South Africa Trip Report Part !
Oct 19th, 2004 | 01:04 PM
#1
Original Poster
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 24
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South Africa Trip Report Part !
South Africa
Part 1
Ok here I go hope its ok this is my first trip report so be nice! many thanks to all the help on here (Rocco etc etc)
Flights UK Johannesburg with Virgin (www.v-flyer.com) lovely crew and nice flight)
Joburg internal flight with SAA to Port Elizabeth quick flight.
Stayed in the Holiday Inn , Port Elizabeth spent our first night settling into South Africa and getting over the journey, hotel is not much to write about but ok for 1 night of sleeping!
Hired a car to begin our journey along the Garden Route first drive was to Knysna on the way we stopped of at the Bungee Jump Bridge http://www.faceadrenalin.com/home/Bungy/
Weehah! This is the highest commercial bungee jump in the world NO I did not jump thought about it then watched someone jump ooooo no. Drove onto Knysna we then stayed in Protea Knysna Quays lovely hotel got an upgrade to a room with a balcony, right on the harbour and waterfront where there are some lovely shops, bars and we grabbed something to eat in one of the American style restaurants. This is also where the steam train departs to Oudshoorn right opposite the hotel. Good breakfast and then onward?
From Knsya drove (nice drive) to Oudtshoorn where we went into the Canga Caves .. very good this is a guided tour with lots of different chambers, and 3 different levels of tour from easy, medium to hard (crawling around) continued to one of the Ostrich Parks to feed and see how these creatures are reared. Then went onto Cheetah World and got to stroke the Cheetah, they purr like my cat!
After a day here drove to Hermanus and sat on the rocks and watched the whales out at sea, although we did not stay here looks a lovely place, the Whales can come in so close, continued onto Gansbaai to go on a Shark Dive. We stayed in a nice B&B although I have no idea what the name was it was very nice and we were made to feel very welcome!
Shark Dive we had booked this before flying over to SA and had no idea what company we were with I had thoughts of some dingy and a cage dragging along behind! Got to the boat (not a dingy) to find we were with Andre Hartman! Bearded guy who dives with the Great White Shark without the cage, in the green wetsuit, he has been on Discovery Channel, BBC wildlife etc etc. Basically we had watched these documentary's and thought yeah we?d have a go at that! Anyway got out to sea they chummed the waters and we waited (I threw up ooohh a little sea sick and something to do to bide my time also I felt I had a great help to chum the water lol!) Then there he was a 5ft beast, as there were only 4 on our boat we all managed to climb one at a time into the cage (the scarcest bit. I was worried I may miss the hole and end up on the other side of the cage with JAWs). Once in the cage it was a bit like a washing machine because of the waves against the boat, however if you held yourself down you could relax and enjoy the beauty of the beast swimming past and eyeing up a potential dinner!
Had a great deal of Shark Action with another 6ft turning up and swimming past and mouthing the meat tied to a rope at the back of the boat. The crew were very knowledgeable and gave us food and drinks throughout the day. Before we came back to shore went to Dyer Island where all the Seal live, play and bask in the Sunshine! Journey back to land was quick and we all had a fantastic day with a fantastic crew also meeting Andre was a bonus!
Part 2 travel onto Cape Town
Part 1
Ok here I go hope its ok this is my first trip report so be nice! many thanks to all the help on here (Rocco etc etc)
Flights UK Johannesburg with Virgin (www.v-flyer.com) lovely crew and nice flight)
Joburg internal flight with SAA to Port Elizabeth quick flight.
Stayed in the Holiday Inn , Port Elizabeth spent our first night settling into South Africa and getting over the journey, hotel is not much to write about but ok for 1 night of sleeping!
Hired a car to begin our journey along the Garden Route first drive was to Knysna on the way we stopped of at the Bungee Jump Bridge http://www.faceadrenalin.com/home/Bungy/
Weehah! This is the highest commercial bungee jump in the world NO I did not jump thought about it then watched someone jump ooooo no. Drove onto Knysna we then stayed in Protea Knysna Quays lovely hotel got an upgrade to a room with a balcony, right on the harbour and waterfront where there are some lovely shops, bars and we grabbed something to eat in one of the American style restaurants. This is also where the steam train departs to Oudshoorn right opposite the hotel. Good breakfast and then onward?
From Knsya drove (nice drive) to Oudtshoorn where we went into the Canga Caves .. very good this is a guided tour with lots of different chambers, and 3 different levels of tour from easy, medium to hard (crawling around) continued to one of the Ostrich Parks to feed and see how these creatures are reared. Then went onto Cheetah World and got to stroke the Cheetah, they purr like my cat!
After a day here drove to Hermanus and sat on the rocks and watched the whales out at sea, although we did not stay here looks a lovely place, the Whales can come in so close, continued onto Gansbaai to go on a Shark Dive. We stayed in a nice B&B although I have no idea what the name was it was very nice and we were made to feel very welcome!
Shark Dive we had booked this before flying over to SA and had no idea what company we were with I had thoughts of some dingy and a cage dragging along behind! Got to the boat (not a dingy) to find we were with Andre Hartman! Bearded guy who dives with the Great White Shark without the cage, in the green wetsuit, he has been on Discovery Channel, BBC wildlife etc etc. Basically we had watched these documentary's and thought yeah we?d have a go at that! Anyway got out to sea they chummed the waters and we waited (I threw up ooohh a little sea sick and something to do to bide my time also I felt I had a great help to chum the water lol!) Then there he was a 5ft beast, as there were only 4 on our boat we all managed to climb one at a time into the cage (the scarcest bit. I was worried I may miss the hole and end up on the other side of the cage with JAWs). Once in the cage it was a bit like a washing machine because of the waves against the boat, however if you held yourself down you could relax and enjoy the beauty of the beast swimming past and eyeing up a potential dinner!
Had a great deal of Shark Action with another 6ft turning up and swimming past and mouthing the meat tied to a rope at the back of the boat. The crew were very knowledgeable and gave us food and drinks throughout the day. Before we came back to shore went to Dyer Island where all the Seal live, play and bask in the Sunshine! Journey back to land was quick and we all had a fantastic day with a fantastic crew also meeting Andre was a bonus!
Part 2 travel onto Cape Town
Oct 19th, 2004 | 01:24 PM
#3
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 4,916
Likes: 0
Thanks, great description of cage diving (like being in a washing machine), which I did twice, last in August 2003. Sounds like your sharks stayed around longer than ours, although I did get to see one from the cage. Looking forward to Part 2.
Michael
Michael
