Initially, we were supposed to leave for shark diving at 4:30am, but it
got changed last minute to 6:00. I met Quincy, Christina and a few
others in Tyminz Square at that time and we got on a van with another
group of SAS kids for the 2 hour drive to the location. I tried to stay
awake to see the scenery on the way, but that lasted about 10 minutes
and before I knew it we were there! I'm not 100% where there actually
was, other than quite a bit South of Cape Town, but regardless it was
quite beautiful.
The place we were diving at was called Cape Town Shark Cage Diving
(creative, I know) and when we got there they had a breakfast spread put
out for us. The only thing I could have was yogurt, but that's okay.
They collected all of our fees and then we were just hanging around
until the 4:30 group got back so we could go out. Thankfully, the place
had wifi so almost all of us were just soaking it up.
Finally, around 10 we were given our safety briefing and then loaded
onto the ship. We got onto the ship and drove about 20 minutes deep into
the water to where the cage was. We were all give wetsuits to put on and
divided into 3 groups of divers. The first group had 6 people and the
other two groups had 3. Basically, one group would go into the cage at a
time and whenever there was a shark the instructors would tell us to
hold ourselves under so we could see (our heads were above water most of
the time). On my first dive there wasn't really a ton of sharks to see.
We were told to go under 3 times but I only saw one shark. It was still
petrifying though. I was shocked at home open the cages are because it
definitely looks like someone could get hurt pretty easily. Also, there
is no wall between you and the shark, so if you accidentally put your
foot on the wrong bar (instead of the resting one), it can easily be
chomped off. Despite the fear though it was really really exciting.
On our second dive we saw a lot more sharks. Not only did we see 5 of
them, but two of them literally tried to attack our cage! I was so
scared it was ridiculous, but now I have an amazing story of how I was
hit, just barely, with a shark fin! I think I would have wet myself if I
was on the end the shark was trying to attack, but thankfully I was one
person in this time (I was on the end on dive #1).
After our second dives we were brought back to shore and shown the video
that the instructor had been taking during the morning. Then we were put
back on a van to go back to Cape Town. I still couldn't stay awake for
most of the trip back, but did manage to get up for the last half hour.
I was staring out the window as we were going between beautiful Cape
Town-looking cities and townships. Townships are basically the very poor
neighborhoods of South Africa where the blacks and maybe coloureds lived
during the Apartheid system. Many still do live here. The houses looked
like they were maybe 1 room and were literally sitting on top of each
other. A yard was a foreign concept. Some of the houses were made of a
reliable stone, but others were just of wood! I was suddenly pretty
excited to venture into one in just a few days.
After getting back to the ship and showering, I went upstairs for dinner
and then to get ready for the soccer game. First, Dain, Allison, Rui and
myself walked to the V+A mall to buy tickets and then we walked to the
stadium. It was held where the World Cup was and the stadium was
literally amazingly beautiful. The game itself was pretty empty, which I
thought was weird, but maybe people were watching on TV? I also thought
it was weird that some of the South Africans were actually calling it
soccer! Others still said football, though. In addition to soccer, rugby
is the other big sport, but I didn't get a chance to go to a rugby game.
The game ended up being a tie and afterwards the four of us plus
Brittany (who had found us at the game) tried to get a cab back to the
ship. It wasn't really working so we ended up walking to the V+A
waterfront to try there. It wasn't like either place was far from the
ship, but it was pretty late so we really didn't want to take any safety
chances, especially knowing how high the theft and rape rates are late
at night. The taxi we ended up getting was driven by some disrespecting
asshole who made up a story about a police blockaid and told us he had
to take the "long way" around. When we asked him if it was going to
affect the price, 40-50R, he said it would probably be double. Nope. Not
happening. And, at that point, Brittany leaned over and saw on his phone
he was texting his friends about "this is an opportunity, take it." So
basically Brittany (bad-ass) went ape-shit on this guy and he brought us
back to the waterfront. We ended up giving him 30R just so he wouldn't
freaking punch us, but we got our revenge in warning the taxi service
and the people waiting for cabs not to ride with him.
So instead we ended up waiting for the SAS shuttle back, and what should
have been a 10 minute drive from the stadium actually turned into a 2+
hour journey.
South Africa sure was unpredictable so far.
Monday, March 5, 2012
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