Jo'Blog: Cape Town and Gansbaai

The day after the safari ended we caught our flights to Cape Town. Before that though, we all went to the Apartheid Museum. It was a great museum with nice exhibits and lots of information. When you first enter the museum, you have to use separate entrances based on what race you have been classified by your ticket. We didn't have enough time to see everything, but still very moving.

When we all arrived in Cape Town, we checked into our lovely suite. It was right by the bar street (Long Street) and had three bedrooms, kitchen, washer, dryer, dining area, living area, and two balconies. We then went for dinner. We had gourmet burgers, craft beer, and milkshakes. You could have sworn we were in America. The milkshakes included alcohol though, definitely a more South African thing. We went to bed early that night since we were getting picked up at 5:20am for our trip to Gansbaai (pronounced Hans-by) and shark cage diving.

We all slept for most of the ride there and arrived in Gansbaai around 7:30 am. We had some breakfast and then went on the water at about 8:30 am. There were about 15 of us on the boat. Five could fit in the cage at one time. Once we got out to our dive spot, the crew started chumming and we got our wet suits on. Definitely not as easy as it looks. As we were just finishing, the crew started shouting that we had our first shark! Quite a surprise since they said it could take as long as an hour to see one. They had three people in the cage but they were shouting for more. Sarah and I decided to get in. There was no time for fear or explanations about how to get out once it was over, just jump in and figure it out! It was very cold in the water. The cage was just at surface level so our heads were out of the water most of the time and the men on the boat would shout "down down down down" if they saw a shark. We would take a big breath and go under and look around. It was awesome. There were three sets of people to go in the cage and we all got to go twice. Everyone got to see sharks both times. We were told there were four different sharks, the longest was 3.5 metres, but I only saw one at a time (not sure if anyone else saw more). The second time I was in the cage, the shark got hold of the piece of fish on a string they were using as bait. He was thrashing around against the cage and as he swam away, the crewman pulled up the empty string. Another piece of string floated by me in the cage and scared me as it touched my arm. Thankfully we all made it out alive and in one piece! Sarah and I had a bit of trouble controlling our stomachs though. Once we got on land we felt a lot better and the whole thing was worth it. Our driver back to Cape Town was really awesome. He took us on the scenic route and even allowed us to get out and take pictures at one point.

When we arrived back in Cape Town we relaxed and showered. We had some drinks and then headed out to a Peruvian place for dinner. It was delicious. On our way back to Long Street we stopped by a free jazz concert. The Cape Town jazz festival was happening that weekend but they had free concerts on Wednesday for some strange reason. After that finished, we headed to the bars. We went to three different bars. The first one was too small, the second was too hot/smoky, but the third was just right. We were the only white people there, but they were welcoming and played awesome music. We had a good time and danced to the wee hours of the morning.

The next day, we had a bit of a late start. Dan, Jessica, and I walked to Charly's Bakery while Sarah and David slept. Charly's Bakery is famous in Cape Town and has its own show on the South African food network. We bought five cupcakes and ate them later that night. They were beautifully decorated but didn't taste better than other specialty cupcakes I've had. When we got back to the suite, Sarah, Jessica, and I had breakfast but the boys were not feeling so great. We left them to sleep and walked to the waterfront. It was very pretty and had a great market (with free samples!). For our last night together we went to Mama Africa for dinner. We had a crocodile appetizer (tastes like gator) and various South African meals. Sarah and I both had the kudu and springbok potjie.

The next day Dan, Sarah, Jessica, and I traveled back to Joburg, leaving David to view the winelands by Cape Town. The four of us went to lunch and the African Craft Market at Rosebank so they could all pick up some souvenirs. Dan and I dropped off Sarah and Jessica back at the airport and then headed on our way to the Drakensberg.