Sunday, March 6th 2011

Sunday morning was fairly unremarkable. We took out a boatful of tourists and saw a few sharks but none of them too big or interesting. Alex and I took care of wetsuits meaning that we eyeballed the tourists and handed them a roughly appropriate sized wetsuit and booties. After all the clients are wetsuited you really don’t have much to do so Alex and I just watched the sharks. I was in the middle of getting a really good picture when my camera died and it ended up not saving which I was quite pissed about.

We came back, unloaded our boat and then puttered about until it was time for our braai. (Braai is Afrikaans for barbecue) The volunteer house has a nice fire pit out back so Alex and Jillian started the fire. Then it took a while for it to burn down and create some good coals. We ended up cooking all different kinds of meat on it. Alex and I had chicken breast that she put some amazing marinade on. Emma had some kind of sausage (we couldn’t read the package so we didn’t know what it was) Mikey has ostrich sausage (which I tried, it was ok), Tina had cheddar bratwurst (which I had a piece of, it was amazing!) Jo had some kind of pork strips and Dave had chicken. Also, we cooked some corn, potatoes, red peppers, broccoli etc. All in all it was amazing. We put on Jillian’s ipod and drank a few beers with our dinner and had a really great night.

Saturday, March 5th 2011

On Saturday we woke up at our usual 5:30 (There’s no such thing as a weekend on a shark boat) and headed off to set up the boat. We only had one trip that day so all of us were able to go on the morning trip. I went with data again though the sharks were being peevish and many only made one pass at the bait before swimming off again. So we ended up seeing 10 different sharks but I only had good information on 2 or 3 of them. On the others I only had size and time of arrival which does not make for good data. None of us got in the cage that day. Visibility was real low and it was fairly foggy on the water that day. It started off real slow with no sharks arriving but eventually a few showed up and the clients went home happy with what they saw.

After we got back to shore the weather was absolutely beautiful. We all finished cleaning up the boat and wetsuits and then the other girls and I threw on our good bathing suits (aka not the ones we wear everyday and smell like chum) and then laid out on the driveway. The sun was so hot that I was only out for about 30 minutes before I had to come back inside and cool down.

Andy, the other filmographer then came by with the bus and took us on a little afternoon trip. We first drove to the Danger Point Lighthouse. The story behind this is that in the 1800’s a ship called the Birkenhead wrecked on the Birkenhead rock (the rock was later named after the ship) It was going down and the captain made sure that all the women and children got off first. This is where the phrase and the practice come from. Unfortunately, for them most of the people on the boat died from drowning or shark predation.

Unfortunately for us, the lighthouse recently changed its hours; so it’s not open on Saturdays. There was this big gate up, but David managed to scramble through a space in it and I got a picture of him before he climbed back over the fence. We then headed to the Spar (grocery store) up in Gansbaai to grab some extra food and a couple of drinks (cause you can’t buy alcohol on Sundays in South Africa. When we got up there, there was some charity hair spraypainting thing going on. We managed to persuade Dave and Alex to get their hair sprayed. They paid R50 for it. A place next to the super market had soft serve ice cream for real cheap, so we each got one of them. (delicious btw; though the ice cream wasn’t vanilla flavored, it was cream flavored; so it just tasted a bit odd)

Then we headed to a white sandy beach that we can see when we take the boat out everyday. We got there, parked, and stepped out on the beach. The sand was white and beautiful, but unfortunately the sea mist was incredibly thick and there was a surprisingly chilly wind. So we walked up the beach looking for sharks teeth (which you can sometimes find) and then after a while we turned around and walked back. Though inbetween we did find a few interesting things to play with.

Friday, March 4th, 2011

We woke up early again ( I took a picture to prove how early I get up) Surprisingly this has not been a problem for me. I think its because my body was so confused with the time change and the flight that it accepted the first schedule I gave it. Originally we were supposed to all go on the morning trip and then Julia was going to give us a lecture in the afternoon, but there was a last minute change so we would all go out in the morning and then six would go out in the afternoon. For the morning, I showed Mikey and Alex how to do data. It was a real slow morning and the sharks didn’t seem like they wanted to come out or stick around. After we’d been there an hour or two, Julia asked me if I wanted to go in the cage since I hadn’t been in since the first day. So over and grabbed a wetsuit and booties and mask etc. Last time I dove I wore a medium large and I had the hardest time squeezing myself into it. So this time I grabbed a large. BAD IDEA. Yes it was easier to get into, but the looser fit also made it easier for the water to get into…and the water is very cold. When I got into the cage there were three other people in with me. After a while we stopped seeing sharks and one by one the people started getting out. Eventually I was the only person left. And then the sharks came back. It was so amazing to be inside the cage by myself because I could really move around. If the shark was on the left side then I could be on the left side; or if the shark was completely under the boat then I could twist myself around and watch him. (Not sure if I went over this before but the cage is tied to the side of the boat and about a foot is left out of the water. When Mandela or one of the crew calls out, you take a big breath, pull yourself under and then hook your feet under a bar at the bottom to keep you down) It was freezing but awesome. I did imagine (just for a second) what would happen if the ropes holding the cage to the boat would snap.

