Day 1 in South Africa, day 73 of my voyage
We are docked in South Africa, and when I looked out my window I could have sworn we skipped the rest of the trip, went around South America, and ended up in San Francisco. The port we were in was an actual cruise ship terminal this time around, and the area we were in was called the Victoria and Albert Waterfront, or V&A for short. There were little places where you could book tours, and a ton of seafood restaurants with live music. There was a small aquarium and a bunch of little stores. It literally could have been San Francisco. The downtown area had a ton of bars, there was a big convention center, and everyone spoke English for the most part. It definitely felt just like a big city in the US.
Simone and I decided to spend the first day together, and our plan was to attempt to go to Robben Island, even though everyone was saying the tickets were sold out. Well, they were sold out, which really sucks, but hey, it happens. So we improvised. We went to the aquarium instead. They had a bunch of awesome stuff and I was definitely reminded of the Monterey Bay aquarium, except this aquarium had more sharks and they had an entire tank of Nemos!!!! I was really happy about this as I love the movie. After the aquarium, we wandered around the craft area that was next to the aquarium for a while and we had lunch there as well. I had a piece of pizza, which I have been craving for the longest time since I have been on this trip. We listened to a street band play for a little bit, and Simone bought their CD, which I love. After lunch, we were meeting Carson to head to Table Mountain. We hopped in a cab (which is much more expensive here than in other countries), and got to the base of the mountain only to find out that it was too windy to take the cable car up to the top, so we enjoyed the view from the base of the mountain. The view was absolutely breathtaking, and everything was so gorgeous. It was a relatively clear day, so we were able to see everything, which was nice, as there can sometimes be a bit of haze that covers the harbor and makes things not so clear.
We had asked our cab driver what a good place to go shop and stuff was, and he told us Long Street, so we headed there next. We had a blast wandering around all of the stores, and we even found a surf shop that had really cool stuff in it. We also stumbled upon a t-shirt stall that sold all kinds of quirky t-shirts. Carson bought one for her brother that said “I like Jesus, but he loves me, so it makes things kind of awkward” or something along those lines. It was pretty funny, and when you bought a t-shirt you got a free beer! So we sat down with Carson’s Black Label beer, which was pretty decent, and talked for a bit. Our next goal was to find a place for dinner. Now, Carson and I have been absolutely craving Mexican food for a long time, so when we saw a place called Mexican Kitchen, we were so excited! We went inside, and Carson and I decided to split a pitcher of strawberry margaritas, which were very tasty, and the three of us split nachos, tacos, and fajitas. The food was so good, and I felt a little bit like I was back in San Diego, except the tacos and the margaritas weren’t two dollars a piece like they are at Taco Tuesdays. After dinner, we headed back to the waterfront to wander around and get some ice cream before heading back to the ship and going to bed, since we both had early mornings. We headed to the Haagen-Dazs that was really close to our ship, had yummy ice cream cones, then headed to the ship to pass out.
Day 2 in South Africa, day 74 of my voyage
Simone and I both woke up at the crack of dawn. Her safari left at 4, and I had to be up at 5 a.m. because I was going shark diving! Ok, so I am absolutely terrified of sharks. So logically, someone who is afraid of sharks will willingly jump in a cage and get dumped in the ocean with them right? We watched a video about sharks on the way to our dive spot, which was 2.5 hours away from the ship. Brittany and Graham tried to sleep on the way there without success. It was actually incredibly interesting and about a guy name Mike Rutzen who free dives with sharks…no cage, no chain mail. Just him, a wetsuit, a tank of air, and his wits. It was absolutely incredible to watch, and it gave me a bit more respect and lessened my fear of these animals that sometimes acted like puppies (I know it’s a weird comparison, but if you watched the video, you’d understand). So we got to the area where our trip was going to take off from, and we had a light breakfast of a croissant-type thing (there are a lot of croissant-like pastries in these countries) and the best granola and fruit and yogurt ever. We then drove down to the dock, where we hopped on our ship, which was the fastest ship of its size and holds the world record for going around the world the fastest. So we hopped on our little boat and had a 45 minute cruise to our dive spot.
