I've been without internet for a while, and decided to rewrite the last post, so this is what I wrote on Sunday
Sunday 23/6-2013
I've now been at Gansbaai since June 10th working for MarineDynamics, (a Shark Cage Diving company based in Kleinbaai, a small harbour
town, part of Gansbaai in the Western Cape of South Africa. This area is known
as a hotspot for the Great White Shark and the best place in the world to see
and dive with these iconic creatures in their natural environment). They take
out tourists every day, as long as the weather permits it. I'm here with 10-20
other volunteers (varies from week to week) who helps out preparing the boats,
talking to clients before and during the trip as well as assisting the crew
during and after the trips. I must say I've enjoyed every day so far, and the
other volunteers are great people. All of us are young adventures who love
sharks and travelling from all over the world (Australia, Scandinavia, UK,
Seychelles and US). We get along really well and spend a lot of time together
either in our shared home or out and always have activities planned together.
So far we have had 3-4 no-sea-days which mean the weather has been so bad that
we haven’t been able to go to sea. On
those days we go on social activities like hiking, road tripping, wine/beer
tasting, penguin-safari, game drive, playing football/rugby/pool or doing beach
clean ups.
David, me and Declan having a hug on Declans birthday
Pulling the cage up from the water after a day of shark diving
Jake, Ali, Elias and Sissel (who came all the way to South Africa to visit me)
Me and Elias having a laugh while looking at the days pictures
Our cage dive boat, Slashfin!
Clearance and Nicola posing
Predation. Copyright: David Allan
Travelling on a day off
Wine tasting with the other volunteers
Beach clean up and shark egg collection
One of my favourite photos
We get really close to the sharks almost every day!
Playing touch rugby on a sunny afternoon
Touch rugby on the beach
We also have lectures by the marine biologists who work for
Marine Dynamics which are very interesting and I learn so much from it. I learn
something new every day.
A normal day at Marine Dynamics: I want to write a bit more about what
we do here as volunteers, because a few months ago when I was getting ready for
this experience I didn't know much of what we would be doing here in Gansbaai. I
looked for blogs but couldn't find any, so I hope that future volunteers will
find my blog and therefore get a better understanding of what you do here,
except from diving with sharks. A normal day would start off with getting up at 6:30 AM and start walking to
The Great White House (GWH) at 7:15 so we would be ready to work at 7:30. We
have to be there 1.5 hours before the boat launch so the time depends on when
the boat is launching. Three of the volunteers go down to the bay to get the
boat ready, while the rest get the wet suits, life jackets, rain coats etc
packed and delivered to the boat before assisting the clients to get ready and
walking down to the boat which is now on the water. We assist the crew on the
boat while the skipper drives the boat to the diving spot, some of us will then
read out the clients names and hand over the wetsuits, while others drop the
cage and tie it to the side of the boat. If anyone gets seasick (it’s always someone
seasick) it’s our responsibility to make sure they feel looked after. If there
is time and space in the cage we (the volunteers) will get to dive. So far I've
been diving 6 out of 8 trips, so it’s most likely that we get to dive. It’s
such an incredible feeling to get so close to the Great White! Sometimes we see
the big sharks up to 5 meters, other times we see the younger ones which are
more jumpy (awesome to look at from the cage and the boat).
When the diving is done we do simple choirs like pulling the anchor and cage up
from the water (depending on if we are going in the water again later in the
day or not) and helping the clients getting ready for the return. After the
last trip you assist the crew with cleaning the boat (just pour soap on the windows,
motors and rails, so the crew can wash it off). Then we dip the wet wetsuits in
fresh water before hanging them up for drying. Big-Bruce (employee) hangs them
up in the shed.
We also got a research boat and a whale boat. Because the
weather has been exceptionally bad this winter we haven’t had many trips with
those boats. Some of us have been on them, but I haven’t yet. I still got 2
more weeks here, so I expect to be on a whale trip or two, and maybe I get to
tag a shark, which they are planning on doing sometime the following 2 weeks.
In the evening we always got some activities, for example pub quiz, night out,
pool tournaments, table games etc. These evenings makes us bond quite good, and
I've got so many good friends which I hope I’ll keep in touch with and maybe
see again later. The Swedes are not far away from Norway, I have a lot of
friends in the UK already and I love America, so these countries are places I
want to visit anyway.
