Air Jaws.

Finally, after months of anticipation, the day of our shark dive was upon us.  Kirsten, Holly, and I left at 6AM on Sunday morning to drive down to False Bay in Simonstown (about 45 minutes from Cape Town) to start our great white shark adventure.  We boarded the small boat with 9 other people, thoughts filling our heads of whether or not the boat was actually sturdy enough to withstand the weight of a great white.  [We were assured it would, although, after seeing these massive animals, I have my doubts.]

Luckily, the weather remained beautiful, consistent with the past two weeks, and the sunrise over the water was gorgeous.  We drove around a huggeee school of dolphins (over 100) all jumping out of the water eating sardines - sadly, the lighting wasn't great and none of my attempts at pictures came out but, you get the idea.

False Bay is the only location on the globe where you can see sharks breaching, a hunting technique used while preying on seals in which a shark jumps completely out of the water.  June, July, and August are the prime viewing time as baby seals are finally old enough to join the older seals to hunt for food rather than relying on their mothers.  Unfortunately, these babies tend to have trouble keeping up with the pack which make them perfect targets for the great whites.  While breaching, sharks swim on the bottom of the bay and then shoot up, at speeds reaching 40mph, to grab a seal, launching themselves up to 10ft in the air!  

Our expectations of actually seeing this natural predation occur were not high, understandably, but we were blown away.  We saw four "natural" predations - the shark only managed to catch seals two of those times (think lots of blood and seal guts) but the launch out of the water was quite impressive.  Next, the operators tied a black wetsuit to a rope and pulled it along behind our boat as a decoy.  Twice a shark tried to attack the decoy - shooting up SO close to our boat.  It was incredible. 

 
[I, sadly, did not take these pictures - the boat operator, African Shark Eco Tours, did - my poor little camera was always just a little too late so I ended up with many pictures of huge splashes.]

Finally, it was time for the cage which was connected to the side of the boat.  Kirsten and I pulled on wetsuits, complete with booties and hats, tied weight belts around our stomachs to hold us down, and jumped in.  The cage had a bar on the bottom to stand on and one inside to grip; air was provided through a scuba tank to allow divers to stay under water for optimal viewing.  [The water was freezing and actually took my breath away when I first jumped in but we both got used to it quickly.]  The operators threw out two decoys - one wetsuit type fish and a big dead half of a fish with blood to attract sharks.  The water was actually pretty murky so we seemed to be staring out at nothing and then all of a sudden a HUGE shark was right in front of our face.  I really can't put this experience into words and pictures don't seem to do it justice but we both grabbed each others hand, held on tightly to the cage, and screamed into our scuba mouthpieces (or in my case, laughed hysterically).  We were only in the water for 10 minutes or so (we figured that was plenttttyy of time), but at one point, the decoy was right in front of the cage and the shark lunged, open mouthed, at the decoy... needless to say, we got a very up close and personal view of the inside of that great white's mouth.  My heart starts beating faster just thinking about it.

[The cage, before it was lowered into the water and moved to the side of the boat.]

[Kirsten and I are in the cage, the yellow ball is attached to the decoy, and, obviously, the shark is super close.  We didn't take a camera in the water with us and initially regretted it, but in hindsight, I'm not sure how well the pictures would have turned out due to the murkiness of the water plus we likely would have been too terrified to even consider taking pictures.]

The experience is definitely at the top of my "coolest things to do in life" list and I highly recommend it to anyone who loves a good adrenaline rush.

Tricked.. again.

We have had absolutely fantastic weather the past few days (75 and sunny) which is the perfect weather for all the outdoor activities in Cape Town and we are definitely taking advantage of it (all keep commenting on how lucky we are to have this weather in CT's winter).

Thursday evening we decided to hit the town.  We met some friends from the UK, Australia, Belgium, and Germany on our vacation last week and made plans to head out with them (as it was their only night in Cape Town before flying home) as well as a group of students from the US we had met previously.  After drinks at our apartment, we hit Long Street for an night filled with dancing and drinks.  Needless to say, work was pretty unproductive on Friday.

 
Friday evening we went to yet another fantastic restaurant, La Colombe, in Cape Town - although this one topped all of our lists.  It was located on a winery a bit north of Cape Town and we paid about $50 a head for a 6 course meal.  Of course, dessert was my favorite part - tiered chocolate and peanut butter torte, dark chocolate sorbet, with dried apricots and cranberries on top - yum.

