Great White Sharks! OH MY!

I woke up this morning with a knot in the pit of my stomach. I’ve been dreading today for over a week and finally it’s here. Today we cage dive with Great White Sharks.

Shark diving, I have to admit, was never on my list of top 100 things I want to do before I die. Not even close. It would more likely end up on my list of top 100 things I would like to avoid at all costs unless I’m feeling completely ludicrous or need to add massive levels of anxiety should I be feeling too relaxed. Iain on the other hand, did have this on this list, so we went, Iain all excited, and me, feeling nauseous and slightly sorry for myself.

The van came to pick us up at 9:40am (much better than the original 5:30 am pickup). We were the last couple to join the four other people who wanted to, for some reason, throw themselves in eleven degree water and rub noses with Great Whites. Iain and I introduced ourselves and I cracked a few jokes all of which the other couples laughed at. Good start. The other pairs were both from England, one newly married on their honeymoon, and the other, friends from work in London. All of us were around the same age and like minded. Within a few minutes I was feeling at ease again.

When we arrived at the Shark Diving lodge about two hours later, the other 5:30am group was just finishing up and we got to have a bite to eat while the captain explained to us what would happen today. "There are no guarantees you will see a shark today. They may be there for a few hours, only a few minutes or not show up at all. We will be out there for about three hours to give everyone a chance. Five people will be in the cage at once and we will do our best to make sure you see what you’re come here for. We left the cage in the last dive spot from this morning and it will be about a 15-minute boat ride to get there. I’ll explain the rest of the rules on our way out."
During the trip out to find the cage the little devil in my mind was having its way with me. "This is ridiculous. Why the hell are we here? I can’t believe how stupid this is. What ARE we doing? I don’t like sharks. I hate cold water. I hate deep sea. I’m not going in. I can’t do it. This is totally retarded." Oh look! The cage! Perfect…

The captain pulls up and everyone looks excited. Another tour is just leaving and they say there are definitely sharks around. The captain pipes up and says "OK guys, here’s your chance. Like I said, you may not get a chance to see them at all so who’s going first? I need five people right now." Three people put their hands up. I put up my hand and so does Iain. Did I read that right? I PUT UP MY HAND? What was I thinking? Then another voice pops in my head and says "Sarah, you’d be ridiculous NOT to do this. This is what you came here for. Now stop complaining and get in the water!"

So in we go. Into freezing South Pole waters with jumping sharks from the dangerous Straight of Dyer Island where Great Whites make a living mangling full grown seals and staring in films such as "Air Jaws". There were two people on my left and two on my right, one of which was Iain right beside me. The cage was bobbing on the side of the boat and although we had full body wet suites to keep us warm with goggles, we didn’t have any breathing apparatus. We were supposed to lock our feet to the bottom of the cage and hold our breaths each time the captain yelled "NOW!

Since the sharks were so close by, we didn’t have to wait long at all. There were hundreds of little fish swimming around a giant chunk of Tuna carcass with fish guts floating around the water right in front of us (which we were floating in as well – yum). The captain yells "NOW!" We all dive. I didn’t see a thing. 30 seconds goes by. Nothing. I can’t hold my breath anymore. I go up. We wait a minute. The captain yells "NOW! LEFT!" I look left. I miss it again! Argh! Come on, Shark! This time Iain sees it and he’s so excited! Seven times the captain yells "NOW!" and seven times I miss it. I keep focusing on the little fish in front of me and don’t know where to look. Vision is limited. Finally on the eighth try I see him! I catch the tail end of this enormous body quickly glide by and I burst from the surface laughing historically because I’VE SEEN IT. I SAW HIM! DID YOU SEE HOW BIG HE WAS? WOW! The captain yells "NOW!" HOLY COW HE’S RIGHT ON TOP OF US! A huge submarine of a creature looks us right in the face less than a foot away. More! I want more! "NOW!" I dive. I hold my breath for longer this time and the shark’s muscular body slams into the side of the cage. The girl beside me grabs my arm and I emerge giggling again. This is so incredible!

After about 45 minutes it’s the next group’s turn, which is good because I was getting cold at that point, but very happy. That wasn’t scary at all! In fact, I suddenly LOVE sharks. They are so beautiful, so graceful, so powerful. The captain tells us that they don’t like human flesh and they are afraid of the cage because it can hurt them if they run into it too hard.

