Hermanus & Oudtshoorn

Came to Hermanus to do shark cage diving. The hostel offered free accommodation with the tour, so I thought why not? But before I'll tell you about sharks, let me tell you about the weird couples that I met recently. So these couples, unless they tell you that they are, you'd have no clue! There is no physical contact, no compliments, flirting going on ... absolutely nothing. So I might act differently, like get to close or say not very appropriate things in front of the girlfriend, only to find out 3 hours later that they actually are together! And it's strange because when I see a guy and a girl, I don't automatically assume that they're a couple, unlike most other people. For instance, when I took a bus to Buenos Aires, there was another male backpacker in the bus station and me, so when I got in the bus, the fair was double. I thought that it was strange, paid it, but said that I thought it was lower. And the bus driver replied, oh that's for 2 people! So the other backpacker had to give me money back. And we haven't even talked! Or ... when I'd get to a hostel with some guy that I met on the way to the hostel, we'd get there, ask if there is space, and they would reply no. Why no? It's a low season. At the end it turned out that they don't have any more double room! Who said that we want a double room? I only know him for the last 5 minutes, give us a dorm! Sooo ... long story short, while travelling, do not assume that a guy and a girl are a couple!
During the briefing, the instructor said a phrase that I still remember "Cold and fear are temporary, regret is forever!", that got us all going! :) I knew that it was a low season and we weren't expected to see many sharks, we even got an 85% chance of seeing them, well that would've sucked! The boats attract the sharks by throwing fish parts and blood into the water, and since sharks can sense blood from kilometers away, we throw and wait. They also use fish heads as bait to attract the shark closer to the cage. The industry cannot feed the sharks because otherwise they would associate food with humans, some think that they already do. Also, because it's not allowed to kill big fish for the sharks, it will not attract large sharks, only small ones (large sharks are drawn to large fish, small sharks to small fish). So our great white was only 3.5 meters long. After a while our shark appeared. There was too much excitement going around the boat, and the cage was put into the water. First people started jumping in, and just as fast as they were put into the cage, they were taken out of the cage. The shark was gone only 5 minutes later. We were waiting and waiting, and an hour later, another shark showed up. There were enough masks only for 5 people which were in the cage, I was waiting for the first person to get out, and he was just casually standing on the boat, I almost yelled, "Get your mask off!!!". I put it on, sat on the edge so they would put me in. The instructor, again very slowly, let me see how your mask fits, while there was a shark making another loop. I thought to myself "Screw the mask, just get me into the water". When I jumped in, the temperature almost got me paralyzed. It was only 12 degrees. Now I know what 12 degrees feel like! I saw the shark making 3 loops around the boat, and it was gone again. I wouldn't say that it was very scary, because it was relatively small, but although it was only 1 meter away from me, I felt the security of the cage, so no adrenaline pumping for me :) After me, there was only 1 more person who saw the shark, so about half of the people on the boat didn't even get into the cage. We then waited for another hour until maybe the shark will show up again, but it didn't. I'd say that it felt like being outside in regular jeans in about -20C, I couldn't feel my feet or my fingers. Although we've seen it only 3 times, it turns out that some boats didn't see them at all, so we were "lucky".
It wasn't a "must do" experience for me, I think I was much more shocked in Galapagos, where you swim and there is no cage and 10 sharks circling you. Although they are much smaller and presumably harmless, the brain refuses to process that information, and all you think "OH SHIT ... SHAAAAAARKKKK !!!!! ".
On the baz bus I met a guy who did it in another place, which was much much better than ours. First of all, the water was 10 degrees warmer! Also, they had 4 sharks, and 2 of them didn't leave the cage for a whole hour. Above that, half of the people on the boat got sea sick, so he was in the cage for the whole duration of the trip! Now that must have been a completely different experience!

After Hermanus, I went to Oudtshoorn. The problem in South Africa is getting places. There is no way to get anywhere you want, so you always have to arrange the hostel to drive you which often costs a fortune. There are so many activities that I want to do that I don't. For example there was a monkey and bird land which cost $30, but the transportation there costs $50!
I thought to stay in that town for 2 days, but that's until I got out of the hostel only to find out that absolutely everything (expect few restaurants) closes at 5! What kind of place is that??? Went in the search of internet, couldn't find anything, but saw some store which was half open that said computers something on it, I went there to check just in case. Turns out that they fix computers, but the owner still let me in, and allowed me to use their office computer :) That was very nice of him :)) After that I went to a restaurant to eat an ostrich. They had some special, but the price was cheap, I asked why, and they said that it's a starter portion. I didn't want to spend any more money, and just ordered that. Let me tell you, this is no starter portion at all! I barely finished it! Although I couldn't really tell any difference between beef and an ostrich, nevertheless it was very very good, just as I'd expect from a South African restaurant!
In the morning we had an ostrich egg for breakfast, it tasks like a chicken egg, but a little bit lighter.
In the morning we went for a tour of the Cango caves which hold the largest formations of stalactites and stalagmites in the world. I didn't really want to go at first because I've seen way too many of these kinds of caves, but it was cheap and we could climb through them. So how can I say no to that??! :) I was very very impressed by these caves. It has 2 huge spaces of with so many formations all around. They even had concerts in there which could fit up to 1500 people. But they don't run them anymore because the amount of carbon dioxide affected the growth of the formations. We did an adventure tour which included climbing and going through very narrow spaces. One of them was a tunnel of love because it squeezes you from all the sides :) And another one was the devils chimney which was the best one of all. It can fit only the size of an average person, and it goes up for about 4 meters with a 75 degree inclination. I felt just a tiny bit claustrophobic because there was almost no light, not much to grab or even a space to grab or maneuver yourself. So that was cool :)
Afterwards went to an ostrich farm. The tour was short but very interesting. The farm produces eggs, meat, feathers and leather products from ostriches. Currently the feather demand is very low, so they only ship the feathers to Paris or Las Vegas, and the major export are the leather products.
The eggs are held in the incubator, and then the chicks are given to the male ostrich as his own babies. And he wouldn't even know the difference because ostriches are stupid :) We've seen a dwarf ostrich which is the smallest one in the world. Then we stood on the eggs which can support a weight up to 120 kgs because that's how heavy the parent is. We were given a bucket of food, and stood with back to them, and the ostriches gave us a shoulder massage :) And we got to ride one !!! It takes a while to catch one, but after it's caught they put a sac over its head and then you could do anything you want with it because according to ostrich’s theory, if he can't see you, you can't see him (remember, stupid!). Then I got on it, sat comfortably, crossed my legs below him, and held the base of the wings, then the hat was taken off, and the hell it went running. I started falling off of it when it was turning, but fell off gracefully. It was a very short but hectic ride J Overall 3 bruises, and a small scratch on the hand from when he was maniacally trying to escape the enclosure, but I think it's a good sacrifice for an ostrich ride :)

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