We came back cleaned the boat and then took out the second set of tourists. This trip I decided to try chumming. To chum, you wait until the boat is about to anchor and then you take a big trash can which is tied to the very back of the boat onto a wooden platform that is basically level with the ocean. Into the bucket goes whole rotting fish, a splash of anchovy oil and a couple bucketfuls of ocean water. Then you take the chumming shovel and chop up all the chum into nasty fish chunks. Finally you take big scoopfuls of this mess and toss buckets of it overboard. This is called a chum line and it spreads out in the ocean that way if a white shark swims through it, it can follow the chum slick all the way back to the boat and then hopefully go for Mandla’s bait line, which has the giant tuna heads on it. The back deck, which once again is right next to the water, tends to get a bit slippery with all the anchovy oil and fish bits that fall on it. On that morning the boat was rocking pretty good so Alex and I were sliding all around the deck. At one point I was trying to reach into the bottom of the chum bucket to scoop out some chum when one of my feet shot out from under me and I almost fell right into the water.

That day we saw some really good sharks, one was the largest we had ever seen at 3.5 meters. She was also starting to get fat around and that was the coolest part. I mean, this shark was absolutely massive! Dave was in the cage while she was there and got a few pictures though I don’t know if they came out. After she had left, me, Tina, Mikey, and Jo got in the cage. We saw a few more sharks including a few that came straight at the cage (I took some pics with my underwater camera so we’ll have to see if they turn out.) There were a few instances where I wasn’t thinking and in pursuit of a better picture stuck my hands and camera outside the cage while a shark was around, but then I remembered where I was and what was swimming around me and quickly pulled them back in. I stayed in for at least a good 45 minutes (a feat considering the water temperature) before we pulled up anchor and headed back home.

After clean up we all showered and headed to a local watering hole; Ernie’s. Its this tiny little bar with pictures from all the crazy parties they’ve had tacked up on the walls. The bartender is apparently officially insane and quite interesting to talk to. We all headed out to this great deck overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. We were able to watch the sun set over the water and chat for a while. IT was real relaxing after the past few days. Ernie’s is actually closing next week because the new owner wants to build condos or something and the locals (including our boats two skippers; Gerald and Grant) are quite peeved. We had a few and honestly I was a little tipsy when we headed home. The taxi driver had charged us 30 rand per person (somewhere around $5) each for the trip there and then surprisingly told us that it covered the ride home too. So we didn’t even have to pay for the taxi ride back. When we got home Dave and I realized that no one had typed in data, so we quickly typed that up (even though we were both a little drunk and therefore found the whole process wayyyy more amusing than it actually is). Finally, I headed off to bed, once again, at the late hour of 10:30.

Thursday, March 3rd 2011

Next morning, I kept waking up before my alarm, at like 4:00, 4:15 etc, and finally gave up and got up around 5:20. I threw on my clothes, grabbed some toast and then waited for everyone else to get up and for Julia to get there. We opened the garage to try and get ready for the day and ended up accidentally setting off the alarm. (Julia had to explain to the security guy that showed up that we were all new volunteers.) We loaded up everything on the buckey and this time I was working the morning shift so we headed off to help the clients put on their life jackets and then board the boat. Grant wasn’t there, so me and Jillian were handling the data collection on our own. I love, love, love data collection because I get to look at all the sharks and really get to know their personalities, but on the other hand I’m too busy recording data to take pictures. I have seen so many amazing things like sharks charging straight up at the bait and putting their whole bodies on the surface of the water and smashing themselves at the cage and sometimes even chewing on it. I just never get pictures of it because I’m frantically recording their vertical ascent or bait taking or kelp smashing. (OK so it is only the third day; I’ll get pictures of that later, I guess)

I actually remembered to eat lunch today. We eat lunch on the boat and sometimes I’m so busy that I forget to grab a sandwich. (the sandwiches on the boat tend to be things like white bread with shredded cheese on it or wheat bread and chopped up egg or if we're lucky bread with shredded cheese and a slice of ham) Even if we forget to eat lunch, we all eat lollipops while on the boat. They supposedly help with seasickness but we all like them because they are filled with some kind of crumbly sugar stuff.