We watch two more groups of people go into the water and with every ‘swim by’ the entire group goes "WOW. OH. DID YOU SEE THAT?" It was incredible. It was exciting. It was even beautiful in a strange way, and I felt privileged to be there, in the sun, watching one of the most powerful and misunderstood creatures on earth with my husband who loved every moment of it.
After I got over my initial pessimism and fear (and I could give myself a reason to dive), everything about the day was perfect. The sharks were incredible and everything was fantastically satisfying right down to the little sour apple lollipops and certificate with our names on them indicating "In the face of raging African Seas, Stormy Winds and Great White Sharks, you survived!"

What’s the moral of this story? With an open mind and a little courage to overcome your fears, you may find yourself experiencing an exceptional adventure and an equally memorable day.

On a side note, I now have conquered three major fears. The Deep Sea, Sharks, and South Pole waters. All ended up being a pleasure to be around and I’m happy that Iain (and the better voice in my head) pushed me to do something so extreme. As for the sharks and those who are still afraid of them, please know that they are going extinct because we keep killing them. They are not the killers that movies present them to be. 367 people died from chairs last year and 198 from toasters. Only nine people died from sharks and they were mostly accidents. The sharks thought the surfers were seals.

The Kindness of Strangers in Cape Town!

So as I mentioned in the last post, Iain and I came to Cape Town on Saturday. We spent the entire day on Friday trying to find a place to stay. It turns out there are two different races in town (a two week biking race, and some running race), along with the opening weekend of Rugby. Everything was booked! We even called Bed and Breakfasts an hour outside of town and they were all booked until mid March!

Now what? We already bought our plane tickets to get there.

Well, we found a hotel equivalent to a Best Western for $250 / night or we could stay for five days at a small self catering bed and breakfast far out of town and try to take a train in everyday, but who knew how much that would cost and they didn't have availability the first two nights we were there.

Finally as a last resort, Iain's Godmother (who we were staying with last week in Joburg) called an old friend of hers that she lived with in London in the 70's to see if she could put us up for a night while we figured out what to do once we got there. Not only did she graciously allow two complete strangers to stay in her home, but she also came and picked us up from the airport.

We've been staying with her two nights now and she's insisting we stay as long as we like, at no cost to us. We have our own clean, comfortable room, own bathroom, tons of freedom, a place to cook, watch TV, and is centrally located to town. Not only that but she spent her two days off taking us to different wineries and attractions only the locals know about. She has been exceptionally kind to us.

We found that Marcia (the nice lady we're staying with) is not the only kind person in town! Yesterday I went to Church with her and one of her friends from Church (who Iain and I had a coffee with because that's what they do after mass on Sundays) insisted that we take his extra cell phone. He came and dropped it off at Marcia's home later that night and pre-program it with his phone number, his wife's phone number and Marcia's phone number in case of emergency and then offered to take us up to the Table Mountain for the day on Wednesday so we wouldn't have to take a tour bus.

I don't know if this is human nature to want to try and help complete strangers (something that I sometimes find is lacking back home) or I maybe Iain and I did something right in our lives and we are being taken care of because of it. Either way, we are very, very grateful for the help we've received. Because of it, we are now enjoying Cape Town (which so far I have to say is my favorite city, after Vancouver of course;) and are planning all the great activities offered in this region.

Oh, and one major highlight from yesterday with Marcia - Iain and I got to hold an EAGLE! It was so awesome. I'll post some pictures next time we come to this internet cafe but it was SERIOUSLY cool. The one we held was rescued from some injury it had and weighed about 1kg. I was a little nervous it was going to pluck out my eyes so you'll see in the picture I'm holding it back a bit. Don't judge, I'm not used to holding eagles. She was beautiful though.

We're off to find some lunch now around town. I haven't had a chance to see much of downtown yet so it's be fun to see what we can find. As for the shark diving and bungy jumping, the thought of both of them is freaking me out! You'll just have to stay tuned to find out if we do it or not...

Zanzibar – Dolphins, Spices, Music and a way of life

We had the great privilege of spending six days on the tropical Island of Zanzibar last week.

It was interesting to see the way of life here on this Island. I think about the way people look back home, tried and irritated, stuck in traffic in their nice cars, frustrated that it’s raining again and that they had to work ten hours instead of eight. That they go home and rather than spend time with their families, they think about work, watch TV, go online again or think about how to make another dollar tomorrow.

When I look at the faces of people on this Island, I see that they too have a look of frustration a lot of the time, but it comes from having to work 12 – 24 hour shifts in 34 degree weather with no clean water to drink, a long walk home and very little food to feed their family with. Their rooms are bare, they wear no shoes and their average monthly salary is $55 USD which is supposed to be enough for their entire families to live.

