Mozambique!

Ahhh, so much time has passed since I last wrote! I am so bad at this blogging thing.. I thought I would be so good at sitting down for two hours and just pouring my South African life out onto the keyboard, but it has proven to be much harder than I expected. Just not enough hours in the day!

Anyway, lots has happened since I last wrote around Halloween. I have been busy at SOS, still doing projects for the educators and the centre (I now spell it centre instead of center without even thinking about it.. bad news. Also: colour, programme, honours, etc.... too much South African reading, writing and typing since I've been here I guess!). I have become good friends with my coworkers and know already that it is going to be SO hard to leave them. I have even formed a strange attachment to the two False Plum anemones that we have in the aquarium, and of course the two shysharks as well (the female has laid three eggs since we got her- so cool!). The anemone thing sounds weird, I know, but False Plums are so incredible.. they have so many different moods and are always changing shape and size. For example, here are a few photos of our favorite aquarium resident at SOS.. he doesn't have a name yet, but I am rooting for Tim or Roger:











How cool is he?! (or she.. or it) I know, I know.. most people probably don't get as excited about this kind of thing as me, but I have to admit I look forward to seeing him every morning :) I also did a little project on this guy with about 10 different pictures and a display about general anemone ecology for the public. So if you're ever in SOS, check it out :)

Onto more exciting things... the weather has been pretty fantastic here lately, but it still doesn't feel quite like summer. I am ok with that though since the next few months are supposed to get HOT and since I've been working a lot I don't mind a cloudy day here and there. The sunny days have definitely been amazing though.. lots of diving, trips to the beach, and surfing when I can. My good friend Brocq was housesitting for his friend Mark VanCollier two weeks ago (Mark is an amazing wildlife photographer and was visiting the Seychelles with his pregnant wife, who is also a photographer.. I swear everyone here is a ridiculously good wildlife photographer) in a town called Nordhoek, which is absolutely gorgeous and known for its amazing surfing beach called Long Beach (home to a wave called Dunes that is popular with the better surfers around here). I was able to camp out by the pool, hang with the resident peacock in the backyard (we named him NaGoose, for various reasons), go to an awesome little Nordhoek festival, and run, swim, and lay out on a totally deserted white sand beach. Absolutely amazing.


NaGoose



Long Beach in Nordhoek


I was lucky enough to get out with Steve a few times as well, diving again with the seals and helping him out with various clients. I have been doing my best to improve my breath hold for freediving, and was able to stay at about five meters for around a minute this last time. I know it doesn't sound like much, but when the water is 10 degrees C and your body is constricted and shaking, one minute feels like about 10! I am hoping to be able to take a freediving course from one of Steve's friends, Hanli (who holds the South African freediving record.. she is ridiculous) before I leave. I have really grown to love diving with just a mask, weight belt, and fins. Of course I am still a SCUBA fanatic and always will be, but its nice to learn a new trick of the trade :)

Speaking of SCUBA, I have made a last-minute decision to head to Mozambique over this coming week with a group of VAC interns and some of the VAC coordinators. I was planning on doing Mozambique for the month of January, and maybe doing my Dive Master course during that time, but I came across an amazing White shark internship in Mossel Bay that I may do instead. SO it turns out that this coming week will be my only chance to get to Moz, and I have been told by many that if I am a diver, I MUST go. Mozambique is known around the world for its manta rays, Whale sharks, good surf, and ridiculously gorgeous dive sites. So myself and a few of my roommates are off for 10 days of sun, surf, sand, and amazing diving. I can't wait!! Even my supervisor said I have to get there.. a few of my coworkers contemplated taking the week off and tagging along to go surfing, but I'm not sure that'll actually happen. They could teach me a thing or two!

A lot of research has been happening at SOS, but because of confidentiality reasons and copyright issues and all that other crazy business, I can't talk much about it. But, I will say that I feel incredibly lucky to be part of a group of individuals who are so dedicated to their work and passionate about what they are striving for. What I can say is that Alison and her team (at this point I'm going to assume anyone who actually reads this knows who Alison Kock is.. SOS White shark researcher, for those who have forgotten) have been trying to get out lately to do some tagging of False Bay White sharks, but it has been pretty windy with a big swell so they'll be making a few more attempts over the coming weeks. I'll still have two weeks at SOS when I arrive home from Moz so I am hoping there will be a chance to head out with them and see everything firsthand.

Speaking of the big guys, the internship I have applied to in Mossel Bay (400 K up the East coast) focuses on boat-based research of White sharks. I would be there with about nine other volunteers, helping scientists at the Shark lab do tagging, chumming, Photo ID, boat skills and everything else that is involved with White shark research. Alison said the program is very hands-on and they get out on the boat every day that the weather permits. She has worked closely with a few of the scientists there and highly recommended the program for someone who is interested in shark research. It sounds like an amazing experience and would give me a lot more exposure to all sorts of important field techniques. Aaaand I just found out that I got accepted! So that' a big whoo-hoo to that one. Looks like I will be spending the month of January with the sharks in Mossel Bay.. should be really, really good!

