Day 6: Shark Cage Diving & Table Mountain Tram
Yes, you heard correctly. We were put in a cage, then lowered into the Atlantic Ocean to see great white sharks! We went with White Shark Projects (http://www.whitesharkprojects.co.uk/), only afterwards did Will tell me that this was the company that had an accident a few years ago and three people died. Oh well, we survived!
To give you a quick overview of how this process runs: take a boat out to an area in the Atlantic Ocean from a town called Gansbaai, throw chum into the water near Shark Alley to attract great whites and make them hungry, put on a wetsuit, get in a cage, look for sharks under the water. Really, it's that simple. And it was awesome. This company, as well as most cage diving companies, use the 'hold your breath' method, so you do not have to be scuba certified to go on this trip. When the sharks get near the cage, you just go underwater, hold your breath and put your mask right up against the cage to get a view of the sharks. Enough of my rambling, here are some photos.
*I did not have an underwater camera, unfortunately, and the water was a bit murky so it was kind of difficult to get photos. I spent most of my time looking with my own two eyes on this trip, rather through a camera lens!
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| Fish heads on ropes; they throw these into the water to attract the sharks. |
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| da-na, da-na, da-na.... |
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| They throw fish heads on a rope out into the water and lure the shark right up to the cage for viewing. This shark caught the head and ate it. |
After we got back from cage diving, we decided to take the tram up Table Mountain to see the views that we missed when we climbed up on our rainy outing. It was very windy at the top and kind of cold, even though it was summer.
Days 7 & 8: South African Winelands
Enter luxury. We booked a relaxing overnight tour in the winelands to recoup from all the activities we had done on our trip so far. The company we used was Seascape Tours (http://www.seascapetours.com/), which is run by the Cummins family; Tim was our guide and he was excellent. Tim took us around the countryside, tasting wines and cheeses at different vineyards based on our tastes. On the first night we had dinner at a traditional African restaurant called Moyo, which was on our hotel's grounds. The hotel we stayed at was called Spier; it was lovely and had a wonderful breakfast and fireplace in our room. On our second day in the winelands, Tim took us to tour a brandy distillery and also for a brandy tasting. It's a bit strong for my taste, but they gave us a drink that was brandy mixed with fresh squeezed fruit juices and it was delicious. After that we went to a cheetah reserve (located on Spier's grounds) and got to pet cheetahs. Pretty cool! We then went to a few more vineyards and had a picnic (I use that term very loosely in this case) lunch on some beautiful grounds, with views of the mountains. After our lunch, it was on to more vineyards for some last tastings before heading back to Cape Town. At our last vineyard, they raise baby ducks for the pond on their land, and I just happened to get to help the owner hatch a baby chick out of its shell! It was a highlight of my trip!
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| This vineyard makes the wine - Goats do Roam. It is sold in the states, so you may have had it. |
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| We also stopped at the gates to the prison where Nelson Mandela was freed from. |
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| This photo is for my dad - I'm drinking The Chocolate Block. |
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| The brandy distillery. The grounds were beautiful. |
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| Grounds at our hotel, Spier. |
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| One of the vineyards we visited had beautiful English gardens. |
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| This style of architecture is called Cape Dutch. |
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| View from our picnic lunch. |
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| I got to help hatch a chick! |
That's all I have time to post for today. Only a few more days to go and we'll be done with the vacation. Have a great day!
i would not volunteer to get that close to a shark, thats bravery for sure. your trip looks amazing!
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