Day 544 - Aussie Relations

This afternoon Jaco & I took a little drive outside of Hermanus. A few towns down the road is Gansbaai or Goose Bay. It is here you'll come if you ever have the desire to climb into a cage & hang out in icy cold waters & see a Great White Shark up close & personal. For those of you saying, 'Why on Earth would anyone ever want to that?' I understand. For those of you saying, 'Sweet! Hook me up!' I also understand. I was part of the latter group, until, while travelling in South Africa for the first time, I saw an article in the newspaper about a man from the UK who was shark cage diving when the cage he was in detached from the boat. As you don't actually dive, but only snorkel on these tours, he had no oxygen supply. He had a life or death *or death* decision to make. Do I sink to the bottom of the ocean & be crushed & die of oxygen depravation? Or do I swim for it & risk being torn to shreds & eaten alive by the ocean's scariest creature? 


He used up one of his nine lives & survived the incident, miraculously! They also feed the sharks when they do the dives. They tie some 'food' onto a rope & toss it into the water. When the shark comes along, they give it a little tug towards the boat to draw the shark in closer & closer. The video I watched showed the shark lazily making an attempt to grab the snack put in front of him. Not the roaring psychotic Jaws scene I was expecting. In any case, I don't really know how wise it is to make a carnivorous shark associate people with food. (That said, I did dive with sharks in St. Maarten, although they don't have a reputation for eating people!) Needless to say I kept the $400 or so in my pocket & didn't do the dive. If you want to, Gansbaai is where you can come to do it. 


So we drove through Gansbaai & up to Franskraal. I was in Franskraal in 2005, also the first time I was in SA. It's a sleep little town with no street lights & only a shop or two. It is a lot bigger than what I remembered, so I'm not sure if it's grown a lot or I just didn't realize it was that big when I was here before. In any case, we drove around, looking at all the lovely holiday homes. We stopped by the beach, watched the fishermen tending to their poles & catches. I snapped a few pics of the water & waves & then it was starting to get dark, so we headed for home.


When we came into the yard, we could hear a few more voices. Jaco's Aunt & Uncle & cousin were visiting. It is his Dad's Sister & Brother-in-Law, who live up the west coast, close to where Jaco's Sister & Brother-in-Law used to live. His cousin currently lives in Australia. We had a lovely dinner & entertaining conversation until 2300 or so when we all started yawning - triggering the other to yawn & then the other... So we said farewell for the night & see you in the morning...


Lekker slaap,
xxxxMaria

 Waves, wind & water

 Peaceful place

Sleepy little town