Cage Diving with Great White Sharks

Well today was a big day! We woke up super early (we had to leave before 6am!) and drove down to Gansbaai. It was about a 2 hour drive down and were greeted with a nice breakfast spread. After a brief safety demonstration we were herded to the boat. We went out to sea about 10 minutes while sea gulls flew right along beside us. It was kind of wacky how they flew at the exact same speed as we were going. Then one of the crew held out part of his sandwich and they flew right down and shared some. Then we anchored down and waited.

And waited. This area is famous for being one of the top most reliable places in the world to see Great White Sharks, but we had been warned for the past few days that it might be cancelled due to poor conditions. It seems the water temperature had dropped suddenly and the sharks don't like that, and also there had been several orcas spotted in the area which are the only predator of the sharks. So overall not great conditions but they had seen some sharks out yesterday so the decision was made last-minute to try today.

Luckily it was a gorgeous clear warm day (over 90 degrees!) so we were able to enjoy the nice weather on the boat. There were also lots of other people on the boat and we spent a good bit of time talking with a girl from Alabama. But we waited over 3 hours with no action at all, other than a few splashes which elicited a lot of excitement but turned out to be a seal.

They tried to bait the sharks by throwing out chum, which was a tuna mixture and was very oily so it stayed on the surface of the water to supposedly draw the shark to us. They also had a floating device which looked like the silhouette of a seal from below in order to intrigue the shark as well as a fish head for bait. 

Eventually the captain got a call from another boat that said they had a shark and we could come and "share" it with them. So we pulled anchor and moved over there. That's when we got our first glimpse of the shark. It was huge! It was probably the biggest we ended up seeing today, but I was unprepared so I didn't get any pictures. 

But that's when all the activity really started. They quickly shuffled 8 divers into their wetsuits and lowered them into the cage. They were in there probably about 10 minutes until they had a couple of good passes of the shark before they rotated to a new group of divers. They again were only in about 15 minutes until they got a couple of good views so they rotated again. We were in the third group.

Oh my gosh the water was frigid. It physically hurt to get in even though we were wearing really thick wetsuits. At first I bobbed up and down energetically trying to get used to it and warm up (I was on swim team- I know the drill) and I would be looking all around for sharks while everyone else huddled up high as possible out of the water. 

We waited. And waited some more. After a while a seal swam right by and I jumped down to look at him. He hovered right on the other side of the cage looking directly at me while I was looking at him for a good few seconds. I feel like we had a moment. But then I had to go up for air (we didn't have any snorkel or scuba gear) and that was the end of it. So that was a bit exciting.

And then we waited some more. After awhile they told us to get out of the cage and sit on top of it so we didn't have to sit in the freezing water forever. Honestly this was even more uncomfortable though because my body had finally gotten numb from the cold so then I had to thaw out again. Eventually we got another call from a different boat with a similar message; that there was a shark over there and we could go join them. So we hopped out and drove over there, then hopped back in (so cold!!).

Then we finally got to see a shark!! We had a couple of decent passes at it but then we got a really good one. The bait was floating right in front of the cage and he swam up out of nowhere right to the bait and hovered there for a second, letting us get a good look at him. Then he swam around it and doubled back so we could get a good look at his teeth. It was so exciting! I so wish I had a (working) underwater camera so I could share this with you all.

We were in the water for probably almost an hour at that point, but after that they quickly shuffled us out so that the final group could have a chance. They waited for maybe 5 minutes before they saw their shark and then we packed up and headed out. We were out on the sea for about 6 hours total. It sounds like they are normally out for about 3-4 hours and usually everyone gets multiple chances in the water. But I suppose we were just lucky to see any sharks today after they had seen no sharks most of the week.

So that was our day! We drove back to our airbnb and grabbed some pizza for dinner. We're pretty tired after an early morning and lots of time in the sun. I do have a couple of pictures of the sharks from the boat that I'll share. Our new friend from Alabama took a video of our shark that we saw while we were in the cage.  Here it is, you can kind of see the cage at the bottom of the frame which Matt and I are in:

We went with "Great White Shark Tours" for our trip and we were pretty happy with them. There are 8 different companies that do and offer pretty much the exact same thing so we just ended up picking one based on price and who offered me a discount. I did find a "sharkbookings.com" website that seems to work with all 8 and will just put you on one of them. Then if for some reason your boat ends up not going out then they can re-book you on a different one. That seemed intriguing but I didn't like not know who exactly we'd be going with so I just picked one of them myself.