After a quick trip to the gym on Saturday morning (to work off that meal), we headed back to the Biscuit Mill - our favorite Saturday morning market - for ostrich breakfast burgers, eggs benedict, pastries, champagne, and beers.  Then took advantage of the beautiful weather and spent the rest of the day lounging at the beach - nice and lazy Saturday - before dropping Arden at the airport for her trip back to the states.

Sunday.. we were in for quite the treat.  Janine, Drew and Holly's boss, told us she would take us "walking".  Based on our previous experience at Lions Head, we should have been skeptical when she said walking but, like true Americans, expected a leisurely walk.  4.25 HOURS and 9 miles later, we finished our "walk"... tricked again.  Although, as usual, the views were fantastic and the weather remained perfect. 

[As an aside, I met a girl at our gym who plays on a soccer team here and asked if I wanted to play.  Unfortunately, I agreed to a two-hour practice/scrimmage on Sunday which I went to after our hike.  Monday, my muscles were so sore, I had trouble walking.]

Kirsten, Mimi, and I also recently found out that our project is due about 10 days before we are supposed to leave Cape Town (July 22nd) so we're working on planning some sort of trip for our remaining time here.  If anyone has any suggestions of cool/cheap places to visit in Africa, send 'em our way!

Lions and Elephants and Bungee, Oh My!

I honestly don't even know where to begin - our last week has been so incredible that it's hard to imagine putting it all into words (hence my procrastination) but, hopefully some pictures will do it justice. 

We left last Wednesday morning for our vacation.  It seemed a bit frivolous to take a vacation when we're already in such a gorgeous place (kind of on vacation), but I was definitely not complaining.  Our first stop was the Garden Route Game Lodge (about 4 hours from Cape Town).  The drive along the garden route is absolutely gorgeous - lush green meadows, bright blue skies, huge mountains, and fields of flowers - I felt like we were on a movie set most of the time.  We stayed in very cool little, one room, one bathroom "villas" which are pictured below.  [I must admit, I quite enjoyed having one of these to myself after being constantly surrounded by people for the last 5 weeks.]

 
Our first drive out was Wednesday afternoon.  Rule #1:  NEVER get out of the vehicle.  Turns out this rule can be broken when your vehicle gets stuck in mud.  Just as we entered the area where we are supposed to see cheetahs, we got stuck in the mud.  After many attempts by Tracy, our trusty SA guide, we all waited on the road, outside the vehicle, at dusk, in the rain, to be rescued.  Pretty entertaining start to the trip.  Luckily, the next 3 drives (each sunrise and sunset) were fantastic and we saw all kinds of animals - giraffes, cheetahs, lions, elephants, rhinos, impala, eland, springbok... even a mouse!  My favorite was Oliver, a baby rhino.

After 2 days at the game lodge, we drove 2.5 hours north, past Knysa, to bungee off the world's highest bungee bridge - 216 meters.  [Most of you know that I bungeed off the world's highest bungee building this past spring in Macau - 233 meters - but this experience was actually quite different because you hang upside down for a really long time while you're being pulled back up.  In Macau, you get off at the bottom so the whole thing is much quicker.]  Regardless, it was an awesome experience.

[Above, the view looking down from the jump platform.]

We spent the next night at the Tsala Treetop Lodge - which was, by far, the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in.  Kirsten, Arden, and I shared a treetop villa - situated among the trees and connected to other villas by elevated bridges.  Each villa has a main living room, kitchen, two bedrooms, two bathrooms - AND it's own infinity pool that looks out over the forest.  There were outdoor showers connected to each indoor shower so you could stand outside and look over the mountains/forest while you showered.  After a pretty incredible dinner, we came back to a fire in our fireplace, beds turned down, chocolates on the pillows, and hot water bottle heaters in our beds!  I could go on and on about this place, but you get the idea - we didn't want to leave... ever.

Our next (and final) stop was about 30 minutes north in Plattenberg Bay - another gorgeous beach town.  We stayed in a cute little bed and breakfast and spent the afternoon wandering along the beach and the evening in a local bar watching the rugby playoffs (Cape Town Stormers sadly lost).

We made our way back to Cape Town on Sunday but luckily, our vacation wasn't quite over.  We spent the 4th of July at a party at the Consulate General's house in Cape Town where we noshed on burgers, hot dogs, corn on the cob, pasta and potato salad, and apple pie - truly American.  There were over 50 Americans that attended and they actually brought in a group of children from the townships to join us.  We had a great time teaching them our dance moves and learning theirs...

All in all, pretty fantastic week.