In the afternoon we walked to the two little shark shops up and down the road. I only ended up buying an underwater camera. Then me and David walked out to the shore and explored around the rocks; we saw some hermit crabs, a few sea snails, and a dead fish.

We then came back to unload the boat and eat dinner. Emma cooked again, she made homemade broccoli cheddar soup, which was absolutely amazing. We all pitched in to help and while we chopped and cooked we had my ipod on a dance mix. I’m sure our dancing/cooking was very amusing. We then went for a walk as a whole group (minus David) down to the tidepools to climb on the rocks and look at the hermit crabs and poke the sea anemones.

Wednesday, March 2nd 2011

The next morning we woke up at 5:30 (I will be taking night showers while here because there is no point to get up early to shower when I will be playing with dead fish and ocean water all day). At six Moos and some other crew came up from the lodge so we could load up the buckey (an antiquated rusty truck) with the wetsuits, booties, chum (dead fish) and all other things needed for taking out the clients (tourists) that day.

They split us up into two shifts, the morning and the afternoon shift. I was on the afternoon shift (so was Alex and Josephine and one of the new guys, David) so I sat in the house and worked on my resumes until Julia called at around 10:30 to have us meet the boat at the harbor. We then helped unload the wetsuits, and the booties, and generally clean the boat, before heading back up to the volunteer house to rinse off and hang up the wetsuits. Then it was my turn to work on the boat.

I volunteered for data collection. So we loaded up the clients and all the equipment and set out. The water was realllllly calm and the boat ride out was quite pleasant. We got out there and I helped Josephine hand out wetsuits and booties to clients while Alex chopped up chum in a large bucket (think trash can sized). In the bucket goes mushed fish, anchovy oil, and tuna, yumm…) When that stuff gets on you there’s no getting it off. (I touched the fish head bucket while loading up the buckey in the morning and the smell was still on my hands after lunch and multiple washings.) Before we could even get the cage in the water there was a large shark swimming around the boat. There were other boats chumming in the area and the shark wanted to see what we were up to.

Then Grant (one of the skippers) showed me about the data collection. We took the water temperature, and current, the wind speed, air temperature, the water depth and visibility among other things. Then we began to record the sharks that came around the boat. We’d have to pick a distinctive characteristic about the shark that way we’d know if the same one came back multiple times (which they tend to do). We mark on the data sheet if they go for the bait, or get the bait, which direction they come in on, whether it was a horizontal or vertical approach.

We also draw in where the shark has parasites like copepods, or bite wounds, scars or memorable skin pigment. Some of the sharks in this area are tagged as well, and we write down if we see the bright orange tags in the shark. Also important is whether the shark is a male or a female and how big it is. (Most of the sharks we see here are adolescents so they tend to be between 2 and 3 meters long or 6 and 10 feet long.) We ended up seeing 11 different sharks with a few memorable ones. One shark had an old bite mark on his cheek. He hung around the boat for almost two hours and actually stole the bait three times. Another shark, a female, had rope burns around her tail; she was quite feisty and ended up chomping on the cage right in front of some guy (he ended up touching her because her nose was through the bars and all us volunteers were REALLY jealous!) The last shark of the day was also the biggest, being around 3 meters long, he went for the bait a couple of times before swimming past where Alex was chumming, eyeballing her and then biting the boat near the motor, then swinging around and biting the anchor rope. After that is was time to go so we pulled up the cage and then I tried to help with the anchor but ended up missing the line with the boathook (whoops). We were able to grab it a few minutes later so no harm done.

