7/20/2015 - 7/21/2015 - To Egypt

After breakfast, we all finished our packing and hung out until check out at 11, then rolled our luggage downstairs to store behind the front desk until our cabs brought us to the airport. Maria, Erik and Miles were leaving at 1, and Leah, Nelia and I at 3. We decided to go back to the waterfront to shop and eat lunch together, but none of us was very hungry when we got there, so we just shopped a bit in a large Africa store Erik had found this morning. Around 12:15, Erik, Miles and Maria got hot dogs at a stand, and we said goodbye before they walked back to the hotel to get their cab at 1. They were all headed home. Leah, Nelia and I had lunch together overlooking the water. We were all traveling a bit more - Leah to England, and Nelia and I to Cairo for about three days!

 

We walked back together at 2:30, went to the airport, and shopped at duty free before hanging out until Nelia and my flight was ready to go. We said goodbye to Leah, and got on our 12 hour flight to Dubai. We had a 3 hour layover in Dubai, followed by a 3 hour flight to Cairo.

 

Rami, our guide, picked us up inside the airport and showed us where to wait on the line to get our passports checked. However, he quickly decided he might be able to do this faster himself, asked for our passports, and came back quickly, and had cleared us to skip the whole line, be approved, and leave to collect our bags. We were really impressed and felt a lot safer already. Rami spoke Spanish better than English (Nelia had written she was from Peru instead of the US), and so he spoke Spanish to her most of the car ride and she translated the bits of information he was giving us about the sights we were passing. He promised our guide tomorrow would speak in English. We arrived at the hotel, checked in, then sat down with Rami to review our itinerary - it would be a busy few days. We quickly noticed that people smoked in the hotel. There were ashtrays in the lobby and in front of every elevator on every floor. It was a problem we had not anticipated. We asked about our room, if it was nonsmoking, Rami said yes, and did we want a smoking room? We explained that we desperately did not, and were relieved, but we found that in order to get to our room, we had to pass by quite a few smoking rooms and cough until we made it. We mainly rested for the rest of the evening. We would have an 8 AM pick up tomorrow morning, and it would be a long, busy day.

7/19/2015 - Penguins, sharks and chum - a true team building experience.

We had a quick breakfast at the hotel in the morning, as we were being picked up at 10 AM. We had asked to be picked up early so we could go see the penguins! The beach in Simon's Town has a large colony of penguins living on it where you can go and see them up close in their natural habitat. It was just 60 Rand (about $6) to get admittance, and we spent time and got plenty of pictures and videos. We even saw another chameleon, for the second time this trip, and baby penguins nestled under a parent or two

 

  

We went back to the pier, and had a quick minute to eat something. We got some fish and chips (available just there), and ate hurriedly - myself, Erik and Miles. Leah, Maria and Nelia chose not to eat just before getting on a boat. I was worried, too, but was also hungry.

  

We boarded, and were introduced to Lana, Brandon, and the skipper/captain, whose name I don't remember. They explained that there were no guarantees, that they can't control nature, etc., and we took off for the 25 minute boat ride to seal island. There were already boats there when we arrived, and the crew picked a spot to anchor and ready the cage. They showed us Sam, the board cut to look like a seal carcass outline, and explained they would be using 'chum' - a mixture of tuna and other fishy bits and pieces, to help attract sharks via smell. It smelled a lot like fishy poop. Besides chum and the decoy, they also had a large tuna head on a rope. 

   

 

Everyone suited up, which included a very-well-covering neoprene suit, plus a weight belt, and really good goggles. The suits were still wet from the morning excursion, and hard to pull on as they were long and tight. The first group consisted on Leah, Erik, Miles and one other guy. The sharks showed up immediately, and got very close. It was frightening and exciting all at once. Meanwhile, the boat rocking and the tight suit were not helping the fish settle well in my stomach. I was scared, but when the first group got out, I was determined to go in as I'd been waiting more than 6 months to do this. Two teenagers, a brother and sister from Chicago, got in first, then myself. The suits kept us warm in the cold winter water, enough where we only knew it was cold if we put our hands in. I was breathing heavy at first, but Nelia suggested Erik and Miles come in with me as well. They helped me calm down and I got my bearings with the goggles fogging, and getting my underwater camera ready. Soon, there were sharks again and we got great views and great pictures, including watching a shark grab Sam right in front of us and thrash the board around in frustration. When the crew up top on the second deck saw sharks approach, they would tell the cage to get ready, then scream, 'DOWN! DOWN!' when they should be in view. They also gave directions on which way to look - ie to the right, left, beneath us, etc.

  

  

Maria had decided she didn't want to do it, and instead watched from up above - she said the view was great up there, and got some excellent videos, too. Nelia had not wanted to do it from the beginning, but decided she wanted to as long as she could be put in the cage between Erik and Miles. She did it, but did not go underwater.

Near the end of our turn, Miles, Nelia and Erik got out, and I held out just long enough for them to get out before I threw up in their corner of the cage, opposite the other two people behind me. I aimed out of the cage, and the crew thanked me for the extra chum. I cleaned the wet suit, then climbed up with the others. We all needed to help one another in pulling off our wet suits. 

