There were some BIG stingrays at the aquarium!
We found him!
Spider crab!
The past few
days have involved more of getting out into Gansbaai- and beyond- and exploring
the area, along with some time out on the boat. On Monday of this week the
weather was looking like it wouldn’t let us so back out on the boat for a few
days, so Jess and Tom made some other plans for us. They gave the vols two
options: head over to Mossel Bay, about three hours away from here where the
weather was better, for a couple of nights and go out on one of the shark cage
diving boats that operates out of there, or stay here and go spend a day in
Cape Town at the waterfront. Most of the vols- all except me and Loryn- decided
to go to Mossel Bay. Some of them are only here for two weeks, so of course
they wanted to see some sharks at Mossel Bay during their time. I’d done Mossel
Bay before and, although it is really nice out there, I decided that I’d rather
head back into Cape Town for a day since I’d spent hardly any time there this
trip. Loryn had also spent hardly any time in Cape Town, and since she’s here
for a month and has already been on quite a few trips out to sea, she also
decided to stick around here in Kleinbaai.
So this past
Tuesday morning, ten of the WSP vols piled into the van and headed off to
Mossel Bay for two nights. Since Loryn and I are staying at the lower house
anyway, our place didn’t really feel any less empty. That afternoon the two of
us went and helped out with Swop Shop again, which is done most Tuesday
afternoons. Swop Shop, while not actually a hard job to help with, can be pretty
draining emotionally. It’s a job that definitely helps remind me that I’m in
Africa.
At eight
o’clock Wednesday morning, Loryn and I jumped into the White Shark Projects’
van, with Jerome at the wheel and Jess riding shotgun, and hit the road to my favorite
city in the world, Cape Town! Jess and Jerome had some work related stuff to do
there in the city that morning, so Loryn and I had planned to spend the morning
at the Two Oceans Aquarium at the waterfront, then to meet up with them for
lunch later. Lizzy and Beth had left Gansbaai a couple of days before, but they
were spending a few days in Cape Town before heading back to the UK. They were
flying out that evening, so they were also meeting up with us for lunch.
I’d been to
the Two Oceans Aquarium before, the last time I was here, but some things about
it had been redone and it was really nice to spend the morning exploring it,
especially with a fellow animal nerd. Loryn and I spent about two hours walking
all around it, admiring and taking photos of stingrays, sharks, African
penguins, spider crabs and more. We caught the stingray feeding at 11:30, which
was really cool to see. They had some huge short-tailed stingrays in this
place! We’d seen a few of them around the boat when we’d been out on the water,
so it was really nice to see the species again.
After
finishing up in the aquarium, it was just about time to meet up with the others
for lunch, so we walked over to the restaurant we’d agreed on. It was a
beautiful day and was so nice to be back walking around the city I love so
much. Jess, Jerome, Lizzy and Beth had just arrived and sat down when we got
there. I hadn’t officially gotten to say goodbye to Lizzy and Beth when they
left Gansbaai a few days earlier, so I was really glad that I got to see them
one more time.
After lunch
we all walked around the waterfront a little more, then, after stopping to get
some ice cream within the huge shopping mall there, it was time to say bye to
Lizzy and Beth and try to beat the traffic out of town. By now it goes without
saying that we’ll see each other again, so we all knew this wasn’t “goodbye”,
it was “until next time”. Still, we clearly weren’t thrilled about parting
ways, and we were all holding back tears.
The main
reason that the others went to Mossel Bay was because there was bad weather due
for the next few days- but weather in South Africa can as sporadic as weather
in Texas sometimes! As it turns out, the bad weather cleared up and we
scheduled a trip out on the boat for Thursday morning. There were fourteen
clients, which meant room for six volunteers, but since Loryn and I were the
only ones here, it was just us! The slight downside to that was that it was up
to just us and the crew to get all the work done like packing the wetsuits,
towels, coolers, chum, and everything else on the boat, passing out wetsuits to
the clients, and cleaning up the boat and washing wetsuits after the trip- but
it was worth it for a great trip! The clients we had were all really nice and
fun to talk to, and just a few minutes after dropping anchor, we spotted the
biggest shark I’ve seen so far this time around. He was a gorgeous, big 3.6
meter male who was very inquisitive- he stole the bait almost immediately! For
the next two hours or so he did plenty of circling the boat, chasing the bait,
spy hopping, and swimming by the cage. After a couple of hours, Grant decided
to call it a day since there were other boats around us that hadn’t seen a
shark yet. On our way back into the harbor, we spotted a large pod of dolphins
swimming through the bay, almost right beside our boat! I’d hardly ever seen
dolphins out of Kleinbaai before, so that was pretty special. Loryn and I
couldn’t help but laugh at the fact that the trip that had just the two of us
on it turned out to be one of the best trips we’ve been on. Thankfully when the
others got back Thursday evening, they told us that they’d also seen some cool
stuff out in Mossel Bay.
We’re
getting a few new vols tomorrow, and the plan after they arrive in the morning
is to head over to Hermanus to hang out there and possibly visit SASC, the
South African Shark Conservancy. On my first trip here in May 2015, it was in
the waters right outside SASC that I caught the brown shyshark with my bare
hands while snorkeling- definitely an experience I’ll never forget!
That’s
enough news for one post. Hopefully I can really make the most of this final
week that I have here at WSP. This post’s food for thought: “Quit hanging onto
the handrails. Let go. Surrender. Go for the ride of your life. Do it every
day.”- Melody Beattie
No comments:
Post a Comment