We went back home, where we all cleaned the wetsuits (dunking them in this big bucket full of water and neoprene cleaner) and then had dinner. Emma made roast vegetables and chicken which was delicious. We all hung around the kitchen and chatted for a while. Whoops forgot to introduce Mikey. He got here early in the morning and went out on the first trip. He’s from London and after a month here, is going to go and work in Australia for a couple months. Anyway most people made an early night of it by heading to bed around 8pm. Though Mikey and I were up till the late hour of 10:15 on our computers. Haha it seems so early but we do get up at 5:30 in the morning…

Tuesday, March 1st 2011

The hostel has a really nice open restaurant area where I had breakfast, there are even amazing views of table mountain. (Although during breakfast I read an article about the Table Mountain mugger whose still on the loose… lovely)

I met up with Emma, checked out of the hostel and waited out front for the White Shark Project van to pick us up. Emma, who’s from St. Louis Missouri, had just come from working a month with Baboons in Palla Borra, Africa. The bus got there around 9am and we hopped in. The driver Moos, an older South African man is pretty taciturn (I’ll have to sneak a picture of him later). In the van Emma and I met Josephine, from Norway, who just came from working with lions somewhere else in Africa and who will be working with African orphans after the shark program. Also in the van was Tina who comes from Sweden. A few minutes later we were joined by Alex(andra) originally from Switzerland but she’s been volunteering in Africa with animals like monkeys, kudus, springboks, ect. for the past year. And Jillian who’s from Hawaii, (I think she came right from Hawaii but I don’t remember..)
The car ride from Cape Town to Gansbaai (pronounced (guttural H) Hans-bye) took about 2 hours and the views were amazing. Right outside of Cape Town we passed the slum area where houses were literally constructed out of any materials lying around. (Though most of them had electricity thanks to a government program) Later we passed soo many gorgeous mountains and bays. (I’ll get pictures on the drive back) We drove through Gansbaai and went to Kleinbaai (pronounced Kline-bye) where the program is actually based. The whole town is made up on one major street. The harbor with the shark boats are at one end and about four or five houses up is the volunteer house that I’m staying in. (Once again I’ll get pictures tomorrow)

There are about six or seven other cage shark diving programs here, but we’re obviously the coolest. So the van pulls up to the lodge, which is where the clients go before and after their shark diving trips, we are greeted by Julia who’s the videographer and also in charge of us volunteers. And the first thing out of her mouth is. “Ok get your swim suits on and lets got on the boat” So we grab our luggage out the back of the van and run inside to put on our suits and get on the boat. They put the boat in the water and……nothing happens. A cable had snapped (it had something to do with the motor) and so we couldn’t go anywhere right then. Julia took us up to the volunteer house (which is great btw) and did our orientation (blahblah etc) About an hour later they had fixed the boat and we got back on and motored out into the Atlantic Ocean. The water was, in my opinion, pretty choppy and we were bouncing over the swells quite violently.
There was one other volunteer there though he was leaving the next day, Evan, from New Zealand. He was nice and, since he had already been there two weeks, knew what he was doing with the boat.

So once the boat had gone out to Geldsteen (pronounced guttural Hel-steen) reef, which is right near Dyer Island and Geyser Rock (the infamous shark alley) we all out on our wetsuits, a new and constricting experience for me. These suits are 7 mm think and very tight. They have to be though because the water is only 10 degrees
Celsius which translates to upper 40 degrees Fahrenheit (think really cold).

I got to be the first person to climb inside the cage followed by four of the girls. (The cage can hold five people) The cage itself is tied tight to the side of the boat, this means that part of it is always above the water, so we don’t use scuba gear. The bubbles scare the sharks and we use the more simple method of holding your breath and pulling yourself under.

The visibility was really low so you could only see shadows until the sharks were five feet or closer. The crew chum the waters with fish bits and oils to draw the sharks in and then throw fish heads into the water on a rope to persuade the sharks to come even closer. The goal is to yank the fish head away before the shark gets it, but that doesn’t always happen. I saw at least eight sharks while in the cage; and was so interested and amazed by the sharks that I stayed in the water for a long while and was the last person out.

It was really amazing to see these animals up close. Honestly, it wasn’t scary at all, more peaceful under the water. My favorite experience was when a shark went for the bait line, then swam right by the cage and turned and circle to underneath the boat. I was able to follow him as he went around and it was just so cool to see that. (I definitely can’t even describe how crazy amazing and fabulous it was!)

I got out and we pulled up the cage and set back out for the harbor. (A few of the girls has issues with sea sickness but this hasn’t happened to me yet, knock on wood.) Then we went grocery shopping and came back to our volunteer house (from now on referred to as home) where we ordered pizza and drank beer/wine together. We were all crazy tired so we made it an early night with the last of us (me) going to bed around 10:30.

