South Africa 2015 - September, 17 - Cape Town - Wine, Cars, and Lunch

South Africa 2015 - September, 17 - Cape Town - Wine, Cars, and Lunch

Day 17 of this glorious trip of a lifetime found us both very wore out from day before.  Probably a culmination of all the days before, but we are blaming it on the sharks.  The plan for the day was to head to wine country, check out a car museum, and eat some lunch at some esteemed and well recognized restaurant.  Everything was planned in advance to be a full day trip, but since we were pretty much already spent and wanted to have a half day to ourselves, we opted for a shorter guided tour.

We were picked up at 1000 SAST by our driver and headed up the road to Paarl, where our first stop was Glen Carlou. This establishment was very well known around the South African nation, as well as all over the world, such as Argentina and the US.  We were to have five samples each at Glen Carlou, where Kathy opted for the more sweet chilled wines and I went for the ones that were the most expensive and rated the best, which were most of the darker red wines.  Since we are far from wine snobs, er I mean connoisseurs, we had the sommelier tell us about the wine and just shook our head like we liked it.  I didn't have any issues with any of the wines that I tasted as well as any of Kathy's too .  Kathy is far from a wine drinker and I think was just along for the ride.  Her thoughts were that the tour we had from Marc a couple of days earlier was much better.  I think for one, we started with craft beers, and two, we had someone on the trip with us that knew his stuff.

After leaving the winery, we headed for the Franschhoek Car Museum, which Anthonij Rupert put together out of his car collection.  The collection, as explained by a couple of the employees, was said to have around 220 cars in total, which only 80 were on display at any one time.  Each of the four buildings had 20 cars in it each, as well as peddle cars, bicycles, engines, and other car related items.  There were five full time mechanics that kept the cars in running condition so they could be started up and ran periodically and moved with ease.  My first impression - wow!  There were cars from Model T’s, Model A’s, Mercedes, Ferrari, IRL, Mustang, and even a Honda NSX (which we know as Acura makes now).  I took photos like a kid in a candy store, though the photos were just snapshots due to the close security and ropes guarding the collection.  Still, it was awesome!  Franshhhoek was also a winery and eatery, but we did not partake in any of that, but did look around.

After leaving the car museum, we headed for lunch, which was a nice vineyard, restaurant, and suites called La Petite Ferme,  Again, we had R250 to spend on lunch, which equated to around $37.50 US.  You might not think that is very much, but when a 10oz beef filet only costs R100, its a pretty good deal (do the math).  After spending around an hour, both having fillets, beers, some cheese, and soup, we paid our R700 ($52.50US) for a 4 course meal and drink, we headed back to Cape Town.  This trip took an exceptional long time to get back since N1 was backed up for quite a long ways due to a car vs motorcycle accident.  I didn't like the scene so decided not to post anything about it.  It wasn't good.


After getting home, we chilled out on the patio at our temporary home imbibing some beers (so we didn't have any left) and relaxed.  The plan was to go to Brian's Pub for the seventh straight night for a going away party that we created in order to have our friends all join us.  We took off and went to the ATM since we were out of Rand, picked up our laundry (so we wouldn't have any laundry to do when we got home and it was cheap), and headed to our favorite beer drinking spot to say “until next time” (instead of good byes) since we think we are going back!  Photos were taken, hugs and kisses were given (Kathy did the kissing, since they were mostly all guys) and we recapped our trip on what we did, what we wanted to do but didn’t, and when we might make the trip again.

After a few beers, we all knew the time was was near, Marc and I engaged in a conversation about gridiron again.  I was wearing my KC Chiefs shirt of course, since they played the Donkeys that night, and Marc said he wished he had a shirt like mine.  So, I went out and grabbed a fresh shirt from the laundry visit and took the Chiefs shirt off and handed it too him.  You would have thought that I gave him $100US…  You see, I was intentional about bringing Royals and Chiefs shirts over, so I could give them to new found friends as mementos of the US. However, Marc was the first to even seem interested in baseball or gridiron/football, which made me finally pleased that my thoughts were in line on the t-shirt deal.  We took some final cell phone photos of each other, some solo, some in a group, and parted ways.  Our big day was upon us - the dreaded last day of the trip, which was a day plus of travel back to the heartland.  Bittersweet day, but we expected none the less.

Tour route: https://goo.gl/maps/Q9fsv14gc682

South Africa 2015 - September, 16 - Cape Town Shark Diving

South Africa 2015 - September, 16 - Cape Town Shark Diving

Yeah, we did it!  One of the most anticipated things that Kathy wanted to do while in Cape Town was to go shark diving.  A little apprehensive at first, I went along with the plan not knowing if I really wanted to do it or not.  Not that I would feel unsafe, since I believe they companies were in business due to safety (i.e. if someone dies as a result of a defective cage, that business would be defunct pretty quick, me thinks).

The day started out at a very early 0330 SAST, when Kathy’s alarm woke us up in order to get ready for our 0400 arranged pickup time.  Yeah, 4 AM in the freakin morning to drive 2+ hours to introduce yourself to Jaws!  What in the hell were we thinking?  We were the first pickup of around 4 stops in Cape town.  Once everyone was picked up, we migrated to Supreme Sharks in Gansbaai South Africa.  Most of us slept on the bus while traversing the hillsides and roads to the way to our demise, er, I mean experience.


Once we arrived at Supreme Sharks, we were greeted by picking out our wetsuits and boots before we went upstairs to get breakfast and coffee/tea, etc.  I opted to go with an empty stomach, just in case.  A little later, we were briefed about what to expect, a safety overview, what to do vs not to do (like what happens if you #1 or #2 your wetsuit), and where to puke if we were to get sea sick (not where the cage goes, but back by the chum bucket - blech).

