It is only a short distance from Stellenbosch to Hermanus, however it took most of the day to travel there. First was the shuttle to the Baz Bus stop, then there was the short ride on the bus and then another shuttle (by taxi) to Hermanus.
Hostel
The Hermanus Backpackers turned out to be a good place. The manager told me that he his wife had owned the place for seventeen years. It showed, they know what they are going.
The hostel has a resident Staffordshire Terrier called Jock. He is real character and checks out all the guests. They also have two cats. One is huge. Check out the Flickr link. The owner told me that they had asked that vet why it was so fat. The vet told them with a laugh that “it certainly wasn’t from the food it got from hunting”. Its size is a mystery.
Old People
Hermanus is a holiday and retirement town. Its peak season is in December and January, when people come from all over the RSA to stay.
I had, of course, missed that peak season. This has left the retirees. I felt really young in the town.
Despite the fact that there were not mainly tourists around, all the restaurants appeared to be open. I had some really good meals.
On the afternoon of the first day, I went for a walk along the path that runs about 9 kilometres along the coast. The coast line is very spectacular,
German girls attacked
There was a bit of drama in the evening. Three German girls were attacked by two blokes near the hostel. They were roughed up a bit and their bags were taken. The police were called. They said that they suspected the attackers were from Cape Town.
The girls took the police to the scene of the attack. The police found the girls’ bags. The only thing that had been taken was cash. Their passports and credit cards were still in the bags. It will be interesting to see what happens to the incidence of this type of robbery when we finally move to cashless economy.
I had booked a shark dive for the next day. Unfortunately, it was cancelled because of the forecast sea conditions. I decided to book a ‘fat tyre’ bike ride.
In the morning I found out that the bike ride was also cancelled because of the high winds.
I took the opportunity to catch up on some reading, including Niki Savva’s book on the downfall of Tony Abbott. It is well worth a read.
Finally Get to Dive
In the evening I was told that the shark dive would be on the next day. It was to be an early start and I was to be ready by 7.00 a.m. There was one other person from the hostel going on the dive.
I duly got early and waited in the reception area for the dive bus to arrive. The other person turned out to be a Canadian girl who was studying at the University of Cape Town for a semester. We got to chat for a long time as the bus not arrive until after 8 a.m. The Canadian girls was not surprised at all. She was very down on South Africa, based on her experience at the university. It “was so disorganised and was a waste of time”. She had decided that it wasn’t worth finishing her semester and decided to travel instead.
As it turned out, the bus had come from Cape Town and it had been held up in the morning traffic. This was not the fault of the driver/guide.
We drove from Hermaus to Gansbaai where the Great White Shark dive boats are based. While we were having breakfast, the guide gave up a briefing on what to expect.
He told us that the water would be very cold, only 9 degrees centigrade. That is very cold. He also said that we will be standing in a wire cage that will be slung over the side of the boat. There will be five people in that cage at any one time. The sharks will be attracted to the boat with a mixture of blood and pieces of fish. If a shark arrives, one of the crew will throw a tuna head in the water. The idea of this is to give the shark sometime to aim at. The plan is to attract the shark close to the cage. He said that the shark thinks that the cage is solid piece of steel and will not deliberately crash into it. It can, however, miss judge its lunge at the tuna head and may bump into the cage.
It was finally time to go into the boat.
It took about 30 minutes to get to the spot where we were to ‘dive’. There were four other boats is the area and it took another 20 or so minutes before the guide decided that he had found a suitable spot. The anchor was dropped and one of the crew immediately started to spread the blood and fish bits into the water.
The people that were going to do the dive were handed wet suits. They were really thick and tricky to put on.
Within 5 minutes a shark arrived. The cage was dropped into the water. The first people to get their wet suits on were told to jump into the water. They all screamed as a result of the cold.
The shark did its things, following the tuna head up to the cage.
After about 10 minutes, the guide told the people in the cage to get out.
It was my turn to get in to the cage. The initial shock of the cold water was exactly that – it was a shock. It took at least two minutes before the wet suit did what it supposed to do and you start to warm up.
Because you are wearing a wet suit without a diving weight, you are very buoyant. The idea is to hold on the bar inside the cage and push yourself down. Even though the shark is moving slowly it is only in front of the cage for 5 or seconds. The crew man who is throwing the tuna head calls ‘down, down’, when the shark is approaching.
There was quite a wait before the crew man called ‘down, down’, after I got into the cage. We were to later learn that the shark that I got to see from the cage was different to the first one.
Reasonable GoPro Shots
I had my GoPro video camera in the cage. As it turned out I managed to get a couple of reasonable shots of the shark. It actually came closer than the video would suggest. The wide angle setting of the camera’s lense makes it took further away.
The ‘stand and dip’ or dive if you like, was good. I am glad that I did it. It is much better than seeing sharks in a tank in an aquarium.
The shark passed about 10 time better we were ordered out and another group of 5 hopped into the cage.
The shark stayed around for them, soon moved away.
Canadian Girl Doesn’t See Much
Another group got into the cage, including the Canadian girl. They had to wait for ages before another shark to arrive. When it did, it only made two passes.
The group stayed on in the cage for ages before the guide decided that no more sharks were likely to pass and it was time to head back to port. When she got out, the Canadian girl ruefully observed, that, “nothing seemed to be going right” for her in the RSA. “Even the sharks were conspiring against her.
A lot of Vomiting
About five of the passengers had suffered sea sickness as we wallowed about on the anchor. As we headed back into port the boat was tossed around. The number people with sea sickness increased. Those who were ill fought to find a place to heave over the side.
Information about the Sharks
Back in the port, we were given more to eat. The guide told us some things about the sharks and took questions.
A couple of the things he said were interesting. Apparently the scientists that are studying the Grea White Sharks ae not sure if their number are increasing or decreasing. Their guess is that they are no increasing and the is of concern that when they are caught by accident, e.g. tangled in nets, the size of the sharks is getting smaller and smaller.
He also said that it is close to 100% certain that any attacks on humans are accidental. When a shark does bite a human it certainly does want to eat them. Their favourite food is smaller sharks, e.g. young Great Whites or smaller species like Bull or Reef sharks. They will only eat small seals and fully gown seals will probably injure them.
Flickr Link
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