Today, Sunday the 23rd of June I was not on the
morning trip, that means I'm off work until 11:30. Some people are at a Game
Drive (safari) while others are on the morning trip with the shark boat. And
I'm quite happy I didn't went on the Game Drive because today we saw a
predation of a seal, about 100 m from the
boat, so much blood and we saw the fin of the shark and the jumping seal
fighting for its life. Amazing!
The internet is not great here, which makes us more social,
but it’s hard to post blogs and keep in touch with friends and family at a
regular basis (therefore I'm sending a few postcards).
Last Monday, June 10th, I started working for Marine Dynamics in Kleinbaai as a volunteer. It's been about a week and a half and I've loved it so far. I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, because a lot of the volunteer work programs in South Africa can be very different from program to program. I went on the boat as a client on the day of arrival with 7-8 other new volunteers. It was a great experience and I really enjoyed the time on the boat. When we got back we got introduced to the staff and the other volunteers.
The next 2 days we went out on our boat Slashfin, and it was great to prepare the boat for the trip, meet, greet and talk to the clients and actually get to dive in the cage as well.
Thursday and Friday was bad weather, so we couldn't go out on the boat, but the company (Marine Dynamics) are good to keep us busy. We went to Cape Agulhas were the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic oceans separates. It took us about 2 hour drive from Kleinbaai and we only stayed there for 5 minutes, because it started to pour down sideways! We got soaked after 20 seconds.
On the way back we went to winetasting and a cheese factory. In the evenings we usually go out (if we don't have a sea-day the following morning). All the volunteers lives in small houses together, so it's a very social thing, and we get to know each other really well. We are all youths between roughly 18-25 years old who loves travelling and sharks.
On Sunday, Monday and Tuesday we went back on the boat and spotted dolphins and whales as well as the sharks. Again I got to go in the cage. On Monday I went in the cage without a wetsuits, since I coulnd't find any extras on the boat. The water temperature was 15.2 degrees, so not too bad. And I'm so glad I went in the water, because this dive was my best dive so far! One shark bit the decoy and banged into the cage. It was amazing, and I managed to get it on my GoPro as a video.
Wednesday was a bad weather day again, and we were supposed to help the skipper clean the boat (10 volunteers volunteered to help out) but it was building up to a storm, so we postponed it for tomorrow). Hopefully we will get on the boat on Sunday, when the weather is supposed to get better.
I've bee without internet for a week now, but wrote this last Sunday.
Sunday 9/6-2013
Tourists asking me and Sheri for pictures
It’s been over a week now, and I'm heading to Gansbaai
tomorrow morning at 8:15 to start working with Marine Dynamics for 4 weeks. So
much has happened since I landed last Saturday here in Cape Town. The first
couple of days the weather was horrible, but I still had great fun. The first
day I met Sheri (her blog) from Canada, who I shared room with. She is travelling Africa
and Europe on her own and is doing a lot of different volunteer work, I must
say she has inspired me to travel even more. She also recommended going to
Oudtshoorn, an "ostrich city" I later went to.
I also got to know three Americans who arrived last Monday.
They are travelling the world over 90 days and spent a whole week in Cape Town,
sharing room with me at the Sunflower Stop Backpacker Hostel. I also got to
know Laura, another roommate, from Brazil, quite well before she left this
morning.
On the Wednesday I rented a car and drove 530km to the Bloukrans Bridge, it took me about 5-6 hours,
and I must say the roads here are like heaven compared to the roads in
Norway/England. The speed limit is usually 120km/h and The Garden Route (which
I drove) is amazing. The nature is so beautiful, that it’s a shame I have to
concentrate on the roads most of the time, because I wish I could see more of
it.
Me and Daniel, getting ready for the big jump
I spent one night at a lodge by the Bloukrans Bridge and met
Daniel and his friend, who I jumped the bungee jump with on Thursday morning.
To jump off a 216m high bridge was something I've never done before, it’s hard
to explain but flying down in such a speed, without feeling connected to
anything was scary, but also very thrilling. It gave me such a kick that I
decided to jump again. The second jump was backwards and was almost as exciting
as the first one. I filmed the jumps with my GoPro camera, but still, it
doesn’t show the adrenalin that pumps through your body during and after the
jump.
After the jump I drove up to Oudtshoorn and booked in at
Backpackers Paradise, which Sheri had recommended. They offered activities where
they drove me up to a mountain (1500m above sea level) with a Backie (pickup)
and then I went down on a mountain bike. The 54km trip offered several stops
where I could explore caves, ride camels, elephants, ostriches etc. So I did
the cave exploring which contained crawling in small narrow caves at Cango
Caves. Unfortunately I didn’t find any diamonds. I went back on my bike and
stopped at an ostrich farm where I did a tour and got to sit on one of the
birds. I wanted to ride one, but I was too heavy for the ostrich.