Penguins and Capes

Unfortunately, no. The penguins weren't wearing capes...

Our first stop this morning was to pick up our rental car, and we walked through Bo-Kaap on the way to see the colorful houses. The sun was just rising on the houses so it was beautiful to see them in that sort of sunlight.

Now that we finally have our own wheels again, we were anxious to get on the road. We drove to Simon's Town where we went to see the penguins. We took the scenic route right along the ocean and it was gorgeous. Similar to the Great Ocean Road in Australia, we were just hugging the cliff side driving right along the ocean. It was a beautiful drive. 

Simon's Town seemed to be a cute little town but we rushed through in a hurry to see the penguins. We entered through the visitor's center where you had to pay 70 rand per person to enter. You can instead skip the visitor center and go right towards Boulder Beach which you don't initially have to pay and you can see some penguins along the walkway. Eventually though if you want to get on the beach going that direction you will need to pay the same price. But if you pay it once at the visitor center you can just show your ticket, so you only have to pay the R70 once.

Anyway, the visitor center was worthwhile as we were able to get much closer to the main colony of penguins and see a whole bunch of them. We even got to see lots of babies and and also some eggs hiding under some of the penguins. They were also separated by a fence though so you weren't able to interact with them.

Then we walked to the right of the visitor center and walked along the boardwalk where you could see some more penguins in the brush. Then we got to the beach, which was the coolest part in my opinion. You could see more penguins from the main part of the beach but they were again separated by a fence. But you could sneak away from the main beach by climbing under and over the huge rocks back the other way (towards the visitor center). This area was more secluded so less people. And also, penguins roaming free! There were swimming in the water and sunning themselves on rocks. They'd also just randomly waddle by. It was awesome. I got in the water and they just swam around me. Here's a video (there are more videos and pictures on the album on the right):

Even without the penguins though it was a beautiful beach. Soft sand and I loved that it had all of the huge boulders which made it seem more mysterious and secluded. The water was absolutely frigid though. Matt and I found a secluded little area between some rocks and that's where we set up our stuff and ate our lunch. As I was exploring around in the water I also found a starfish! I've never found one in the wild before. Then a guy told me he had seen several larger ones earlier but I never did find those. We also spotted a couple of dassies, the animal we saw yesterday on the mountain. They are curious little creatures.

After we left there we drove down to Table Mountain National Park to see Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope. We made it first to Cape Point and climbed up to the light house. There were gorgeous views from up there.

Then we went to Cape of Good Hope, which is the most "south-western" point of the African continent. It's also commonly perceived to be the meeting point of the Atlantic and Indian oceans, although that's not geographically true. But we climbed up to the top to check out the views which were also amazing.

The whole park was really cool as well to just drive around. There are lots of wild animals. We saw lots of little lizards, and I also saw a huge lizard bigger than my forearm on a rock as we drove by (I wasn't quick enough to get a picture). We also saw lots of elands, which are the second-largest type of antelope. Some of them were really big and had huge spiral horns.

We also saw some wild ostriches! I really didn't expect that. We saw 3 different ones.

We kept seeing signs for wild baboons and it sounds like it's pretty common to see them but we never did. I was a bit bummed when we were leaving the park that we hadn't, but turns out for nothing. We saw them on our drive home! There were several of them running down the road. One had a little baby on it's back! They were really big, bigger than most dogs. I was surprised. They also were really close to our car. I was able to grab a couple of pictures:

I better get to bed- another big day planned tomorrow!

Table Mountain

Happy Freedom day!

We made it to the top of Table Mountain today!! We actually took the cable car instead of hiking since the hike was incredibly steep. I think that was a a good decision because there was still lots of hiking up at the top and I think that would've been difficult to do if we had just hiked all the way up. Plus the cable cars were cool; they were really big and had huge 360 degree windows. The floor also spun around so where you stood didn't matter as it spun you all the way around anyway so you could see all of the views.

