Farewell Cape Town and Hello Gansbaai

3 April 2012

The day had arrived that we were to leave Cape Town and make our way east in the Bantam (I secretly call it Chicken) to meet up with Luke’s family in Gansbaai. Before we said goodbye to Simon though, the boys insisted on a Spur breakfast at the V&A Waterfront to start off our journey – as if Simon’s mum hadn't been stuffing us with enough food! Besides the millions of photos captured by Luke, Simon also created a GoPro video of our visit as well as his holiday spent working at the Aquarium with the footage he obsessive compulsively filmed (now we know where he gets that disorder from – his mum!). Share in our epic Cape Town experience by clicking here.

One last goodbye to our woolly haired host and we were off. By late lunchtime we had arrived in Gansbaai, whereupon we met with Andrew (Luke’s dad), Petro (his step mum) and Kelsey (his twelve year old mouse of a sister) at the docks. Sitting on the rocks just off the pier we learned that we were all waiting for James (Luke’s fifteen year old gangly brother) to return from a shark cage dive – an early sixteenth birthday present. Doing so, we caught each other up on our respective holidays thus far.

When James jumped from the huge boat with the broadest grin on his face he enthusiastically began to regale us with his momentous encounter with nature’s deep sea predators. There are several companies along the docks that take out the brave and stupid for shark cage diving, but this one in particular that James went with filmed their experiences. Once the ride is over they offer hot chocolate, tea and coffee etc. to the bedraggled heroes whilst giving them the opportunity to relive their experience through a viewing of the footage. They also have photos up on their wall of celebrities that have partaken in the adrenalin rush provided by shark cage diving. These included Jude Law, among other big names. The ride cost about R1400 for adults.

Following Andrew back to camp at Strandskloof, we set up our own tent for the first time that holiday and then made good use of the heated pool as the sky darkened and the air cooled. Winter was on its way and our days were noticeably getting both chillier and shorter. When Petro enlightened us as to the origins of the irritated red marks that peppered her skin, Luke and I quickly lathered up with Peaceful Sleep (every camper’s best friend) to avoid the “bloody buggers” that apparently crawl under your clothing and bite everywhere and anywhere incessantly.