A Dream Come True: Swimming with Dolphins and Scuba Diving with Sharks

It all began last Friday. I was climbing the Jammie Steps (the central meeting point on campus) and ran into David Micley, an old friend and in fact, the starting center that I backed up my Junior year for the old New Jew heifers (yes, my high school mascot was a red female cow). Anyhow, he told me about how he'd gone diving in Mozambique over break and was going diving again on Saturday. He offered for me to come along, but I'd already committed to a river-rafting trip I couldn't back out of. Turns out, the dive on Saturday was canceled because the conditions were poor and they had rescheduled for today (Tuesday April 13th). Lucky for me, I don't have many classes on Tuesdays and excitedly arranged to come and bring along another friend of mine Chris (the same Chris I went on the Garden Route with early in the semester).

We met the group early this morning and headed out to False Bay. The plan was to go check out Seal Island, (it's pretty self explanatory--it's an Island with a lot of seals on it) which is actually the spot where the famous Planet Earth scene of a great white jumping out of the water to eat a seal was filmed, and then head back into the bay to go diving. On our way to seal island we came across a herd, or flock, or gaggle, or pack, or whatever the right word is, of dolphins! What had to have been at least 500 dolphins filled the surrounding waters, jumping out of the water, swimming within feet of the boat, almost close enough to touch. Everyone on the boat went nuts, as we raced along with the dolphins. All of a sudden the dolphins doubled their speed and we realized that they were hunting fish. All along, birds had been following the group, and not long after the dolphins began speeding up, the birds began to plummet all the way into the water, plucking out fish the dolphins had been chasing. We watched absolutely awe struck. In fact, just the other day my friends and I had seen the exact same thing take place in an episode of Planet Earth...nuts. A smile formed on my face that couldn't be washed away even by the loads of salt water that splashed into my face. After observing for a while, we decided we needed to get in on the action. We sped up to get in front of the dolphins then all got in the water with snorkels and played with the dolphins! As I dove down, the sonar cries of the dolphins got louder and louder. I tried to grab onto one for a ride but they were just too fast to get close enough. Since I was a little kid I've wanted to swim with dolphins and today I got a chance to do it in the open ocean. Really a dream come true.


After a while, we allowed ourselves to move on and made a short stop at Seal Island, gazing at the hundreds of seals and watching the babies cling tot he safer waters near the island so as to avoid sharks. After reaching the island we headed back into the bay and anchored near shore at a point called Pyramid Rock. There we finally dawned our tanks and headed down 35 feet to the bottom. At the bottom we were met by cow sharks, smaller sand sharks, and a variety of fish (no worries, they didn’t catch us by surprise). The cow sharks were bigger than me and quite imposing. They're real predators and will happily feast on a seal, but for some reason that no one has quite figured out don't attack humans. I watched as they swam within inches of me. At one point, one even swam through my legs! So to be honest it wasn't all that frightening. Once you're down there with them you get used to them. But, there was one moment where I was lying along the bottom staring a strange little looking fish right in the eye , losing track of the sharks, and when I turned up, there was a shark swimming within inches right above my head! Yeah, that one got the blood racing a bit. After about forty five minutes under water we came back up, climbed in the boat, and headed back to shore. And to think it was a Tuesday.

So while I'm at it I think I better just mention a few of the other things I've been up to in the last few weeks since my blogging hit a bit of a standstill for a while.

So I finally reached the summit of Table Mountain on Good Friday, April 2nd, because we had the day off. I can safely say I'm glad that I'm no longer am kept up at night to the sound of her teasing me.

(Kelly and I on Top of Table Mountain)

(Walking Amidst the Clouds)

Easter weekend also brought the Cape Town International Jazz festival to the convention center downtown. My friends and I went both to the free concert on Thursday and paid for all day tickets on Sunday. Artist from around the world came and I sat in a daze most of the day just sipping in the smoothness.