The last stop
I did was at Cango Wildlife Park, where they had a lot of exotic animals. I was
really keen on doing the Crocodile Cage Dive, but since it’s winter here in
Africa the crocodiles don’t do much other than sleeping it didn’t happen. I got
back to the Backpacker Paradise and had an ostrich barbeque with other youths.
One was from England, one from France and one from Norway. We had a few beers
and then the two South African, who was working behind the bar offered us to
play a game. We ended up drinking heavily and the next morning was a bit more
painful than predicted.
Saturday I planned on driving at 7AM, but that didn’t
happen, so I drove off about 10-11AM instead. It was about 450km from
Oudtshoorn to Cape Town, so in total, over 3 days, I’d been driving 1250km.
When I got back to the hostel in Cape Town I got told that one of the Americans
got arrested the night before for asking
a police officer if he was drunk (ironically the American was the drunk
one). He got bailed out the very next morning for 100 rand (£7). Saturday we
spent the rest of the day chilling and going to bed early since we all had had
a rough night before.
Sunday (today) I and the Americans planned on going on a
road trip to Cape of Good Hope, so we drove
off around 9AM, but the weather was
so good and Table Mountain was so clear that we decided to walk up the mountain
before going on the road trip. We hiked up in a fast pace and got a few
pictures taken before returning back down. The view up there was stunning, and
I'm really glad I managed to get up there while it was clear. I’d been walking
up there twice earlier in the week, but both times it was foggy/cloudy. Hiking
up Table Mountain was definitely on my “to do” list in Cape Town so I'm happy
that we got it done before leaving tomorrow. We drove down the west coast line
and had a good look at the views; it was a perfect day for this trip, since it
was sunny and warm, not a single cloud on the sky. We drove through Fish Hoek
and had a great dinner by the sea before continuing to Cape of Good Hope. We
got there about an hour before they closed, so we ran around and got some pictures
before driving back up to Cape Town.
Me and my 3 American friends on top of Table Mountain. Cape Town in the background
The drama started in the air before even arriving Cairo. We took off 10:30 PM,
and since Egypt Air insisted on serving us dinner at 11:30 I didn’t get much
sleep, even I was pretty tired. They did turn off the lights around midnight,
when we were about halfway on our 3591 km long journey from LHR-Cairo.
Not long after the lights were turned off, the announcer
asked loudly if there was a doctor on board, and then the lights came back on.
The elderly lady sitting next to me, who I’d noticed was ill, had gotten worse.
Suddenly she was surrounded by air hosts, and her daughter who sat next to her
was in tears. The old lady kept passing out, and the staff tried to give her
some water before putting an oxygen mask on her. I was worried she had heart
problems and was expecting them to put her on the floor to give her CPR.
Everyone around her were speaking Egyptian so I couldn’t completely understand
what seemed to be the lady’s problem. Thankfully no one needed CPR and the lady got better,
and her daughter started to smile again. I must admit, my heart rate went up a
bit in the heat of the moment. After a while people calmed down and I got 1.5
hours sleep. We arrived Cairo 3:45 AM, and I got 19h and 15minutes to explore a
whole new city! CAIRO
Cairo
This is Egypt!
Me and Mohamen was listening to loud Egyptian music
When I arrived Cairo I was feeling great and the first thing
I wanted to see was the Pyramids during sunrise. The moment I got to the
arrival hall, loads of taxi drivers ran up to me and asked if I needed
transport, out of old habit I rejected their offers. But then I realised I
actually need a tazi driver if Im going to experience the pyramids
before/during sunrise. Another two approaches me, and after a bit of a «fight» I
go with Mohamed Samir, a 24 year old taxi driver from Cairo who drives for his
father. He seemed like a nice bloke and he knew a bit of English.
We drove towards the pyramids, which are placed on the other
side of the city. Mohamed tells me that the pyramids won’t open until 8AM, so I
tell him to drive me to the river Nile instead. On the way there my taxi drive
says he need gas, and he drives in behind (!) a petrol station, and suddenly I
get a bit worried and mentally prepare myself if I was about to get mugged.
Fortunately it didn’t happen and we drove off in one piece. We got to the river
Nile and took a few pictures, then off to The Cairo Tower before another river.
