I’ll start
this blog post off by saying that the braai last night was a huge success!
Early yesterday evening, Lizzy, Beth, Cake and I all walked up to the shop to
load up on beer for the braai- we literally cleared the place out of Castle.
After filling up the fridge, we headed outside to hang out and ask if Tom
needed any help setting things up (Tom lives right next to us here). At about
seven, most of the volunteers up at the other house started heading down here
to our place, where we congregated in the backyard by the fire pit. Tom was
mainly taking charge of cooking and getting everything ready.
Earlier,
when we’d gone out on the boat, we told all the crew that we were having a
braai that night, and they should come join us. We were surprised that even
Mandla said he would- Mandla didn’t hang out with us a lot outside of working
on the boat. Jerome had told us in the garage that chances of him coming were
slim, but we held out hope that he’d come.
Fairly early
in the evening, a familiar face showed up. Lalo was a friend of ours that we
met last time we were in South Africa. He doesn’t work for White Shark
Projects, but is the photographer and videographer on another boat in the area,
so we got to know him. We all got our welcome back hugs from him, then
continued to hang out with him, Tom, and the other volunteers. We heard that
another friend of ours from last time was also invited. Jan had worked for
White Shark Projects when we were here last, but he left a few months ago to
work with a different company in the area. We hadn’t heard for sure that he was
coming, but sure enough, he showed up just as it was getting dark. It was so
nice to be able to see and catch up with old friends again! Then the crew
started to arrive. Bee, Mandla and Sibo (a crew member that wasn’t here last
time) all showed up, followed shortly by Jerome. He seemed really impressed
that we’d got Mandla to come hang out with us- Shark Squad 2015 is just that
awesome! After a delicious braai consisting of several different meats, corn,
potatoes, and salad, we all talked, laughed, listened to music, and eventually
played a few rounds of flunkeyball (our favorite drinking game that we learned
from German Alina last time we were here). Everyone seemed to have a really
good time. We heard from Tom that today would be a no sea day, so we didn’t
need to get up early- we could meet up at the volunteer house around 10:30 to
decide what to do. The other volunteers, crew, and other guests eventually left
at about 11:30, and after cleaning up a little, we were in bed by a little
after midnight.
Lizzy, Beth,
Cake and I got up a little after nine, and met in the kitchen for breakfast
over some hot tea. Jerome came by as we were eating breakfast, and greeted us
with, “you guys look too good for people who had such a great party last
night!” I swear, it’s impossible not to like Jerome. While we were finishing
breakfast Dax, one of the other volunteers, stopped in and said that we were
soon leaving to go snorkeling in De Kelders, an area about half an hour away,
so if we wanted to come we should head up to the other house soon to grab a
wetsuit, mask, and flippers. Beth said she had a job application that she
needed to finish, so she was going to stay here, but the rest of us headed up
to the other house to pack up a wetsuit. I said that I might be crazy like I
was last time and just go in the water in my swimsuit, sun shirt, and leggings-
the wetsuits are just so uncomfortable! When we arrived there, Grant told us
that the water was about 16 degrees (Celsius of course, which is 60 degrees
Fahrenheit). Since last time I’d gotten in the water when it was only 14
degrees, I figured I could handle it again.
With Tom in
the lead, the volunteers climbed down the steps along the side of the cliff,
then carefully made our way along the rocky path that led to the water. Tom
instructed us to not go beyond the kelp, and then we were off. I was the only
one of the group not wearing a wetsuit, but the water really didn’t feel as
cold as last time, so I was fine. We spent about an hour swimming around the
kelp, seeing all kinds of fish, coral, shysharks, urchins, and more. It was
really nice to see my first wild sharks this trip, and reminded me of last
time, when we went snorkeling in Hermanus and I caught the brown shyshark with
my bare hands.
At about
12:30, we all got out of the water and headed back up to the van, where Grant
was waiting. After a half hour ride back to the house, we unloaded everything
from the van and I immediately ran over to our house and took a very nice, hot
shower, mainly just to help warm me up after swimming in the cold water. Later,
as we were eating lunch here at the house, Tom dropped by and said that soon
he’d be putting on a documentary in the other house, if we wanted to come by and
watch. The documentary, called Great White Lies, was made by a guy named Skyler
Thomas, whom I’ve been following via his Youtube videos for a few years. I knew
that some of the footage used in Great White Lies was taken by Maarten, who
used to work here at White Shark Projects (I talked quite a bit about him in my
posts from when I was here in 2015), so I’d been wanting to see this
documentary for quite a while, and was happy to finally get the chance to do
so. The documentary was mainly focused on the shark culling going on in western
Australia, and was very informative, although a little sad at times.
After the
documentary, we came back here to the house. Right now we’re just relaxing-
soon Lizzy is going to start making dinner. After dinner the plan is to go to a
bar in town with Tom, Lalo, and Grant- I’m not sure yet if I’ll go or not. It’s
actually been raining this afternoon, so tomorrow will be another no sea day.
We heard that the plan is to go down to Cape Agulhas, the southernmost tip of
Africa, and the place where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Indian Ocean. I went
there last time I was here, and it was really cool, so it’ll be nice to go
back. This post’s food for thought: “The sea, once it casts its spell, holds
one in its net of wonder forever.” Jacques Yves Cousteau
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