Cape Town to Klenbaai

I arrived in Cape Town on Tuesday, November 12th in the early evening.  I stayed at the Atlantic Point hostel overnight and White Shark Projects (WSP) was supposed to pick me up in the morning.  I asked when I checked in if they knew what time I was to be picked up and they said no but it will be “early”.  So, to me, early is like 6am.  I went down to reception at 6am the next morning and asked again if they had heard when I was to be picked up.  The guy tells me that WSP was there at 4am to pick me up and since I wasn’t down there they left.  Really?  It didn’t occur to anyone to come up to the room and see if I was there or to see if I was in the process of getting ready or something? They didn’t think to call my phone number that I put on my check-in sheet?  WTF??  Four o’clock in the morning is not “early”. That is the butt crack of dawn!  OMG.  I found the number of the WSP liaison, Karla, and called her. She apologized for the miscommunication and said she would call me back shortly with a new arrangement.  I was not happy because I DID NOT want to stay at the hostel again.  There was seven other girls; 6 Europeans and 1 Indian (dot, not feather) in my “dorm” and they were not quiet.  One girl was snoring like a freight train.  One girl was on her iPad with the light glaring at all hours of the night.  Two girls came in at 3am, turned on all the lights and one of them took a shower. At 3am.  A shower. WTF?? Europeans are weird (no offense to any of my European friends).  

Karla called me back in about 15 minutes and said that the owner of WSP, Charmaine, was in Cape Town and she would pick me up by 8:30am.  I went to the breakfast area, had a bowl of cereal and some hot tea (I couldn’t figure out how to make the coffee).  It actually worked out well because I was able to finish writing my last blog post.  At 8:30am I went to reception and ended up waiting an hour until I actually got picked up at 9:30am.  Is there such thing as South African time??  Better late than never I suppose.  Charmaine had another girl with her named Inga who also works for WSP.  Awesome people!  Both South Africans, both in their mid to late 30’s.   It was strange to hear them go back and forth between English and Afrikaans.  They drove me to Hermanus (about an hour’s drive from Cape Town) to their main office.  Karla picked me up from there and drove me the rest of the way to Kleinbaai where the actual cage diving takes place.

Hermanus is a quaint town on the southern coast of the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is 9.3 square miles in size and the population is around 33,000.  The town is famous for Southern Right Whale watching.  The best time to view them is during the southern hemisphere’s winter and spring.  It is also a popular retirement town. The whales, who are protected, can be seen from the cliffs in the town centre as early as June and usually depart in early December.  I did see a cow and her calf but I was unable to get a good photo. After whale watching I went to a cute coffee shop in town appropriately named “The Coffee Shop” and had a sandwich. Do not ask me what was on it.  I’m not really sure to be honest.  It was supposed to have bacon on it but instead it was ham?  Not really sure what that was about.  Regardless, it was good!  Then I walked with Inga to the local market to pick up a new electrical adapter since the one I brought with me was not correct (of course).  She and I bonded over our love of Australian Cattle Dogs :)  I didn’t think I’d meet a fellow cattle dog lover in South Africa! lol

The cape in Hermanus

The trail down the cape

Beautiful flowers

Southern Right Whale (I promise)!

The cape

Hermanus

Karla picked me up about 2:30pm and we drove another hour to Kleinbaai.  It is 0.34 square miles and the population is only about 300 people.  A very small town.  The only things to do here are cage diving with the Great Whites, whale watching and eating at the one restaurant/bar.  What else do you really need anyway :)  Dyer Island is the premier island in the world to see Great White Sharks.  The area of water between Geyser Rock and Dyer Island (just off the coast of Kleinbaai) is known as “shark alley”.  Over 50,000 seals populate the island which attracts the sharks.

All the volunteers share a house just up the street from the harbour.  Think Real World.  I am quite possibly too old for this type of housing arrangement but what can I do?  As of right now there are 9 volunteers including myself.  Two guys (Canada and New Jersey) and 7 females (Colorado, South Carolina, 3 UK, South Africa and Germany).   Friday the dynamics will change as some people are leaving and others will be coming in.  So far everyone is very cool and I think I will settle in just fine.   

The seas are projected to be too rough for the next 2 days so we will not be going out on the boat.  Instead we are heading to a “game lodge” and we will be spending some time in Mossel Bay.  Not sure what all this will entail but I think the game lodge will take us on a tour of their reserve (a mini safari-type event).  I will report on that later.

I plan to go for a run tomorrow morning before we leave for Mossel Bay.  There is an eight mile route on the coast up to a light house that sounds amazing.   Looking forward to that.  It is almost completely light at 5:00am so I don’t have to run in the dark!

"I believe implicitly that every young child in the world is fascinated with either sharks or dinosaurs."

Peter Benchley