A whale of a city

Trip Start May 29, 2008

102

Trip End Dec 19, 2008

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Flag of South Africa Hermanus, Western Cape, South Africa
Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Hermanus was a really charming little city of the SA coast and is the whale watching capital of the world. Now I have gone whale watching in the San Francisco bay and Monterrey, but never have come across a place with as many whales and certainly no place with whales that were as active as these. It was like a National Geographic show watching these massive creatures come out of the crystal blue water and diving back in with a roaring thump. Rachel and I grabbed some sandwiches to go and went to sit on a rockcliff near the ocean to enjoy the show the whales were putting on.

Kleinsbaai

After leaving Hermanus, we were on our way to Kleinsbaai. Probably the great white shark capital of the world and home to the largest great white shark cage diving fleet in the world

Whale

. They take you out to the middle of the sea where hordes of great white sharks lurk, put you in a cage, and tease the sharks with bait aka "chum" and get it all worked up to knock the cage around. Will you find this type of activity in the States? Not likely.
Rachel was able to concoct her own type of "chum" for the sharks as she got seasick and had to let it out over the boat. I think it attracted more sharks than usual.

The sharks got extremely close. It happened so fast as we were in the cage with nothing in sight, the captain would yell get under water, and we're under water with nothing and then in a split second a great white is inches away from you with his beady eyes knocking on the cage and tearing at the chum. A couple of times the great white came right under us and torpedoed out of the water and into the air while going after the bait. Another time one of them got its teeth caught on the cage only to have them break off as it sped past us.
It really was a thrilling adventure.

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