Excluding the tourists, 35% of the Island’s population is unemployed and you can see them sitting on the sides of the road waiting for something that never comes. Yet they seem to have figured something out that we haven’t. They dance or sing freely on the sides of the road, they laugh heartedly at so many things that we wouldn’t, and find joys in the simple pleasures of their surroundings.

I found that they find peace with friends and family and communicate with their bodies, their smiles and the look in their eye. Words weren’t necessary for us to make a connection with these people, just a mutual exchange of hearts on sleeves.

Aside from the beaches which were exquisite, we had three great experiences here. The first was a tour on one of their many spice farms. Zanzibar is also known as Spice Island, for having the ability to grow almost any spice you could imagine. We saw for the first time how spices like pepper, cinnamon (which I never in a million years thought came from dried tree bark), cloves, saffron and even pineapples. I had never seen a pineapple bush before.

There were two guides, one explained what everything was and the other collected the spices for the other guide to show us. While the one guide was explaining, the other was making the funniest hats, ties, purses, necklaces, rings and bracelets out of banana leaves. He clothed all four of us in a matter of an hour! The best part of leaving with these things was that our car overheated on the way back to our hotel and while we were pulled over on the side of the road, had some fun with the local village kids who got a kick out of seeing banana leaf clothes. The sounds of their laughter still rings in my ears.

The second experience we had which will forever be in my mind was a tour to find some wild dolphins. We left at 5 am to be the first to find them. Low and behold, as the sun was rising we saw dolphins jumping in the distance. Now, I’m terrified of the ocean and I don’t like going in water but when our guide told us to get in the water, I didn’t miss my chance at swimming with wild dolphins. The second I fell in the water (we had snorkel gear), ten of the most beautiful creatures I have ever seen swam right below me in pairs. We followed them and for about 40 minutes, the four of us got to play with wild dolphins. It was the first time in my life I literally couldn’t remember where I was, just that I was there, looking at a friendly face looking back at me. We could hear them talking to each other and they swam slowly so that we could stay with them for a while.

Unfortunately after about 40 minutes, hoards of overly excited boatloads of tourist showed up and threw themselves into the water, swimming feverishly after the poor dolphins. I’m sure if there were only four of us standing in the forest and 30 hysterical gorillas came running after us with arms and legs swinging wildly as fast as they could, we would be very frightened. It’s sad to think this is how these dolphins spend most of their day. We were lucky to spend some time with them on our own, and we were grateful that they let us be so close to them. It was one of the most beautiful days of my life.

Finally, the last great night we had was because of the Zanzibar Music Festival that happened to be on the last night we were in Stone Town. We had a great taste of local music and the show was very entertaining. My favorite part was this local guy who was supposed to be selling nuts couldn’t take working anymore, put down his tray and danced with the rest of us with eyes closed. Everyone was feeling the music that night.

As for Iain and I, we are now back in South Africa and head to Cape Town on Saturday. We’ll be there for three weeks and plan on going shark diving, bungee jumping, hang gliding and a few wine tours. I seriously don’t know what’s more scary, coming face to face with a great white shark in freezing cold waters stuck in a small cage, or free falling 213 meters towards a rock bottom surface on the world’s highest bungee jump… What do you think? Either way, please wish us luck!

Safari in the Serengeti - Hacuna Matata!

My Friends, if animals have ever inspired you or tickled your fancy in any way, you will be floored by the exhilaration of a Tanzanian Safari.

Iain and two of our friends, Laura and Eliot, just finished a six day safari in the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater. We decided to do this a little in style and stayed at both beautiful hundred year old lodges with extravagant gardens to high end mobile hunter's camps on mountain tops. The first day of our trip we were able to spot everything from Zebra to Buffalo, Lions, Warthogs, Wildebeest, Elephants, Giraffes, Gazelle, Hyenas, Guinea foul, Hippos, Eagles, Ostriges and every kind of bird you could possibly imagine.

Our lodge, Gibbs Farm, was the most beautiful resort I have ever seen, and will likely ever stay at in my life, situated in the hills of the Ngorongoro Valley and surrounded by Masai Villages and Coffee Plantations. The rooms were exquisite in decor, the staff extremely hospitable and the views breathtaking. The staff at Gibbs Farm even baked me a birthday cake and sang to me in Swahili. That first day of the safari, which happened to be my birthday, was one of the most memorable in my life.