This past Saturday I went river rafting with CIEE. For some reason everyone on the program had thought we were going white water rafting but turns out the closest things we encountered to rapids were a few bumpy sections on the river. It was a great day nonetheless complete with a delicious braai when we returned to land.

On Sunday my friends, Pat, Jenny, and I headed to the aquarium. Though small, the aquarium has quite a good reputation in the city, and we arrived just in time to watch the divers hand feed turtles, sting rays, and sharks in the predator tank which was quite a treat. Later that evening we went out to a delicious Sushi meal at a place called Beluga, which had come highly recommended from friends. Quite a fishy day you could say.

Namibia: Exploring Untamed Africa

“Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands”
-Bob Dylan

So it's been a little while. I've fallen into a trap where I've been so busy doing things I haven't had time to write about them. The last ten days of March were spent traversing the beautiful and barren country of Namibia. For our spring break, (well here it’s fall break!) six friends and I made our way to the neighbor up north and road tripped across the country. We left Cape Town, on Friday March 19 boarding an overnight bus to Windhoek, (pronounced vindhuk) the capital of the second least densely populated country on the planet. In Windhoek, we met up with Milner, our gregarious local tour guide who then took us south to Sussusvlei, an area of rolling red sand dunes and jagged mountains. We spent three days hiking and playing in the vast openness and laughing at Milner’s antics, as he led seven Americans who’d never dreamed of coming to a place like this through his backyard. On Monday we bid farewell to Milner, rented cars (they gave us a Mercedes for some reason) and spent a night in Windhoek before heading off on our own.

(Watching the Sunrise Over the Dunes)

(NikNak Moutain!)



(Milner and I Enjoying a Windhoek Lager by the Fire)

Tuesday morning, after fully stocking the car with beer, NicNaks (a snack quite similar to Cheetoes but with a much better name) and biltong (South African beef jerky—but I like to think it’s classier to eat here) we made our way north to Etosha National Park. We spent Tuesday night at Namutoni capesite on the eastern edge of the park then proceeded west, spending the next two nights at Okaukeujo campsite on the west end of the park. We cooked delicious meals on the fire and slept beneath a sky bursting with stars. The park was incredible. We saw springbok, wildebeest, giraffe, zebra, cobra, hyena, buffalo, elephant, rhino, and in our last hour in the park, two imposing male lions. The vistas were straight out of The Lion King, and because it’s low season at the park, we had them for the most part to ourselves. Often I would look out and the land was so flat for so far that it looked like the ocean. Driving along the park’s dirt roads with the wind screaming through the windows and the sun beating down on the savannah filled me with a feeling of blissful liberation like I have perhaps never felt before.

(Overlooking the Etosha Pan)
(The Whole Gang)




(I've Decided that I Am Obsessed With Rhinos)

(Mama and Baby Zebra...Go Ahead Girls, Say it, "Awwwww")

Friday morning, we made our way back to Windhoek where we dropped our friend Elle off at the airport (she had to go back to Cape Town to meet her family) before heading west to the small coastal German tourist town of Swakopmund. Two nights in Swakopmund proved far more exciting than I’d expected. We our one full day there ATVing in the sand dunes outside town in the morning and lounging on the beach in the afternoon. We’d race up the sides of massive dunes until our ATVs lost speed, then make a sharp turn and soar down. We even stopped for an hour of sand boarding, where we got to lie face first on a greased piece of cardboard and speed down the dunes. It was like sledding for the first time all over again, only with snow swapping for sand in my mouth and eyes. At night we explored the strange and unique character of a town in the middle of nowhere Namibia populated mainly by German tourists (the country was colonized by Germany and remains a popular vacation spot for the volk). Come Sunday the 28th of March we returned the cars (somewhat resembling the cars they’d given us a week earlier) and flew back to Cape Town. After a remarkable trip we were sad to leave, but as I again laid foot on South African soil, I couldn’t help my self from singing and dancing in the airport (drawing some funny looks from locals). Ayoba Ayoba!