Once we got to the dive spot, we got instructions on how to get in and out of the cage, where to hold on the cage in order to not get any necessary bits of our bodies bitten off, and what to expect. He said on Monday they had a total of about 9 sharks that came over, so hopefully we would see quite a few when we were out. We all put on our wetsuits and booties, and prepared to get in the cage. There was a group of about 14 of us and two weren’t diving, so we were getting in the cage 6 at a time. Brittany (who is also terrified of sharks) and I were in the second group, and by the time it was our turn, my adrenaline was going and I was more excited than scared. The first thing I noticed when I got in the cage was that the water was cold…definitely a little more chilly than one would think, being off the coast of Africa and all. For those of you who know me, you know I am always cold, but I was so pumped up that it wasn’t all that cold to me.
So this is how shark diving works. Once we anchor at our dive spot, the dive company people will throw chum into the water, which attracts the sharks. Once everyone is in the cage, one member of the crew will put a giant tuna head (which smells absolutely nasty) onto a giant thing attached to a rope. This is used to bait the sharks and to get them to come close to us. They try to not let the sharks get the bait, as this will eventually lead the sharks to associate the humans with food and lead them to not hunt for themselves. One thing I didn’t mention was the fact that we were diving with great whites…Yes, we were diving with Jaws. Great Whites are surface feeders, which means they have no problem coming close to the top of the water to get food. Anyways, the guy holding the end of the rope the bait is on will throw it out until he sees a shark, then pull it away and essentially make the shark chase the bait. Think of a cat with a laser pointer, minus the pouncing. Now, as the shark chases the bait, the bait inevitably gets pulled closer to the cage, which leads the shark to come incredibly close to the cage. When a shark comes near the cage or the bait, the person holding the bait will shout “Down left!” or “Down right!” to tell us where to look when we go under to see the sharks.
My first glimpse of a shark was totally surreal to me. Who would have ever thought that I would be in South Africa jumping in the water with Great Whites? Not me! They move much slower than you would think, and they don’t look as scary in person. At least, they don’t look scary until the hit your cage and the entire thing shakes with 5 of you inside of it. Yes, we had a 9 or 10 foot great white shark hit the side of our cage in an attempt to get the giant tuna head that was floating right next to it. Brittany let out a rather high pitched scream and latched onto Graham, which was pretty funny in retrospect. I was in the water for a grand total of about 40 minutes or so, and it was so much fun. I would gladly do it again, and overall, my fear of sharks has been lessened quite a bit from this experience. After our boat ride back, we had lunch at the same little place we had breakfast, then we had our 2.5 hour car ride back to the ship, during which all of us in the car passed out.
The three of us got back to the ship and showered, then headed out to Greenmarket Square to listen to some live music. The weekend we were there also happened to be the same weekend as the Cape Town International Jazz Festival, and they were having a free concert in the square. We stood and listened to some awesome jazz music for a little bit, then got ice cream and ciders, and waited to meet Victoria and Sally. When they arrived, we all hung out in the square for a little bit, then we ran into two others from the ship, Christina and Trevor. The original 5 of us had dinner reservations at a place at 8, and we were able to add the other two on to make us a fun party of 7. We were eating at a place called Mama Africa, a restaurant known for its game meats and traditional food.
We arrived, got seated, and looked at a menu. We decided that we would all share a platter of various types of meat, then get our own dinners. I ordered an African dish called Bobotie that I had on the ship at the South African dinner and enjoyed, so I figured I would like it here as well. Boy was I right! It is a meat dish that has egg on the top of it, and it has an almost Indian flavor to it. It was served with rice and vegetables, and was so yummy and so good! Now, let me move on to the highlight of the night for me…the meat platter. The platter had 4 different types of meat on it: kudu (a steak and sausage), springbok, ostrich, and crocodile. They were all absolutely fantastic, and the ostrich and crocodile were my favorites. Graham had some yummy stew with kudu and some other meat in it, both of which were so tender than they melted in your mouth. After dinner, we ordered dessert. Sally and I decided to share coconut pudding, which is basically a spongy cake with a yummy sauce on top and coconut. Upon trying it, my taste buds went into quite a frenzy of happiness. This may have been the best dessert I have ever tried, even better than (dare I say it?) a pizookie from BJ’s. It was hot and coconutty (yes that is now a word) and wonderful, and Sally and I finished it in about 2 minutes flat. After dinner we headed out to the Square again and then left relatively early.