   

  

Some of the others were cold, but once the wet suit was off, I found the temperature just perfect for drying off my bathing suit and enjoying the sea air. We all took towels and turns in the changing room. By the time I went in, the crew was nearly ready to leave and did so while I was changing. Lana had warned us not to go up top or down below if we were feeling sick, and I started feeling sick in the middle of changing. Once more, I held out until I was dressed, out of the changing room, out of the main chamber, and aiming off the side of the boat before I vomited again. Erik soon followed my example. It was a lovely and proud trip back, which included seeing sharks breach in reaction to Sam dragging behind us and being jiggled a bit by Brandon. We saw them breach twice. The crew told us to count ourselves lucky as they had not seen a breach in 3 weeks. I don't know if that was true, but considering we thought there would be little chance of seeing it at all, let alone during an afternoon dive, we were really happy - and tired. 

Inevitably, Erik falls asleep on a bumpy speedy boat ride back to shore.

We drove back to our hotel in Cape Town and took time to freshen up and shower and rest before heading for dinner. We got a recommendation from the front desk for a restaurant that had sushi but also other things at the waterfront (where everyone has been telling us we must eat), and walked down about 25 minutes or so. It was in the mall, and it took us a few minutes to find exactly where the restaurant was with the help of a few different people's directions, but we had a table within 10 minutes and had a great last dinner together, reflecting on the day and the whole trip. Tomorrow, we part ways.

 

7/18/2015 - Saturday in Cape Town

We were ready by 5:30 AM for our cage diving adventure. 15 minutes into the drive to Simon's Town, however, the driver got a call from the skipper, calling it off due to choppy weather on the seas.

Disappointed, we turned around, and at 5:30 AM tried to figure out (with our muddled brains) what we wanted to happen. We wanted to reschedule for the next day, of course, hoping it was possible. However, the morning dive was not available (as it was, we had to schedule ours far in advance as the morning has a greater probability of seeing great white sharks breaching the water), but the afternoon was open. We all agreed we would try again tomorrow, and have to cancel other plans for Sunday. We went to our rooms to get some sleep, then met back up for breakfast a couple of hours later. Erik took off jewelry shopping, and agreed to meet us at 11:30 AM at the natural history museum.

The museum was much bigger than we thought, and highlights included exhibits about bushmen (san) and their customs, traditions, and the history of the people who helped preserve those traditions before they died out due to colonialism; mammals and dinosaurs; sharks, whales and dolphins; older exhibits about the different cultures in the surrounding areas, and bones connecting pieces of time in the evolution of human beings.

We finally left, and asked the help of some gentlemen at a hotel to get a cab up to table mountain. The skies were completely clear today, and we wanted to try again. One of them, Edward, spoke to us at length while we waited about Mandela day (today), the politics in South Africa, and explained some tensions and traditions. He was well traveled, and had a lot to say, and to be quite honest, talking to him was one of the most interesting things we had done in Cape Town so far. 

When our cab finally arrived, we said goodbye, and the skies were still clear when we got to the cable cars. We bought our tickets online (faster and easier as the line to buy tickets was crazy long), and headed up. Turns out, the floor rotates in the car so that everyone gets a chance at every view. 

  

We ate at the cafe, then took many pictures at the mountain nearby the cafe and shop. We then all started hiking around the long trail around the whole mountain (a plaque said this should take about 45 minutes). As we walked, mist started appearing and by the end, we were surrounded by the tablecloth on table mountain. Pieces of my hair were wet from it. The plant life and experience of walking inside a cloud was fantastic - we got to see every side of table mountain that day, under all conditions. We waited in line to get down, and marveled at the sunset at the bottom, to the point that we soon were worried we would not find a large enough cab left to take us.

    

  

We tried eating at the hotel for dinner, which was all right, and went to bed, dreaming shark dreams, hoping for good weather tomorrow.

 

7/17/2015 - Friday in Cape Town

Today was very rainy and cloudy. We had breakfast, then went to the aquarium. We saw sharks, turtles, really different crabs, and we got to see the penguins being fed!

It was a fun morning, but we were soon hungry and left, ducking into the nearest warehouse set of shops, and got lost in there awhile, looking at souvenirs, until we organized to move on in search of lunch. Next door was another warehouse called the V&A (Victoria and Albert) Food Market, full of all sorts of food and drink vendors, including juicers, biltong (jerky), crepes, cheese vendors, etc. We each got a different lunch and sat upstairs near the bar where we enjoyed our meals and cheap local brews from South Africa awhile. Miles talked about beer making with one of the bartenders who shared the hobby.

We eventually decided to move on to the scratch patch across the street, a rocks and minerals business where jewelry was sold inside, and who also sold bags and cups for filling to small children in a giant room full of rocks and minerals outside. Despite the rain, a few kids happily filled their bags with pretty rocks. We shopped around and then took a cab to the canteen, hoping once more for enough room to eat there. Alas, we were disappointed, and so walked (it isn't far from the hotel) around looking for another restaurant.

The one we chose, mainly due to needing to go to bed soon, was not memorable but for Erik's dinner, which came on a delightfully strange contraption: