3rd Oct 2010 Cape Town to Gansbaai
Trip Participants: Jo Dale and Helen Dale
Today didn’t quite go according to plan. We arrived into Cape Town in glorious sunshine, just about on time despite an hour’s delay leaving London Heathrow. Whilst admiring the view of Table Mountain without its “table cloth” we picked up our hire car, an Opal Corsa and quickly realised that any plans to stop off en route to Gansbaai would be hindered by the fact that a lot of our luggage was on display. Consequently we put plans to stop at Rooi Els (to look for rockjumpers) on hold. We stopped briefly at a quaint little art cafe in Betty’s Bay for a coffee on our drive along the scenic coastal route of the R44 and R43.
We arrived and checked into our comfortable self catering accommodation at Gansbaai, which Helen had arranged over the internet. An interesting observation, coming from the UK, is that we were a bit stumped by the lack of facilities. We stayed at Air del Mar, in a twin bed self catering studio room on the ground floor with a sea view. The rate quoted on the website was R490 per unit. The studio was equipped with a fridge/freezer, microwave oven and utensils sufficient to prepare a light meal. I think we wrongly assumed that self catering here would be the same as in the UK, where we’d expect to get a hob and an oven, but to be fair we probably just didn’t pay enough attention to what the facilities would be like. The owner was very friendly and even supplied us with some fresh milk for tea. There’s supposedly a communal braai but we did not make use of this owing to the weather.
We had hoped to arrive in time to arrange a whale-watching excursion, but this plan was scuppered by a rather inclement storm front that quickly closed in, whipping up the sea in the process. This, coupled with the scenery, made us wonder if we’d got on the wrong plane and found ourselves in Scotland!
Cape Agulhas
Not wishing to waste the day, we quickly decided that the best course of action would be to head down to Cape Agulhas, since that excursion wasn’t weather-dependent. This was not ideal as we’d done the coast road down to Gansbaai and so it was a long drive for Helen on the first day. The most direct route turned out to be along a series of easily navigable gravel roads. This actually seemed to be a nice area to do some birding, but given it was now late in the day and we had a lot of ground to cover, we didn’t stop very often.
We did, however, make time to watch a slender mongoose attack a rather dead and smelly Puff Adder, dropping his prize as he crossed the road in front of us. We also observed a Blue Crane, Denham’s Bustard and Cape Long-claw. Several raptors were also seen, including Yellow-billed Kite, Steppe Buzzard, African Marsh Harrier as well as Ostrich.
We arrived at Cape Agulhas and walked to the southern-most tip of Africa, admiring the view out onto a fairly rough sea. It was quite chilly with the wind and drizzle so we didn’t linger long. We took a different route back along the tar road, which was much longer, but also quicker. We stopped off in Sandford for a delicious meal of BBQ ribs and chips before heading back to Gansbaai.
It was with a sense of foreboding that we retired to bed. Looking at the weather we didn’t expect that our dive with the sharks would be going ahead, despite assurances from Marine Dynamics that they were expecting us bright and early the next morning.
Bird list:
Cape Wagtail
White-necked Raven
Pied Crow
Cape Crow
African Pied Starling
Blue Crane
Denham’s Bustard
Ostrich
Helmented Guineafowl
White-breasted Cormorant
Brimstone Canary
African Marsh Harrier
Egyptian Goose
Steppe Buzzard
Cape Long-claw
Mammals:
Chacma Baboon
Slender mongoose
We needn’t have been concerned. First we were greeted with the sight of our first Southern Right Whale off the coast right outside our window. The sea state seemed quite a bit calmer than the previous evening, yet still there was a bit of a swell. We met up with the other Shark Bait... er I mean divers for our breakfast and briefing at a local restaurant. A marine biologist from Marine Dynamics gave us a safety talk and spiel about how this company has a better ethical record than some others because they supposedly do not pull the bait towards the cages (where sharks might injure themselves), and they don’t deliberately feed the sharks (which some other companies allegedly do). The marine biologist giving the talk also told us about the migratory behaviour and conservation issues facing the Great White Sharks (from finning and bycatch), and how tagging them is helping to monitor their movements so that marine protection areas can be set up.
We were expected to then sign an indemnity form for the excursion. This really bugged us! We did not get why you have to sign, particularly when you even have to waive any claim over negligence. This wouldn’t be acceptable in UK law and was frankly quite worrying when the shark dive operators are required by law to have high levels of indemnity insurance which you hope to rely on if something goes wrong. Particularly when most travel insurance policies won’t cover that activity.
We then got kitted out with trendy fluorescent red waterproofs and headed down to the boat. With Marine Dynamic’s own boat out of commission, we were placed on Apex Predator, an apt name for a Great white shark dive boat if ever there was one! We were told there were two sites where the boats operate at this time of year, one a shallow bay and the second, the infamous Dyer Island and Shark Alley. It was to the latter site that we were headed. We were joined en route by a Subantarctic Skua who kept pace with the boat, picking up scraps of food that were being offered by a member of the crew.
As we arrived on site, one of half a dozen or so boats, the crew started to chum the water in order to lay the scent trail that would surely lure in any sharks in the area. Soon enough the first dark shapes of great white sharks started to circle the boat. I’m not sure if anyone said it out loud but I know I was thinking that we were going to need a bigger boat! The crew kept the sharks interested by tossing both a float in the shape of a small seal and a tuna head tied to a line off the side of the boat as the cage was lowered into the water. Shark diving is a bit of a misnomer, since you don’t actually get any diving equipment other than a face mask and wetsuit. This means you have to hold your breath and duck your head under whenever a shark swims past.
As the first couple of groups of brave (or foolish) souls entered the cage, we watched from the top of the boat as sharks repeatedly struck both the float and the tuna, sometimes getting away with their prize. Funnily enough we didn’t really see much difference between what the crew were doing, and what we had been told was bad practice! One particularly large shark, generated some excitement from the biologist who exclaimed “I tagged this shark, I know this shark!” One woman had a hard time ducking her head under water and chickened out of the dive altogether.
We were the third group in the water and I took up a position on the far right hand side of the cage. This was right at the end where the bait and float were being tossed out and dragged back in. As such, I was treated to many close-up encounters with hungry white sharks striking and tasting the float and tuna in front of me. It was totally exhilarating, especially when on several occasions the sharks would grab the bait, turn and power straight towards me, only turning to avoid the cage at the last possible moment, passing so closely that it felt like I could have reached out and stroked it..(not advisable of course!) One particularly special moment was when the shark went for the bait which was close to the cage at the time, and I could see right down its throat. Another time, the shark dived deep and then reappeared, powering head first up out of the depths like a torpedo.
The water was freezing cold though and it was a struggle to hold my underwater camera steady enough to record the action. But I did manage to record at least some of the dive which gave a real sense of being under water and the closeness and sheer awesomeness of the sharks. After ten minutes we needed to make room for any other people, but as most people had had their turns there was space for those who wanted to go in again to do so. Helen decided to sit that one out, but I jumped at the chance of going back in. This time I was right in the middle of the cage and once again I was treated to an exhilarating experience. Eventually, shivering in the cold and with my fingers getting numb it was finally time to call it a day.
A number of other seabirds were also seen on this trip including a distant albatross, but I didn’t see which one it was. These included, Sooty Shearwater, White-chinned Petrel and Great Winged Petrel.
We returned to a nice hot buffet lunch whilst DVDs were burned for those of us who wanted them. We shopped for souvenirs, Helen plumbing for the obligatory “I survived” and “dare to dive” t-shirts, whilst I opted for a 3 million year old fossilised Great White Shark tooth necklace as a nice reminder of the trip.
Gutted!! We never even had the chance to do this.......what with these sharks and John's dogs it's getting quite depressing reading these threads : (