The top of the mountain was incredible. Any way you looked had breath-taking views. It's no wonder that it was named one of the "7 Wonders of Nature" as of 2011. It's highest point is at Maclear's Beacon and reaches 1,086 meters (3,563 feet) above sea level. And we climbed up to the very top of that! Here's a picture:

We spent a few hours hiking around up there and also ate a packed lunch with the most gorgeous view. They have some very even trails right around the cable station where you can get to both sides of the plateau and get most of the views. But to get to Maclear's Beacon it's about a 45 minute hike and it's pretty uneven terrain A few times we were straight-up climbing. It's definitely well-worth the views though. I took a thousand pictures. Here's a couple, as always you can see more in my album linked on the right (they are in part 2).

They have a ton of hiking paths up there and you could spend all day hiking if you wanted to. We also saw several little mammals roaming about which turned out to be called dassies. They kind of look like a cross between a rodent and a rabbit, but according to Wikipedia they are more closely related to elephants and manatees, which seems bizarre to me.

Anyway, we really enjoyed our Table Mountain day and the weather was perfect for it. It was pretty crowded around the cable car areas but once you hiked out a bit the crowd quickly thinned out. It was just such a perfect day for it with the great weather and being a holiday.

After we rode the cable car back down we walked back to our airbnb. Along the way we stopped for food and found a diner called "Stacked". It was so good! We got the best burgers of our trip so far, along with some fries and milkshakes. Yum! We haven't yet tried any adventurous African cuisine but there's still lots of time for that.

After we made it back to our airbnb we decided to spend the last hour of daylight checking out the surrounding area a bit. We walked through "The Company's Garden" which is literally right across the street. There were some really big trees and pretty plants. We also saw an albino squirrel! It was kind of creepy looking with bright red eyes. 

We also walked along the perimeter and saw the big old buildings which were really pretty, and also the parliament buildings. We made our way down to the Cape Hope Castle and grabbed a picture but we weren't able to go inside.

Cape Hope Castle:

Oh, I finally finished my Singapore page! Check it out and let me know what you think!

Robben Island

I slept for a whopping 11 hours last night. It felt great! When we woke up it was stormy with rain and nice thunder. So we had a slow morning waiting out the rain and doing some planning. We've hit a snafu with one of our flights; the airline changed the time of one of them such that we'll miss the connection so we've been trying to get that figured out. But working with companies in different time zones is always fun!

It stopped raining just in time for us to walk down to the waterfront area, which is about a 30 minute walk. We got there just in time to make it for the 3pm tour to Robben Island. It's a 50 min boat ride each way to get to the island. On the way we got to see lots of animals! We were still in the harbor when we saw several seals/sea lions! (I still can't tell the difference between the two despite seeing them in several aquariums recently). Then we also saw dolphins and penguins in the harbor as well! I was so surprised.

We saw a couple more seals on the way but otherwise the rest of the ride was uneventful. We got to Robben Island and were immediately shuffled onto a bus where we were given a tour of the small island. For those who aren't familiar with Robben Island- for many years it was a prison for political prisoners. One of the more famous prisoners was Nelson Mandela who served 18 of his 27 years of imprisonment there. Two other inmates have also gone on to becomes President of South Africa, including the current President Jacob Zuma. It was closed as a political prison in 1991 and actually tomorrow (April 27th) is celebrated as Freedom Day which is a national holiday to commemorate the first post-apartheid election held on that day in 1994. Robben Island is a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1999.

We were taken around the island and shown the lime and rock quarries where the prisoners were forced to work.We were also taken by the school (which is now closed) and church and hospital which were used when the island was also used as a quarantine for lepers. As we were touring the island we also spotted some penguins wandering around! I was finally able to grab a couple of quick pictures of them. We also saw deer, antelope, and turtles on the island. I had no idea we were going to see so many animals today!

The lime quarry where the prisoners were forced to work:

After our bus tour we also were able to tour the prison, and our guide was actually a former prisoner there. He had been imprisoned when he was 17 and served 7 years there. He was able to share with us what it was like there during that time and how poorly they were treated. The black prisoners were especially treated poorly, receiving less food and just minimal clothing without socks/shoes even during the winter months. They were forced to work long hours in the quarries and had to endure terrible punishments. 

He took us through the different cell blocks, including the general block with 60 prisoners and also the max security individual cells, including Nelson Mendela's cell. It was very moving and interesting to learn more about the history of the apartheid time here, especially from someone who had experienced it first hand.