Once all the formalities were in order, including signing a waiver not holding their business accountable if we were to lose appendages, camera’s, clothing, or our life.  Standard business, I guess.  Either way, we both signed and gave them our hard earned money to risk our lives by great white sharks.  Not really (see statement about safety above).

We set out around 0830 SAST in to the Indian/Atlantic Ocean to go see these jaws-like creatures.  As we were touring out of the bay, swells of the ocean were taller than the boat, which made for a pretty squirrelly ride on our 20+ minute journey out to sea.  While traversing the waves, I noticed that we happened to pick the seats nearest the trash bucket, which I thought was a great idea at the time, since the chum was over on the other side of the 40ft vessel that carried 20 of us victims passengers and 5 crew members.  Turns out, that was the chum bucket, were fish parts were mixed with sea water to put out to entice the sharks to show their faces to us thrill seekers.  Some people think that chumming sharks is just plain not right.  The way I see it as someone that goes to a zoo to see caged animals are doing pretty much the same thing, so I didn't listen to them .

Anyway, back to the chum.  The best way I can describe chum is fish parts, like heads, filets, bones, skin, guts, eyeballs, eggs, and all the other things that make up a sea creature.  I guess sharks really like tuna too, so there is an aroma to thawed out tuna that didn't make the cut to go to market (which was likely days ago).  Once the chummer was done with the parts, he would mix in some full fish by breaking them up by hand (thats freakin gross, btw), and by foot by mashing them with his boot.  As I watched him do all of this, I was thinking how this position would be written for a job opportunity and who on the earth would interview for such a position.  Enough of that corporate thought, I was on vacation…


The chum was dealt out via a cut up 1-gallon container with the top missing.  The chummer would dip the container in the trash can with the guts and parts floating and toss it out next to the boat.  This was supposed to attract the sharks due to their keen sense of smell.  However, during the first say hour and a half, it only attracted sea gulls.  Hundreds and hundreds of starving and loud sea gulls.  The sea gulls would dive bomb the water and grab what parts they could for breakfast.  At times, there would be pretty significant portions that a sea gull would grab and then it was a fight to the finish.  Several would chase and pursue the flyer with the take and attack the chum until it was whittled down to bite sized pieces for all to share.  Fun times!

For the better part of the morning, we were just watching the sea gulls and each other.  At one point, the first puker made his way over to the official and allowable puke area, which happened to be right in front of Kathy and I, as well as the chum master and his trash bucket full of liquid and down right ickiness.  Well played, Rob. You chose the best spot to catch all the nasty action!

About 2 hours in to the festivities, there was finally a shark sighting.  Then, another…  That was the signal to lower the cage down in to the water.  The cage was just that. Probably 7ft tall, 3ft from front to back, and around 20ft long.  It fit 8 of us, shoulder to shoulder, quite nicely.  The first group were preparing to go in the water, while the master diver dude baited the shark with a big rope with 4 fish heads tied to it (and bolted together for some strange reason).  The second group, which included Kathy and yours truly, were in line ready for the first group to come aboard.  As the first group did just that, they handed their weight belts and goggles to us.  We had the choice to dip the goggles in to the fresh water bucket next to the line or not.  Kathy and I did, for sure, since we didn't know which one of the black suited divers puked in the water or not.

As we received our goods and headed for the water, which was around 55* f, we were hurried in due to the presence of the sharks.  If you don't know how cold that water is, pour yourself a cold water bath sometime and just get in.  It pretty much takes your breathe away, even with a wetsuit.  Kathy and I, with the GoPro in hand, were next to each other and good to go.  It wasn't long before we saw a couple of different sharks.  Then a couple of more.  What a site seeing a great white shark up close and personal.  It was one thing to snap some photos and video while on the boat, but going in the water was crazy awesome.  Out of the 20+ divers, only around 14 or so took the option to dive a second time.  Of course, the Smiths were in line for the second dive as well, which turned to be one of the better dives due to the biggest shark, which measured over 3.5 meters (approx 12 ft) approached the cage and bumped into it with his snout and his body (his-hers-whatever-I didn't check anatomy).  What a thrill!


Once we got back aboard, we changed back into our street clothing and headed back to the shop.  The guy that was sick near us was still getting sick, even though he had some water and a lollipop (I guess lollipops help with sea sickness, so they said).  We posed for a group photo and headed up the hill to the shop where we had lunch and made final purchases (Kathy got a cool shirt).  They took photos and video the entire time, so once back, they edited the assets on the fly and presented us the video, which was also for purchase, which we did, which almost everyone did, which was very nicely marketed, which was not to shabby on price ($15US).


After we got some lunch and such, we got in the van to head back to Cape Town, which was another trek of 2+ hours, but this time in the daylight.  The sites were pretty cool throughout the journey back home, especially near Gordons Bay.  We were dropped off at the condo around 3ish, and took it all in.  What a special opportunity to do something like that, especially since we are from a landlocked state in the US.

Of course, we had to do the three S’s and get ready to go to Brian's Pub and share our experiences to our new friends.  Once down at the pub, most everyone was there as expected.  They had to hear about the crazy US kids that were going shark diving, which everyone there said they wouldn't do, due to being nuts or being like going to a zoo (see above).  The beer went down exceptionally good on this happy hour time.  Though being very tired from being up as early as we were, we toughed it out long enough and then headed home to get some leftovers from our fridge.  What a great day, though very exhausting.

Map from Cape Town to Gansbaai

Video courtesy of Supreme Sharks, Ganspaai South Africa