We left early the next morning to go catch a boat to go shark diving. In the cape, there are a lot of great white sharks and this is a great place to go and see them. We were planning on getting in wetsuits and in a cage to actually swim with the sharks underwater, but were told that the visibility was really bad that day and that we would actually see more if we stayed on the boat. Boy, am I glad we did! We saw so much from the top deck and the poor people in the cage didn't see anything while they were there. Plus, it was a pretty cold day. We were really lucky and saw our first shark after only about 15 minutes and sometimes they have to wait for hours. February is known to be the worst month for shark sightings, but you could have fooled me because we saw so much. We saw at least 3 sharks and maybe 4. I was able to get a few great shots, which is great because now you can see some of our adventures too! The company that we went with, Shark Watch South Africa is really great and works on conservation efforts and helping the sharks. They don't feed them, but rather just put out chum on the water. Chum is very smelly water produced by putting chopped up tuna in it and stomping around on it. We didn't smell it from up top, but one of the girls in the cage smelled it and it made her so sick, she produced some human chum to try to reel in the sharks. If they were to actually feed the sharks, then the sharks would rely on them and not learn how to hunt for themselves. However, by keeping the sharks in this area by luring them with their chum, it keeps the sharks in safer waters. Our guide was really great, too telling us so much about the sharks. Our boat captain was apparently one of the best because none of the other boats out that day were seeing any sharks. Finally, one had to come over hear us because the sharks liked our boat so much. One particular shark named Scratch was my favorite. She was about 4m, which is over 13 feet! She was huge, but very beautiful and even sweet! She got her name because of having scratches all over her. She didn't even jump up for bait, but kept coming by our boat and just rubbing the boat and swimming around us. She would turn on her side, as if she was looking up at us - so cute! They think she might be pregnant and that could be why she is so docile. They've been able to track some of these sharks that have gone all the way to Australia and then back to South Africa again - crazy!
It was amazingly cool to see Great White Sharks and to see that they are really beautiful creatures that we should take care of, instead of killing and fearing them so much. After seeing sharks for a good while, we let some of the other boats have their chances to look at the sharks and drove over by a couple of islands. I think these islands are part of what the sharks feed on. Not the islands, but the many thousands of seals that live on them. When we were there, it was the down time and there supposedly weren't as many as usual, but I can't imagine anymore being able to fit on the island. It was pretty smelly driving by there as well. Since we got up so early and Kristin had to drive (on the left side of the road too!), she was a little tired on the ride back and snuck in a short nap.
After the shark trip, we went to get some lunch, but it took us a few hours. We were trying to find a place called Mogg's and drove on a dirt road through some really beautiful countryside, but kept driving and driving. The signs in South Africa are not that great and though it's nice not to have huge billboards everywhere you turn, it's a little difficult to find places at times. We passed the restaurant turn-off and went to another town before turning around again. Once we finally got to the restaurant, they told us they were having a private party that day and they couldn't seat us. We ended up just going back into town in Hermanus and eating. We were of course starving by then, but at least we got to see some nice views.
We stayed at a very nice hotel, right on the cliffs looking out to the ocean. After Nancy almost got mugged walking by herself that afternoon close to sunset, Kristin and I decided to walk with her the next morning along the cliffs. The views were beautiful and we saw some more dassies on the rocks. The rocks were really cool too with the orange coloring, which is iron coming out of the rocks and staining them - beautiful! We also saw our first dung beetle carrying dung across our path. What weird bugs!
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