General block:

Nelson Mandela's cell:

We caught the boat back and it was right at sunset which was really beautiful as it set behind the island. Here's a picture:

We saw some more seals and dolphins as we pulled back into the harbor so that was fun. I wish I could've gotten some pictures but they move so fast! Matt was also able to hand off another one of our "sneaky cards" as he was able to get someone to say his secret word: "dock"!

Then we grabbed dinner down there at the Waterfront. It's a really nice area with lots of shops and restuarants. There were a lot of people out since tomorrow is a National holiday. We ended up at a Belgian restaurant where I got fish and chips while Matt got a steak. 

That's pretty much it for the day! We're still trying to get our flight situation straightened out and we've already spent an hour and a half on the phone. :/ Good thing I have Project Fi and calls to the US on wifi are free!

We made it to Africa!

After a full day, then 8-hour flight, 2.5-hour layover, and 9.5-hour flight we finally made it to South Africa! No flight issues, thankfully, but we got to spend some quality time in a couple of lounges. Free food and free drinks are always a bonus. Just another plug, if you're going to be doing a lot of travel the Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card is totally worth it. In addition to a ton of other benefits, it also gets you into a ton of airport lounges worldwide for free.

We flew Qatar Airways today which was really nice. They have new fancy planes and lots of in-flight entertainment options. I hardly slept since I was so excited to watch all the movies. I can't even tell you how many movies I watched; I lost count. I was right in the middle of the super sad part of Me before You with tears streaming down my face when the smell of a stranger's fart abruptly snapped me back to reality. Ugh. 

They also served good food. Although I didn't get to experience much of it because I'm too clever for my own good. I had put my food preference on their website as "fresh fruit". This was really exciting the first meal they served; the fruit was delicious and looked far superior to the other options. But it wasn't so exciting when I got the same fruit tray for the second meal, or the third... or the fourth. I like fruit but I really needed something different at that point. Live and learn, my friends.

Anyways, we landed in Cape Town and successfully navigated our way through customs and got a taxi to our airbnb. Here are a few pictures I took from the flight; it was really beautiful flying in and seeing the mountains. The last one is a good shot of Table Mountain.

We're staying in our own apartment this time and it's really nice. It's in a good area within walking distance to Long Street, which has lots of restaurants. I have some pictures of the apartment in the album. The hostess met us when we checked in and she was very friendly as well.

I was very hangry for something other than fruit so we walked to Long Street and got the first food we saw: pizza. It was good and cheap, so that's nice. Then, to keep us from going back to the apartment and sleeping the day away, instead we wandered up and down Long Street to check out what's there. Found several good restuarants that we might try in the coming days. We also stumbled upon a small market on a cobblestone area and we wandered through there for awhile. I really love the African style sculptures and paintings; I may try to decorate a room (or several) like that in the future.

We stopped at a grocery store on the way home and stocked up on provisions for a few days since we have a full kitchen to ourselves. Then we stayed in for a quiet night. I've been just trying to keep myself awake until it's a reasonable time to go to bed. It's almost 7pm here now and I think I'm about to call it a (very long) day.

I'm slowly working on my Singapore overview page so stay tuned for that!

Jurong Bird Park

Today we decided to check out the Jurong BirdPark since we already had tickets via our ParkHopper passes from the zoo. It was quite a trek out there as it took about an hour and a half each way via public transportation. We got there and immediately jumped on the tram to get the lay of the land, so to speak. It only took about 20 min and took us around the park.

Then we hopped off and walked around on foot for awhile. They had lots of different exhibits that we checked out: penguins, parrots, owls, pelicans, toucans, and dinosaur descendants (this is what they called their flightless birds). They also had a huge walk-in aviary that they called the African Waterfall Aviary. This is the second-largest walk-in aviary in the world and it contains the world's tallest man-made waterfall in an aviary. It was also very warm and humid in there (basically the same as outside...) and they replicate a thunderstorm in there every day. We went to look at the waterfall but then we headed out. Here are a few pictures from our visit:

I probably wouldn't have made the trek out there if we didn't already have tickets, since I'm not super into birds and it was pretty much exactly as expected. The most exciting thing that happened was when a bird pooped on Matt. He thought it was a bug that landed in his hand and he immediately slapped it with his other hand, effectively splattering it all over himself. That was pretty funny. I tried to help him clean it off his shorts but then I accidentally made it worse by smearing it even more. Whoops. It was the biggest thing of bird crap I've ever seen and kind of red, it was weird. So we got to do laundry again this afternoon! 