Day 3 in South Africa, day 75 of my voyage
Another early day for Renae and Graham, and this time we were headed to see some more animals, only this time, they were on land instead of water and I was in a 4 wheel drive rather than in a cage. It was about a 2.5 hour drive to the Aquila Game reserve, which meant nap time once again for Graham and I. Upon arrival, we were served sparkling grape juice (which is quite good) and we had to sign a waiver that basically said we wouldn’t sue if any psychotic animals attacked us. The game reserve is set on this huge piece of land, and the lodge and little cabins they have are absolutely adorable. The roofs of all of the buildings are made to look like eagle feathers, as “Aquila” means eagle in Afrikaans. We hopped into our vehicles and the group of us were off on our game drive. We saw kudu and springbok right away, then we saw some zebras in the distance. We drove over to them and were able to get so close! There was even an adorable little baby zebra that I definitely wanted to take home with me. As we were sitting watching the zebras, our guide told us to look straight ahead, and there were two massive rhinos walking toward us. Now, rhinos are not the friendliest animals you have ever met, so all of the drivers had to be extremely careful around them. It was a mother and her baby, but this was the biggest two year old I have ever seen. They just walked over and hung out with the zebras, eating their grass and hanging out. After the rhinos, we were off to see the elephants. We went over to the watering hole, where there was one elephant and one other one off in the distance. The one that was already at the watering hole was drinking, splashing, and playing. African elephants are different than Indian elephants because of their ears, which look different. African elephants also tend to look like they are smiling when their mouths are open….it’s really cute. I got a great photo of the elephant squirting water everywhere out of its trunk. After the elephants, we headed to the lion enclosure. We didn’t get to see any in the big enclosure, but we did get to see some sleeping in another area of the park. We also got to see a leopard, and some other random animals as well. We spent about 2 hours on our game drive, and we had an absolute blast. After the game drive was lunch, which was so good! Another 2 hour nap later and we were back at the ship.
We showered and got ready, then Victoria and I headed out to meet Brittany and Graham and one of Brittany’s friends at an Ethiopian restaurant. It was a late dinner, but it was really good. After dinner, we headed to Long Street, the party district of Cape Town. Think downtown San Francisco or San Diego, only with a bigger variety of nationalities. There were people from Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, and a bunch of other places. Graham and I were tired, so we only stayed out until about midnight, then caught a cab back to the ship.
Day 4 in South Africa, day 76 of my voyage
On day 4, there was a group of people going wine tasting and the others weren’t back from their safari yet, so Sally and I took off for the day. We slept in and had lunch on the ship, then headed out to Long Street to do some shopping. They have souvenir shops with everything you can possibly imagine, so we just wandered around down there for a few hours, salivated over the giraffe statues that were taller than me, then headed back to the ship to grab our computers. There was a little café close to the ship that had free internet, so we sat down and ordered calamari and a drink and used the internet for a bit, then I took Sally to get gelato. Now, Sally had never had gelato, which I consider to be a crime. It was so good, almost as good as I had in Italy, which is saying a lot. After our snack, we headed back to the ship, and I got ready for my one big night out in Cape Town. The girls were coming back from Safari, and we were celebrating Bruck’s birthday, even though it wasn’t until April 8th. Graham, Shauna, Alli, Victoria, and myself went and had Mexican food for a really late dinner, then we were headed out to the bar. We went to an Irish pub first, but there were about 50 million too many SAS people there, so we headed to a smaller place called the Ivy League, where there were only a few SAS people and some others. We ended up hanging out there all night until the wee hours of the morning, and then we headed back to the ship and passed out, ready for our last day in South Africa.
Day 5 in South Africa, day 77 of my voyage
Four of us woke up the next morning, had a yummy breakfast on the waterfront, did a little bit of last minute shopping to spend the last bit of rand we had, and then we had our animal whispers tour. Everyone hopped on a bus for the hour bus ride, and we headed to the Spier wine estate, which also houses the cheetah outreach project and a bird of prey sanctuary. The cheetah outreach project was really cool, and we got to pet a cheetah. We also got to hold numerous birds of prey, from a barn owl to a vulture. After seeing the wild animals, we got to do a tiny bit of wine tasting before heading back to the ship.
My time in South Africa has definitely made it one of my top 3 ports. The people were all so great and so nice (again) and there is so much to do, even just within Cape Town itself. It is so hard to believe that this is my third to last port, and I am so not ready for this journey to be over! Next up is Ghana, and it will be nice to get out of the big city that was Cape Town and head to a smaller, even more “African” country.
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