Hester, Pieters' sister, graciously brought us to their parents home and showed us around. What a treat to be able to stay in a beautiful hillside home with great views while visiting the Cape Town area.
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| View from backyard of where were staying. Thanks again, Pieter. |
One of the first things we did was to visit the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point. The Cape of Good Hope was named so due to optimism that it would provide a good sea route to India and the east. It was initially named the Cape of Storms, and after watching the waters on a windy day, I can see why. I know we've gone on and on about the landscapes in so, many of the places we've visited, but once again, the drive there rewarded us with more great views. Once there we followed the paths along the coast and explored the Point and Cape of Good Hope.
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Beautiful coastline at Cape of Good Hope
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We've been waiting for the weather to clear so we could take a boat tour out to Seal Island. The small rocky island is home to thousands of seals annually as well as a little colony of penguins. It is surrounded by deep ocean waters just under 6 km from shore at False Bay, not too far from the Cape of Good Hope.
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| Another spectacular coastal view |
This is the place that many well known documentaries about great white sharks have been filmed and photographed for National Geographic, Discovery Channel, etc... The sharks are known to leap into the air from the depths below in order to catch their prey and we were hoping to see one ... but ... we didn't. How's that for cutting the suspense. What we did experience, however, was incredibly cool (see video near the end of this blog post). For those of you who still want to see a great white, I've taken the liberty of adding this picture which we
DID NOT take... but it was taken near Seal Island.
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| Wowzer! |
We booked a tour with
Simons Town Boat Company after waking up to sunny skies, the first in several days. We were standing at the dock by what we thought was our boat, a catamaran with a second level, when they called us to board. Instead of leading us onto what that boat, they pointed to the smaller semi rigid inflatable boat that was docked right beside it. Seriously? Out in the middle of the ocean where there are great whites? Jamie looked a little pale for a second, but then hopped on board. I promised not to even joke about pushing him over, but did suggest that he hold on to the hand rails at all times. All joking aside, we we're very excited and couldn't wait to get out on the water.
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| We hopped into the little boat in behind... |
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| Pumped and ready for anything!! ("This guy is about to get eaten by a shark", is what is being shouted!) |
We slowly puttered out of the marina and then started scanning the waters for, well, anything. I saw a couple penguins bobbing in the water and Jamie pointed out a seal doing a little flip. Then our Captain seemed to spot something in the distance and sped up to full throttle. We couldn't see much except for a few birds in the sky as the front of the boat kept leaping over the waves. Feeling the speed of the boat alone was exciting. Next thing you know, the water was alive and bubbling! We were surrounded by dolphins gliding in and out of the surface everywhere, large birds (Cape Gannet's) dive bombing into the ocean and seals dipping in and out of the water. It was a feeding frenzy! We were splashed several times by dolphins and birds, it was unreal. They were all following and feeding on the sardines, or anchovies as the Captain noted. He described that this was part of the Sardine Run that goes up the north east coast from the Cape Point to Durban, South Africa. As the frenzy moved on, we spotted three Brydes whales (nicknamed Brutus) gliding silently on the edge of the frenzy. They were the clean up crew. Although they liked to keep their distance, they weren't about to miss out on the buffet. The Captain caught up to the "melee" several times. It was exhilarating to be caught in the middle of this with dolphins so close we could have reached out and touched them.
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| One of our many, many following friends! |
After a while, we continued on to Seal Island. We toured around slowly, watching the baby seals as they played in the shallow waters close to shore and letting them entertain us as they tried to make their way back on the island or into the water with every crashing wave. We slowly took a tour around the shark cage/diving tour boat, but the sharks had apparently filled up that morning at breakfast and were no where to be seen. They weren't taking the bait wile we were there, unfortunately. Our Captain assured us that the waters here were full of sharks, only they often keep to the ocean floor feeding on small prey a lot of the time. The seals, by the way, are quite clever and they aren't always a sure meal for the sharks as they can put up quite a slippery battle. And so goes the circle of life at and near Seal Island.
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| Baby seals |
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| Touring around the island |
Here is an amazing video of all we saw out on the ocean. It's long but well worth the watch as it's full of sea life. You'll see many dolphins, seals and some whales as well as the dive bombing birds all around us!
Eventually we made our way back to shore, rocketing through the ocean until hitting another feeding frenzy. I was slightly surprised that neither of us got any surprise droppings on our heads what with so many birds around. We had a great tour with Simon's and would highly recommend their company if anyone is in the area. I'm going to work on Jamie a little, and next time maybe there will be a cage and some sharks involved.
P.S. Don't hold your breath.
(Jamie interjecting here... I'll go in a shark cage when you're ready to go sky diving Dy!!!...)
