear next
and show you their gammy ragged teeth which they keep out all the time, just so
you don’t mess with them. I tried to discourage it from eating me with my fins,
but it didn’t seem too interested in us anyway. It was super awesome!
Next, a seal turned up! It was somersaulting around us,
staring at us with its huge brown eyes. It was adorable and I just wanted to
cuddle it! Sad to leave with only 50 bars of oxygen left, we surfaced.
The next dive I really wasn’t looking forward to. It was a
shore dive in a kelp bed, and the water was only 17 degrees (not as nice as the
20 degree water we had just been in!). It took me a loooong time to pluck the
courage to jump in, but I eventually did. It was like I jumped into a time
machine that took me back to a prehistoric world. The kelp plants were HUGE!
They looked like trees underwater, and the whole place had a green tinge from
it all. Swimming through them was bizarre, and a bit scary too because they
often got tangled in your fins. I got used to the cold pretty quick because it
was just so awesome that I didn’t really notice it. I was told I was going to a
Cowshark (or Sevengill) hotspot. They were certainly correct! I saw about 20-30
in total. They also really do look like dinosaurs. Or actually, how you would
imagine a cow would look if it were a dinosaur! They were brilliant, but you
couldn’t touch these ones because they may bite and they were about 2 metres,
so a little bigger than the Blues! But they were also very curious and would
swim right past you. They also had a tendency to sit behind you so when you
turned around you were face to face with a ginormous shark mouth. They were so
cool. They’re the third picture I uploaded. We also saw puffadder sharks and
pyjama jacket sharks. All in all, very successful!
Finally-WINE TOUR! 4 wineries, 11 screaming girls, and a lot
of wine. I learnt how to say “this wine is the best! In Afrikaans, but I slowly
started to forget how to say it the more drunk I got. Our leader started off
not being particularly impressed with how rude we were, and made lots of racist
jokes about the English and Americans. Casual! But he warmed to us, how could
you not, we are delightful. We also got to try cheese with the wines, I went
round it twice, and ate all of them, mmmmmm, creeeeeamy camembert....I’m not
quite nursing a hangover, but I am not wanting to go to bed because when I wake
up, I will be leaving Africa. This has been a truly unforgettable, life changing
experience, and I will treasure everything I have seen and learnt forever. The
only thing I can do is to encourage other people to do what I did, experience something
totally out of this world, especially something that involves gorgeous sharks!!!
That’s it my sharky friends. Until next time.
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