Arrival Continued

So I actually made it to my hostel in one piece and the night reception dude checks me in. He took me to my room, The Lion Room, and was trying to explaining to me the rules and policies of the hostel (I couldn’t really understand him on account of his accent and the fact that I was so jet-lagged that I was practically a walking zombie). I was asking him about the internet and whether or not I could get on it that night (he didn’t really understand what I was saying either, but then again lack of sleep may have made my speech a little slurred. I kept repeating, “No, but I need to get on the internet tonight because I am being picked up for a program early in he morning and I have no clue what time or where to meet them!” Finally one of the other people in the room spoke up asking if I was doing the Shark Program. Surprisingly she was doing the same program and knew all the details about pick up the next morning and was even nice enough to let me use her blackberry to check my email. (Thanks again Emma!)

I settled down to sleep, unfortunately the room was practically a bog. It was soooo hot and muggy with no breeze, but somehow I eventually fell asleep. But then I woke up at 2:30am, and 3:30am, and 4:00am and 5:00am and finally 6:30 when I decided enough is enough and got up. (By that time the sun was shining crazy bright through the window so going back to sleep was hopeless)

South Africa- Arrival

Hey friends,

SO I set out for South Africa on the 27th of February. Mom drove me the two hours to Dullus Airport and I surprisingly made it through customs without incident. Then I sat around for five hours waiting for my plane to arrive. The plane finally arrived and I was DID get a window seat, thank god. The first part of the flight was seven hours long. I amused myself with inflight movies and trying to sleep (that part did not go so well).

Then the plane stopped in Dakar, Senegal. Landing there was unreal. It was six in the morning so the sun hadn't come up yet so it was pitch black until we got right above Dakar. The only lights to be seen were the lights from the streets and houses, which emitted a strange pinkish glow around the ground, and the moon which was a perfect skinny crescent and brilliant white. I tried to get a picture of it but my camera couldn't capture it (so you'll just have to take my word for it..) We were on the ground for about an hour, while they unloaded and reloaded the plane. There was a slight scare when we realized that the people who were coming on the plane, all had tickets for seats that were already occupied, but that got worked out pretty quickly. The plane set out again and we settled in for the second leg of the flight which took eight hours.

I watched another movie and then very uncomfortably fell asleep. That part of the flight was mostly uneventful.....About South African Airlines, the service sucks but they do feed you well.

Plane landed in Johannesburg and made it through customs uneventfully. I went to pick up my luggage and was slightly nervous because I had read things online about luggage coming back opened or broken and with items missing. I wanted to plastic wrap my luggage before I dropped it off in Dullus but I couldn't find anywhere to do it, so I went without. Anyway, the guy standing next to me in front of the luggage thing grabbed his bag which obviously had been opened and rifled through. He said everything was there, but then I was really nervous for my bag. I spotted it and thank goodness everything was there and the lock was still in place. I popped out of the luggage area and tried to find my connecting flight, but was completely lost. A porter came, grabbed my bag, told me to follow him and set off at a sprint across the airport. He got me to where I needed and only asked for a small tip...

Quickly hopped on my next flight; a two hour plane ride to Cape Town. That flight was uneventful. Got there grabbed my luggage and headed for the exit. I emailed the hostel I was staying at asking if they could send a ride to come and get me, cause they offer that service for a fee, but I did it reallllly late. I walked out didn't see my name on any ride boards that drivers were holding and had a mini panic. So I approached a South African man holding up an "Official Airport Taxi Service" sign and asked if he knew where The Backpack hostel was and if he could get me there (I had no clue where it was because I had left my Cape TOwn book at home by accident and it had the address in it). He, of course, said he knew exactly where it was, grabbed my bag and took off. So naturally I followed. He took me out the airport and across a brightly lit open area, which I was fine with....and then darted behind the bus station into this slightly darker area where a group of taxi drivers were. I was slightlllly nervous but figured he already had my luggage and that the best course of action was to act completely comfortable and not nervous at all.

I hopped in the taxi and was a little more nervous when the driver had no clue where it was and had to ask another driver for directions. I asked him if he was sure he knew where it was and said I would rather like it if we didn't travel around in circles looking for it. He assured me he did and that we'd be fine. Whether or not he drove me in circle I have no clue, but the route we did was very scenic and beautiful so even if I ended up paying more for it, I consider it worth it. Table Mountain is apparently lit up during the night and it was crazy beautiful....

We made to the hostel and it only ended up costing me about 50 rand (roughly seven dollars) more than what the hostel shuttle would have cost.....And that's where I'll stop my narrative for now...