We took public transport back to our neck of the woods and stopped at Orchard Station for a bite to eat around there. There are a ton of malls in that area so there was lots to see and do. We eventually meandered back to our apartment and decided to call it an early night. We have lots of planning to do and tomorrow is going to be a looooong day. We fly to Africa tomorrow but our flight isn't until 9:20pm our time. Our travel itinerary is then over 20 hours long. So we need to get things packed up and get a good night's sleep. I'm not sure I'll get around to publishing anything tomorrow.

Another fun thing we've started doing is we've been playing a card game given to us by our friends, Eric and Nichole. It's called "Sneaky Cards" and the idea is that each card has a different challenge to interact with strangers in some way. And once you complete the challenge you give them the card. They can then track it and also keep it going by completing the challenge and passing it on again. If people go online and enter the code on the card then I'll be able to see how far the cards spread. So far I've handed out three cards. I found someone who met defined characteristics and gave her the card (I needed a light-haired girl who was wearing a dark shirt), I pre-paid for an item in a vending machine and left the card, and I also sneakily left the card with someone without them noticing. So whenever we have a notable story from that I'll include it here since it's fun, but I figured I'd share the backstory first.  :)

Gardens by the Bay

We started our day at Gardens by the Bay. First we wandered through the many free gardens which were really pretty. They also had neat little information boards where you could learn about the different plants. There was one section where you could learn how different plant species evolved and they had examples that you could look at.

Gardens by the Bay was kind enough to supply us with media passes for my blog so we were able to enter the conservatories for free. We went into the Flower Dome which is in the middle of their "Tulipmania" event. They had a ton of tulips and some were organized in a way to re-create a famous painting. There was one of Van Gogh's Starry Night which was really pretty. They also had lots of other different sections, like cacti and other succulents, and Mediterranean or South American. I liked the tulips the best. This is the world's largest glass greenhouse according to the Guinness World Records 2015.

Next was the Cloud Forest, which is the other dome. This was really cool. They re-created a tropical mountain region with cool, moist climate and a man-made mountain (35 meters tall) with waterfall.  The flowers and plants grew all the way up the 'mountain' and it was really pretty. You could take an elevator up to the top and walk around inside it and also on a skywalk around it. You'd make your way down through the different sections. We also got to learn a bit about how the huge conservatories were built to be so environmentally friendly. They collect rainwater at the surface and circulate it through a filtering system which uses the Supertrees (more about those later) to vent hot air and cool circulated water.

We wanted to go straight to the Supertree Grove and do the Skyway, but at the time it was closed down due to lightning concerns. We decided we'd come back at night when it was all lit up. The supertrees are tree-like structures that are vertical gardens. They contain lots of unique plants and are fitted with environmental technologies to help mimic the function of trees. They take in solar energy to be used for lighting, they collect rainwater to be used in irrigation, and they also take in and exhaust air for the conservatories. Here is a picture, but more to come.

We left Gardens by the Bay and grabbed a quick lunch. We checked out the Fountain of Wealth- you had to stick your right hand in the fountain, make a silent wish, and then walk around it 3 times. We followed the instructions so hopefully our wishes come true!

Then we went to Haji Lane, which is well-known for it's unique shops and restuarants and also its intricate graffiti. Lots to see around there. We wandered by a Mexican restaurant where a couple was enjoying margaritas and guacamole. I decided I had to have some, so that was my afternoon treat. 

Once it got dark we made our way back to the Gardens by the Bay just in time for the first light and sound show at 7:45pm. There were a ton of people there for the show. It was really cool- they had music playing and the supertrees would change colors along with the music. We were lucky enough to skip the line (thanks to the media passes!) and go right up to the skyway for the light show and enjoy it from up there. It really was beautiful along with the night skyline. I would definitely recommend this to be visited at night. I have a ton of pictures and a few videos, here are a couple:

After the show was over the crowd dispersed into the gardens. We did the same and caught a train to Clarke Quay, which is near our airbnb. We hung out there for awhile and grabbed some dinner. Then we walked around and enjoyed some of the live music that was playing and people-watching as everyone was out in their Saturday night outfits. It was a happenin' place with lots going on and lots of clubs. We were pretty tired though (walked over 26k steps today!) so we headed home after a bit. 

Gardens by the Bay did sponsor our visit today but as always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.