South Africa

Hey everyone. I'm still in Cape Town and having a fabulous time. I have been keeping busy with the wealth of activities they have here. From shopping to abseiling; they have it all here. I tried to go abseiling (rappeling) from the top of Table Mountain today, but there weren't enough people to make a large enough group for them to take us. As the gondola is closed for repair this week, they must drive us to the lower gondola station and hike up. At over a 1000 meters, it's a good sized mountain. Next time I guess. Today I went sand boarding at the dunes west of the city. It was very different from snowboarding. It's almost like snowboarding on really wet sticky snow. I almost got the nack of it. It was pretty good all the same. If I'm still here on Friday, they are going to run us up to a pretty hairy mountain bike course. They are trying to find another guy to go with me as they need to have at least two people to run the tour. Not too many tourists can or want to take this tour as it's too difficult. I hope i'll be okay. Tomorrow, I think that I'm going to take a trip to the Cape of Good Hope. It's supposed to be very beautiful. I picked up another brochure for the bungy jumping excursion 200 kms from Cape Town. 216 meters (708 feet!). I still haven't talked myself into that yet. I am yet to see if I have the courage to try it. There's just too much to do here! I'm going crazy trying to decide what to do.

Well, I made it here in one piece. Not at all the easiest way to get somewhere, but three days after I left my apartment I made it here. Cape Town is a beautiful city. It's very hard to describe. It's modern and clean with a clear and distinct contrast between the haves and the have nots. I am staying on Long Street in the down town party district. It's a pretty wild and crazy place with losts of action every night.
Yesterday, I went shark cage diving 140 km from Cape Town. It was absolutely incredible! I had so much fun! I thought it would be terrifying, but without the dramatic music they were far from scary. We went out Gansbaai early in the morning and only had to go out 20 minutes from shore until we reached the famous "shark alley". The tour company's name is "White Shark Ecoventures" and it's website is www.white-shark-diving.com . The reason that there are so many sharks in this particular area is that there is a seal colony nearby and the sharks catch the seals when they go out to hunt for fish. We actually saw a shark get one far off in the distance. The interesting thing about the way they attract the sharks is that they tie a mangled tuna to a rope with a buoy on it and when the shark approaches, they pull the carcus away the the shark usually becomes more aggressive. They also have a heavy rubber seal cutout tied to a rope. They throw it out and pull it in quickly. We saw at least two sharks jump half out of the water to attack it. It was incredible! We even went in the shark cage to watch the sharks as they attacked the tuna. Funny enough, it was not at all scary. It was utterly amazing. It was a really good day yesterday. I'm not too sure what I'll do today, but there is so much to do here that I'm sure it won't take long to find something.

So far, I'm still in the planning stages of my trip. I have looked at all the information on vaccinations against malaria and have decided that it is unnecessary to innoculate myself. South Africa is one of the few African countries that you do not need to take precautions for. Also, in the winter there is even a more reduced risk of catching malaria from mosquitoes so I feel reassured of my safety. I have looked into transportation across the country, from Cape Town along the coast through Port Elizabeth and Durban all the way up to Johannesburg and Kruger Park. I just realized actually how big South Africa is. The trip from Cape Town to Johannesburg alone is more than 1400 km, and there will be many side trips as well. I have decided to take what is called the "Baz Bus" to get from one place to another. It follows a predetermined route between two major points but also will stop anywhere along the line to drop off or pick up other Baz Bus passengers. You can get on and off as many times as you like between the two spots and they will even come to your hostel to pick you up. Sounds like a good deal. Also it will be a good way to meet fellow travellers who are like minded. How can that be bad? Some of the things that have caught my attention or made me sweat are the shark diving/viewing trips and the highest bungi in the world (215 meters). Neither one have I commited in my mind to doing (yet). Some things that I do plan on doing are Abseiling (repelling) down the famous Table mountain and taking a 3 hour mountain bike trip through a game reserve. Sounds fun eh? I may even take surfing lessons as they have world class surf beaches. The only problem being the weather. Today there are gail force winds occuring in Cape Town and the vicinity and as you can see from the temperature, it's winter time in Africa so some things may not be open to me. We will see exactly what happens though. That's all part of the adventure. I will write more once my trip is under way.