South Africa Shark diving

[PeeBee]

Miss-leading title as I was supposed to be there working but I’d arranged to have to be in Cape Town for more than a week thus ensuring my trip included a weekend. This was the view from my office.





Before leaving the UK I’d contacted Francois at Frog (thanks Phil) who had in turn recommended a dive centre to me. So that by the time I left, the plan in place was to go out to Seal Alley on Saturday for a cage dive with Whites plus the very good chance of seeing them breach while they filled up on the baby seals who are just learning to swim (if they live long enough). This was to be followed on Sunday by a couple of RHIB dives, dive one was expected to let me dive with 7 gill Cowsharks followed by a dive with cape fur seals in the afternoon. All week while I worked in offices at the foot of Table mountain I agonised over the varying weather reports and the text on Friday afternoon saying it was a Go for the next morning was very welcome.


My colleagues took me out for dinner on Friday night to an amazing place called Moyu which is a restaurant at a vineyard called Spier, if ever you got the chance, go! I even had my head painted It is a fantastic experience. Anyway, this meant a fairly late night so I wasn’t going to get a lot of sleep as I had an early start


Saturday morning and at 05.45 my alarm went off, slinging my kit together I staggered outside ready for the 6.15 pick up. There was a 2 ½ hour drive ahead of us followed by breakfast before boarding the boat for the trip out to the BIG ADVENTURE. Strangely for Africa, the mini bus was early and we were soon on our way. 45 minutes later as I dozed in the back of the minibus I became aware of us slowing down and pulling onto the side of the road. The driver/guide turned to us and explained that he’d just had a phone call, the swell was too high together with a thick sea mist and they felt they needed to cancel the trip. FCUK!!


Back at the hotel a little later I tried to re-plan my day, ok so this was going to have to be land based, never mind tomorrow was still on, everyone kept telling me that the good thing about Cape Town was that if one side was undiveable the other would be fine! So after a cooked breakfast and a phone call to check it was open, off I went to take the cable car up Table Mountain, this was the first day since I’d been there that there wasn’t a cloud near the mountain, the sun was shining and it would be great to go for the long walk up on the plateau with the prospect of some incredible views. I jumped in the car made my way across the city and soon found myself surrounded by fat American tourists travelling in a “safety in numbers” group of mid-west bible bashers as we all queued for the cable car. 15 minutes later the curse of Africa struck again, sorry came the message, “it’s broken, don’t know when it be fixed, come back later…… maybe“ While we’d been queuing I’d been chatting to an Aussie woman who was clearly also on her own.. what? It was innocent!!
She and I decided to go off and create our own tour, after a brief discussion we decided to go and see Cheetahs and drove out towards Stellenbosch back to the vineyard I’d been at the night before that has a renowned Cheetah enclosure. WOW whilst I’d hoped to see white sharks on this trip it hadn’t occurred to me that I’d get to stroke a Cheetah! When they purr the rumble is incredible and their spots have a completely different texture to the rest of their fur, what a privilege!




Leaving the Cheetahs we then visited the bird of prey exhibition where I met another lady why liked a cuddle, a 4 year old hand reared bird called Wally.


we had a quick lunch and headed back to CT hoping that the cable car had been fixed,
it hadn’t so after a 10 minute argument to get a refund we jumped back in the car to go exploring again, Camps bay (next bay round the headland from Cape Town) is magical, if I win the lottery I want a holiday home there!






On the street market there I haggled for a stone carved Rhino who now graces the landing at the top of my stairs. Either I paid too much (most likely) or the vendor was crap at haggling as the deal went like this…. Me, how much? Vendor, 900 Rand. Me, too much, how about 500? Vendor, Deal!

[PeeBee]

After that Aussie lady and I decided to make up for my lack of diving with a trip to the “Two Oceans” aquarium. Talk about comparisons between Atlantic cold water species and Indian ocean warm water!!! Excellent aquarium, I was even tempted to ask about the diving experience in their tank but I knew I was getting wet the next day so didn’t bother.