We then got some breakfast, but since the menu was written in Egyptian I
randomly pointed at something, hoping it would be tasty (and it was).
Now it was still 90 minutes until the Pyramids open, but we
drove towards them in a slowish speed. Then suddenly we saw some guys playing
football on a pitch next to the road. Mohamed didn’t finish his question before
I said “YES!” so he made a sharp turn and minutes later I was playing football
with Achmed (messi), Ibra (zlatan), Mohamed (another one) and a few other
Egyptans my age. It was awesome, and it didn’t make it less cool when my first
touch of the ball was a screamer of a volley goal up in the top left corner.
Even if it was 6:30-7AM it was still very hot, and soon I was drenched in
sweat. We played for almost an hour and it was so much fun. The perfect thing
to do when you travel by yourself.
So suddenly we had killed loads of time and we went to the
Pyramids. To ride a camel and see all 9 of them, the Sphinx, and go inside one
pyramid cost EGP 660 (£70-75) which was fine. I didn’t even try to negotiate a
lower price. I got on Micky Mouse, the camel, and the moment I got around the
corner I realised I’d left my bag (which contained my passport and tickets) in
Mohamed’s car. “Not good” I thought, “How could I blindly trust a man I’d just
met, and on top of that, in Cairo?!”
I concluded with him not running off with it since I hadn’t
paid him yet. When I saw the stunning Pyramids I forgot all about it. Astonishing!
It was only me, the guy holding the camel, and the guide Omar. So it was a very
relaxed trip, but it got warmer and warmer in the dessert. After 2 hours I was
tired and very dehydrated. I almost got sick when we got back, I don’t know if
it was the dehydration (didn’t drink anything during/after the footie either),
the heat or the many starving horses that was walking around. It was horrible
to watch, and it made me realise how poor Egypt really is. People sent their
kids out on the street to beg for money and they couldn’t afford to feet their
animals. I got 1.5 litre of water and downed it within seconds.
View over Cairo from Mohamed Ali's Moske
Next, Mohamed took me to Mohamed Ali’s (not the boxer)
Moskè, a massive one with an amazing view over Cairo. We walked by a library
there and I was given some free books about Islam. I’m a quite open minded guy
so I thought it would be good to learn a bit more about their religion. When me
and Mohamed walked back to the car a good looking girl stopped me and asked if
she could interview me for 2 minutes. I said yes, and then asked what she was
going to interview me about. She explained she saw the Islan books in my hands
and wanted to ask about my views on Islam (coming from a different country) and
about the library etc. “Fine, yeah, sure” I nodded.
Therefor I got a microphone attached to my shirt and a
camera pointed at my sun burned face, and soon I will be on YouTube.
It was after noon and I was getting hungry so I asked my
friendly taxi driver if he wanted to eat. He doesn’t speak English very well,
but he understood what I meant and we drove off. He said something about his
father, but I’m pretty much fast asleep. We arrived his father’s home, and soon
I’m sitting talking to all the people in broken English. This was REALLY cool,
I’d suddenly forgotten how tired and hungry I was because now I was in the
heart of Cairo with some proper Egyptians in their own living room. Their
apartment looked quite nice, so I assume the taxi driving is the thing to do in
Cairo. Soon I was playing Pro Evolution Soccer on PlayStation 2 against a 10
year old, Norway – Egypt (0-3). And then Mohamed comes in with a plate with a
half chicken, some beef mix and a sort of pita bread. Because I was hesitating
Mohamed ran and got me a spoon for the beef mix, but I used my fingers anyway.
It was proper good as well! The kids and Mohamed’s father filmed me for 4
minutes while I was eating dinner together with Mohamed.
Mo had taken care of me since I arrived at 4AM and I asked
him how much money he wanted, he was thinking for a while and I was expecting
him to say about EGP 1500 (£165) but when he said EGP 3000 I got very
surprised. That was £330.
Even though it was only 2-3 o’clock asked him to drive me to the airport, it was
over 40C and it was no point walking around in the streets of Cairo in the
heat. In the car I asked him about the price and told him I was expecting a
price around EGP 2000. He agreed and we shook hands. So there I was, at the
airport 6 hours before the flight takes off, but I’ve experienced so much today
and will now try to wash myself in a disabled toilet and change clothes before
getting some sleep. Today, driving around with a local taxi driver, showing me
places I’d never see if I took the bus or a more proper taxi. This was
brilliant. Now
my next stop is Johannesburg -> Cape Town.
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