The
past couple of days here at White Shark Projects have mainly consisted of
getting to know the other volunteers. Two evenings ago, after the braai, some
of the volunteers wanted to go out to a pub in town to watch the Wales vs.
South Africa rugby game. Our favorite person in the world, Jerome, gave us a
ride into Gansbaai and we hung out at a pub we’d been to plenty of times
before. For some weird reason the game was in DC, so it didn’t come on until 11
pm South Africa time. Since Lizzy and Beth are Welch, they also really wanted
to see the game, and we ended up staying at the pub until about 1:30 am to
watch Wales narrowly beat South Africa before heading home.
The next
morning the group of twelve volunteers piled into the WSP van and headed south
to Cape Agulhas, the southernmost tip of Africa. Benz was driving us, and we
hadn’t seen him yet, so we all took turns hugging him when we saw him. It took
about an hour and a half to get down to the Cape, and even though it was my
fourth time being there, I really loved the trip. Cape Agulhas is such an
interesting and unique place, considering that it’s not only the southernmost
spot on the whole continent, but it’s the spot where two oceans, the Atlantic
and the Indian, meet.
Yesterday
afternoon when we got back to Kleinbaai I wanted to go out for another beach
clean, and a few of the other volunteers tagged along. I was joined by two guys
named Mike and Alex who are both from the UK, a girl named Loryn from Michigan,
and a fellow Texan named Jessica. We were out for probably over an hour,
enjoying the beautiful coastline here, picking up junk, and chatting with each
other. Beach cleans are such a peaceful activity, and they all said that they
really enjoyed it and would probably be joining me regularly.
Today we
went out on the boat for the first time since getting here. We met up at the
garage at 9:30, which definitely felt like sleeping in! Thankfully there were
only three clients booked on this trip, so there was space for all of the
volunteers on the boat. Lizzy, Beth, Cake and I were the only vols who had been
out on the boat before, so for most of them they were basically being clients
for the day, getting used to everything that comes with being on the boat. This
was our first day back on the water after about a week off due to weather, and
we didn’t see any sharks, which didn’t really surprise me. We heard that one of
the other companies that works out of this harbor did see one shark, so
hopefully they’re on their way back.
This
afternoon after cleaning up the boat and putting everything away Jerome drove
the vols into town for our twice weekly grocery shopping, then I went out for
another little solo beach clean. I was only out for about half an hour, but I
went the other direction than I’d been the past two days, and there was a lot
of junk to pick up! Tomorrow morning there’s a 6:30 start in the garage to
prepare for an eight o’clock launch. There will be another trip after the first
one gets back. I don’t know yet how many spaces are available for volunteers,
but since there are two trips, hopefully I’ll get to go out at least once.
That’s about
all the news out of Gansbaai for today. Fingers crossed that we see some sharks
in the next day or two! This post’s food for thought: “A journey is best
measured in friends, rather than miles.”- Tim Cahill
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