Dropped the Aussie lady back at her hotel as she had an early plane home to catch the next day and I headed back to my lodgings. BTW, she was a very interesting person, she works as a Seal trainer at Sydney zoo and also dives a bit too.


Sunday! Should have had a bit of a lie in as I was due at the dive operator at 10.30 and they were an hour’s dive from me in False Bay but at 6.00am I woke to the massive sound of thunder and my heart sank. Over the next hour as the sun came up I watched the skies clear and the storms move away so big relief. I decided to leave at 9.00, take it slow and enjoy the scenery. 9.05 the curse of Africa struck again!!! Text arrives, “sorry Pete, swell too bad, going to have to cancel!” Bollox, fcuk, sh1t etc etc. Seriously gutted!…Back to the drawing board again! Oh well all kit already in car, already on the road, may as well keep going and have a look at the Indian ocean side of the cape, then carry on down to the cape of good hope, visit the nature reserve and just explore a bit!


Shortly after arriving at the shore at a small town called Falk Bay I parked up and walked down to the beach, damn the water looked clear and warm although out to sea I could see the swell, none the less what the guys in SA may call undiveable we’d call a millpond, they must be either seriously spoiled or a bunch of wimps!


A little way down the road I spotted the dive shop I should have been diving with so I turned in, after a little negotiation I walked out with a cylinder, some weights and was following someone who was leading me to a sheltered bay for a shore dive. A 45 minute shallow bimble followed, 17c water, 2 small wrecks, 5 to 6m vis, a bit of surge and a max of 5.8m but at least I’d got wet and seen some new fishes but frankly I’ve had better dives at Chesil. After all my planning etc it was a little disappointing but a lot better than nothing. 








I dropped the cylinder and weights back at the shop, rinsed my kit and after a coffee and the usual dive related bollox carried on with my exploration. A few miles south of Simonstown I entered the national park which I learned has wild resident antelope, ostrich, seals, 5 different species of tortoise, chacma baboons and cape cobras amongst it’s population. Almost immediately I spotted these guys and grabbed a photo before they could nick my lunch.



Cape of good hope and the national park is an awesome place, even on a calm day like I had you can see how it was also called the cape of storms

[PeeBee]

On the way back from the most South Westerly tip of Africa I popped down to look at Buffels Bay and a met couple of these guys too.



So whilst it wasn’t what I’d expected when I set out I had a really good trip, business went well too. 
Oh yes and as for sharks, on my shore dive I did see one, he/she was about 40cm long and didn’t want to be photographed, I chased him for several minutes to get these two shots. Turns out he belongs to a group called shysharks.





I’m probably going back again in a couple of months so I’ll have another go at seeing the sharks, but whatever happens it’ll be a good trip, I love Africa.

[hebails]

Sorry to hear your best laid plans were for nought Pete but it sounds like you managed to make the best of a bad situation.
I'm going there in September/October so I'd still be keen to hear how your return trip goes.
Cheers
Paul

[uwila]

Gutted on your behalf No, really I am

Better luck next time, Pete.

[IanDennis]

Pete

Sorry it didn't go as planned- better luck next time

At least you still have all your arms and legs

[Scubee]

Sorry to hear you didn't get the cage dive in. You must be gutted - I knwo how much you were looking forward to it.

Haggling with the natives is apparently a game. In kenya, i was told expect to pay between a half and a third of their opening gambit. I expect it is different in SA

Are you actually back, and are you come to the puddle for a gossip tonight?

[Cussy]

This sounds so similar to my work trip to Mozambique (Maputo). Fine weather all week, then it blows a gale at the weekend. Such is life I suppose and when you get to visit amazing places very cheaply (thanks to work) you can't complain. My feeling has always been it doesn't matter if it falls through on a works trip, just an excuse to go back on holiday!
Rob

[PeeBee]

Thanks for all your sympathy guys I still had a great trip and I get to try again in a few weeks.