I left Agulhas for
Gansbaai to do the only thing Gansbaai is known for- shark cage diving. I
thought Mossel Bay was lame, but it’s Disneyland compared to Gansbaai. It was
pretty bleak, not even a beach. The hostel I was staying at, Gansbaai
Backpackers (R150/night in a dorm), seemed really disorganized- they didn’t
answer my emails, the owner was only there for a few minutes, and the people
actually there, the cleaning women, didn’t seem to know much. But the owner
booked a shark cage dive for me and the dreadlock sisters staying in my dorm.
They were two girls, one Australian and one English, traveling around working
at equestrian places. They had no car, so they loaded up all their stuff into
my tiny rental and we all went to the boat launch site a short drive from the
hostel. The dive cost around R1000, and I think it would have been pretty easy
to book it ourselves, as there are about 8 companies that operate in the same
place.
The boat. Before they put it in the water, of course
We had breakfast at
the office, then got on the boat. On our way out, we saw some whales in the
bay. We got our wetsuits on and waited for our turn to get in the cage. But
before we could do that, we had to find and attract the sharks toward the boat.
There was a lot of waiting around as the deckhands chummed the water with fishy chunks.
It took so long because there was very little wind or current to carry the
scent of the chum beyond our boat. Unless the shark swims directly through the
scent, it can’t detect it, so we moved the boat to a few different spots to try
to find the sharkies. We finally found some, and you could see them pretty well
from the top deck of the boat. Soon enough it was my turn to get in the cage. The
wetsuits were very necessary, because the water was absolutely freezing. There
was a guy with a fish head on a rope throwing it toward the shark trying to get
it to come close to the cage. When it did get close, he yelled, “Down, down!”
and we put our heads underwater to get some better views. The water had pretty
bad visibility, so it was like you saw nothing at all or a shark right in front
of you. It seemed like it was all over pretty quickly, and we got out of the
cage and back on the boat. It was totally worth it, though, and the boat rides
out and back also added to the fun.
Getting ready with the fish head
Here sharkie sharkie
The dreadlock
sisters got some other transportation to Cape Town, and I went to Hermanus, a
very short drive westward. Hermanus was so much lovelier and brighter than grim
Gansbaai. A lot of people stay there and just get some transport to Gansbaai
to go diving, then come back. Maybe I should have done that instead. I arrived
at Hermanus Backpackers (R160/night for a dorm) where, once again, I found
Vacation Friend George. This would make the third place we coincided. The day was spent just
killing some time wandering around town, and Hermanus was a great wandering town
indeed. There were lots of shops and restaurants, as well as lots of art and
paths along the shoreline with great views, and a few little spots to climb
among rocks to just watch the waves crash into them.
Somehow I also ran into a penguin sanctuary on the way out of the dive site
There are penguins somewhere in this photo...
Art in Hermanus
Sitting on the rocks
Hellooo
Beautiful views of the mountains right up next to the ocean
As
George was also going to Cape Town the next day, I convinced him to keep me
company in the car and drive with me to Cape Town. He was going to take the Baz
Bus, but he would have had to leave late in the afternoon and get into Cape
Town even later, so he opted to come with me instead. Hooray for not being
alone in my car for once! Read the next post to hear about my adventures in
Cape Town, which quickly became my favorite place in South Africa.