On the second day we ventured into a famous spot in Africa called the Ngorongoro Crater, which is a 20 million year old volcano that collapsed 2.5 million years ago and created a perfect, self contained, ecological system. Every African animal you could ever want to see lived here and there were baby animals everywhere. We had the pleasure of spending the day here and even having lunch by the hippo pool where an elephant and guinea foul came to hang out while we ate.

One of the best days of our Safari came when we decided to do an eight hour hiking safari through the Masai mountain range. We had two guides, one a Masai warrior from a nearby village who's name was Seatoi (pronounced See-a-toy) and the other was an armed park ranger who happened to be his cousin. It was a very unique experience walking through the mountain ranges of Masai villages, seeing how they live, crossing paths of wild animals such as baboons and seeing the magnificent landscape of Eastern Africa.

The most ethnic experience of our whole trip came this day when we came into a village that Seatoi's sister lived in. The Masai people live in small huts made of sticks and cow dung, with low roofs, no windows and one bed for all the children and one for the mother and father. Their only food is hot milk, blood, which they drink fresh out of their cows, and beef. That's all they eat everyday. Now normally tourist would simply pass through these villages, but since our guide's sister lived in this one, we were invited into her home to see how they lived and drink some freshly boiled cow's milk. We all graciously accepted these drinks, and although I have to say it was not the most edible flavour that has ever cross my lips, we were extremely pleased to have 'lived' with the Masai if only for less than an hour.

As we came out of the traditional Masai home, we realized that in the meantime all the women of the village had gathered and invited us to their market, which consisted of hand made beaded jewelry that the Masai women wear on their hands, feet, necks and head so famously. The four of us left with bracelets, necklaces and anklets each that were custom made by this welcoming Masai town.

On our way out we were followed for about a kilometer by many women and children, simply because they found us interesting to look at, and likely with the hope of selling us more of their precious jewelry. Within a couple of hours of walking from this village we came within a few meters of the peak of the mountain which overlooked the Serengeti. It's hard to describe the feeling of coming over a ledge and looking out into the vastness that is one of the greatest stretches of wildlife in the world. As far as the eye could see were animals of every type, but most impressionable were the millions of wildebeest and buffalo with their babies in front of us. After a good night's sleep we spent the day with mothers and baby animals, driving around, seeing what new creatures of this world we could find.

The highlight of our day was coming across a cheetah with her six baby cubs on a hunt for some food. Cheetahs only eat every two or three days so many tourists miss the kill. We got to watch the entire process of the mother finding food, chasing it, going for the kill, calling her children over (who were hiding in safety) and then enjoying some freshly caught Thomson Gazelle. As strange as it may sound, we also choose to eat our lunch while we watched this, because we wanted to say we sat there in nature, watching something so pure and natural while having lunch with a family of cheetahs.

One thing I will never forget is the day the four of us walked seven kilometers through the scorching heat to get to the Rift Valley, one of the most significant spots for archeological finds regarding the evolution of humans. We left early in the morning to make it there before the sun got too scorching and as we are passing some bushes, Iain jumps and screams 'SNAKE'. He was about four inches from stepping on a baby Egyptian King Cobra, one of the most poisonous snakes in all of Africa. If he had gotten bit, he would have been dead within 15 minutes. But, luckily his quick reflexes (and perhaps some angels that were working overtime) got him out of the way in time. The rest of the day was amazing and we finished the night with a great dinner, a campfire under the stars and a good night's sleep.

Other highlights included the shifting sands of Africa (from a volcano irruption), watching hundreds of thousands of wildebeest with their babies running in migration, a proud group of pregnant lionesses trying to find shade to deliver their cubs, the new birth of a baby Thomson Gazelle, and the sunrises and sunsets from each of our resting points.

We are now in Zanzibar, a tropical island off the coast of Tanzania. We have one week here and have already melted into the white sandy beaches, divine tropical warm waters of the Indian Ocean and have simply sat, reading in the sun with our books. Our plan is to move along the eastern coast of Zanzibar until we hit the south were we can do a boat tour to find dolphins and swim with them in the wild and visit the town of Stonetown, were we can do Zanzibar's famous spice tour. Zanzibar is also known as "Spice Island", so we have enjoyed some good food already and some local chai tea.

When we're back in South Africa next week we will be able to post some pictures. In the meantime we will simply sit back and enjoy some much longed for rest and relaxation in the tropical rays of the sun.