15.12.2018

15.12.2018 6days in capetown
Down and up.

Today I got up early in the morning and dressed for the shark cage dive in Gans bay.

I got picked up from the hostel and we drove for 2 hours to our start point. There were about 12 other people joining the activity. First after we arrived, we had some breakfast in a hotel there, then after a short briefing we walked to the boat.

The boat got pushed out in the ocean by a truck before we drove for about 15minutes out to our dive spot. Here I got ready with the first group of 6. We put on some thick wetsuits, boots and goggels.

There were some other boats out as well doing the same. A ton of seagulls were already following the boats because they knew we were about to throw in some food.

Because of my diving experience I was a bit faster with getting dressed than the others.😁. We got a weight belt and some instructions on how to get in the cage. The cage was held on the side of the boat. Part of it was above the water so you could just get some air and then go under again.

I asked about using regulators to just stay under water, however some studies have shown that the sharks seem to be scared of bubbles and actually stay away. So this way guaranteed a lot closer experience.

We climbed in the cage and held on to the marked iron bars. Even with the weights the wetsuit kept you above water, so you had to pull yourself down to stay under. The water was quite chilly and very murky.

While under water the guys on the boat threw in fish pieces. They also had a hook with some bigger pieces on it that they threw out.

We just went in the water and the sharks were already there. Copper sharks, big ones, about 2 meters or longer with a brown back. They grabbed one fish piece after the other and also went for the hook with the bigger pieces. However the guys on the boat kept pulling the hook towards the boat so the sharks would follow it and come really close.

In fact they bumped and swam into the cage quite often and then angrily turned around again. It was really cool. Whenever I surfaced the crew yelled: Down! Down! Down! Because they just threw in some more food and more sharks were coming, but sharks were coming the entire time so it really didn't matter that much.

Also really cool was that a seal joined them. It just kept rushing by the cage and grabbing a piece of fish. A lot of small fish showed up as well to grab some pieces.

Then we went out and the second group got in, it was now really cold but they told us to keep the suits on if we want to go again, so I kept it on.

Second time I saw a shark that had a fishing hook stuck beneath his mouth but other than that it was about the same. Except that the guy put the hook with the bigger fish pieces and heads directly inside the cage just to mess with us. So now we also had a ton of fish pieces swimming inside the cage.

We got out and made our way back to the mainland. Here we got some soup and a break. I thought we were getting ready to go out again, however we were already packing up.

So I quickly got on the bus as well and we started heading back to capetown. We took a short break on the way. Here I met a girl that was just coming from a wedding and had planned to go back to capetown per uber. However there was no uber here. So I asked our driver and he was fine with taking her to capetown. So now we had one more.

We stopped on a little view point just before we got to cape town. There were some baboons around enjoying the view as well.

On our way back to capetown we got stuck in traffic because of multiple accidents.

When I finally arrived at my hostel, I changed my clothes and got in contact with the paragliding group since it was still only 14:00.

They were still flying so I raced up there with an uber and immediately got on my flight.

It was pretty amazing, we ran down the hill and jumped off. Beneath us the entire view of cape town.

We landed on the beach and I got driven back to my hostel. Here I met santaclaus. He visited us and brought presents. I got soap!

Then we randomly decided to go up the lions head mountain for the sunset. So even though my legs were burning and I already did everything today, I joined them.

It wasn't a normal walk it was quite a climb with some ladders and handles in the rocks.

It took us a while to get up but when we finally got there we really enjoyed the view and the sun set.

Back on the ground we went for a shower and then out to eat something. We went into a Ethiopian restaurant which was really special, you eat with your hands so before you eat they come over with a metal vase to wash them.

Really cool place, now I am in bed and its way too late. Tomorrow I have to get up early at 06:00 for my tour....