Between the seven of us we took enough pictures to publish a National Geographic book, so the ones I post here really can’t do the beauty of Namibia justice. So, here are a few individual highlights just to illuminate a bit how outrageous and fun the experience really was…

In no particular order:

1) As I emerge from the bus in Windhoek I look at the street sign to find I’m on Fidel Castro Street. Immediately I realized I was a long way even from South Africa, never mind the ol’ US of A. We would later drive by the intersection of Fidel Castro Street and Robert Mugabe Street.

2) My friend Pat taught me how to drive stick shift on our little Nissan Tida on an endless dirt road in Etosha National Park amidst zebra and springbok. I can’t think of a better place to have learned. I picked up pretty quickly, or so everyone claimed, but I wouldn’t trust myself doing city driving just yet. Nonetheless, I am quite certain Arjun is beaming thousands of miles away in St. Louis as he reads this.

3) Milner intended to take us on a short hike up a dune to watch the sunset our last evening in Sussusvlei. After almost an hour of hiking he plopped down in the sand in defeat. We weren’t going to get to the top and we had missed the sunset. In fact, Milner had lead us up the wrong side of the dune… it appears he’d had one too many beers. We plopped down alongside him, exhausted and sweaty, drinking our now warm beers that we’d lugged up the dune with us and watched the sunset reflect off my favorite mountain in the whole area, which we proudly named NicNak Mountain. Not you’re average sunset.

4) Coming within fifteen feet of an enourmous rhino who had made his way out of the brush into the road. Let’s just say I had my foot hovering over the gas pedal in case the big guy tried any shananagins.

5) Waking up when it was still dark to hike famous dune 45 in Sussusvlei for sunrise. As the beams of the new day lit up the red dunes I felt as if I had reached the Africa of storybooks. The desert is a remarkable place in that it seems to engulf you in it’s emptiness. It is so barren, and yet so beautiful.

6) Watching a sky exploding with stars from the roof of our truck in Sussusvlei. One of the driving factors that lead me to Namibia was the promise of incredible night skies and Sussusvlei did not disappoint. As I peered up at the sky it seemed I was looking at a sprawling city at night, there were just two many stars to even try and identify constellations. I felt minuscule. The stars mystify and amaze me more than any natural wonder.

7) Nearly running over a cobra as I backed up to see why the car with the other half of the crew had pulled over. Close call. Would have felt pretty terrible if I’d accidentally killed a cobra.

8) Watching wild ostriches race at full speed across the savanna. They’re known to top out at 45 mph. Really strange and fascinating birds.

9) As we were driving at full speed along a dirt road, Milner quickly came to a complete stop and hollered at us to jump out of the truck. On the side of the road was a chameleon, which had made it's way across from the grass on the far side of the road. We were all pretty amazed that Milner had spotted it going so fast, and we watched as it danced (chameleons lift up one foot at a time and leave it suspended for a second to cool it off as they walk, which looks a whole lot like a dance move people were probably rocking in the 80s) from the side of the road into a tree and changed color from the bright green of the grass to the brown of the tree bark.

10) Here’s a treat for you loyal readers who’ve read this far…
So in Swakopmund, at Dunes Backpackers where we stayed, we shared our hostel room with the three most stereotypical German men I’ve ever met. They introduced themselves as German carpenters (I thought that profession sorta died with Jesus, but I guess not) who had been living in Namibia for a few years doing carpentry. They informed us that they had been scheduled to go home soon, but that only a few days before our arrival the local beer house had burned down. One of them excitedly proclaimed, “Now we must stay to rebuild ze beerhaus!!” These guys were caricatures of themselves like you wouldn’t believe. They wore black vests, black corduroys, little ties, and funny black hats. (We even saw them out at a bar one night fully clad in their German attire, we couldn’t believe it.) If I haven’t painted a clear enough picture yet, I’ll tell you that when I walked into the hostel the first day, sitting on the bureau next to my bed was a bottle of Jagermeister, a German Bible, and a hatchet. I shit you not, there was a hatchet.

(Pat and I Couldn't Resist Trying on the Germans' Clothes While They Were Out)