Anyway, I am off to Moz in the early morning and will be MIA for the next 10 days or so. Arriving back in Cape Town on my birthday, most likely for a big night of SLEEP! It's going to be a crazy fun hectic amazing ten days, but I'm sure a good night's sleep is not going to be a very constant thing (considering we're staying in an outdoor-ish dorm with 14 beds.. oh dear).

Miss everyone back home and can't wait to share pictures! Love to all :)

Oh, and here are a few pictures from the shark dive two weekends ago that I didn't have until just now:


A curious Blue



Myself and a Mako



The largest Blue we had; a little over 2 meters



Good shot of a Mako

Such an amazing day!

Trick or Treat!

Happy Halloween weekend!!

Despite the title of this blog, little to none of it is about my Halloween celebration this year. That, sadly, is due to the fact that South Africans hardly even recognize the best holiday of the year and rarely dress up for the occasion! Can you believe it?! I couldn’t. BUT I am totally and completely ok with it this year (and that is REALLY saying something, because I LOVE dressing up and celebrating Halloween), because I am lucky enough to be doing something I love just as much all weekend- diving. And not just diving.. diving with sharks! I spent the entire day today (Friday) about 25 miles off the coast of Cape Point on a boat with a few friends diving with Blue Sharks and Mako Sharks. It was my very first time diving with either of these species, and it was absolutely incredible. It took us about two hours to get from Simon’s Town to our destination (basically out in the middle of the sea), and although today was much less windy than the past week, the water was fairly bumpy. I love long boat rides, especially when there are waves, so that was definitely a fun journey. When we arrived, Brocq (my friend who does shark dive tours with his boss Morne, who is married to Alison Kock, the White shark researcher here) chummed the water, which means he basically chopped up fish parts and poured fish blood into a big drum, and within 30 minutes we had two sharks show up. At first it was a Mako, but that one left quickly, and then two Blue sharks showed up soon after. We threw on our wetsuits and hopped in, and within 15 minutes had about five sharks surrounding us. They were very curious, and would come extremely close to check us out, but I never felt threatened by any of them.

We were freediving (without a tank- just a weight belt and snorkel), but it was even better than trying to scuba with them since they all came so close to the surface. I dove down quite a few times, just five to 10 meters or so, and they would come right up to my face, swim through my legs, and even tested out the taste of the tip of my fins a few times. The Blues are sleek and shimmery, with a vibrant blue color that gives them their name. They are much bolder than the Makos, coming up right behind us and swimming all around as we dove down to them. The largest Blue shark was a little over two meters, and the smallest was probably about half a meter or so. The Makos were a little less bold, usually darting away if we got too close. They look like mini Great Whites, with impressive teeth that are very visible and a stockier body shape that looks like one big hunk of muscle. The largest Mako we swam with today was about 1.5 meters. They are amazing creatures. We were in the water for about an hour and a half, and about halfway through I counted six sharks at one time in the water. They were surprisingly calming, though, and at no point did they seem to be more interested in us than the chum. Well, at one point a Blue did give one of the clients a small chomp on the shoulder, but it didn’t perforate his wetsuit and didn’t hurt him at all. It was toward the end when Morne was emptying the drum of fish, so the sharks tend to get more excited about the abundance of food. Aside from that, they were very well-mannered ☺

Since I don’t yet have an underwater camera (boo!), I am relying on others who were there today to send me some of their photos. I will post them as soon as I get them! For now, here are a couple shots of the trip out to the dive site and a couple pictures from the internet of Blues and Makos:


Harbor at Simon's Town where we launched the boat




On our way to see the sharks...




Brocq getting the chum prepared. Slightly nasty business.




Blue Shark





Mako Shark


Today was by far one of the best days I have had here yet- I am so lucky to be able to participate in these kinds of things, and I feel incredibly grateful for the connections I have made. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be spending a Halloween weekend diving with sharks! Tomorrow is another dive, but this time no sharks- we are doing a wreck dive in Hout Bay. A few of my roommates are getting their advanced SCUBA certification, so this is part of their required dive set. I am going along as a fun dive, and also because I have never done a wreck dive. The waters in Hout Bay are cold, but it should be a pretty awesome experience.

Aside from diving, I have been continuing my work at SOS developing some more projects for display in the center and also for the school groups. I am just finishing up a presentation called Life on the Rocky Shores, and spent Tuesday and Wednesday taking some pictures of our animal life in front of SOS. Here are just a couple of the better shots used in the presentation:


Anemone, tentacles in (I know this one's not as cool as the ones with their tentacles out, but no one ever shows them like this...so thought I would switch it up :)




A couple urchins using limpet shells as protection




Pear limpets, each surrounded by their own algal garden. These particular limpets are found down in the cochlear zone during low tide. They use their muscle to suction tightly to the rocks, and if birds want to eat them, they have to sneak up behind them to quickly pop them off the rocks.




Cape Reef worm! Not the greatest quality picture, but these guys are so cool. If you touch them, them dart really quickly back into their hole.


Work has still been going very well, and everyone at SOS continues to impress me with their generosity and kindness. I am so grateful to Meg, my supervisor, for the opportunities she’s giving me with this research and also for letting me take time off to dive with and learn more about the sharks I am studying every day.

One of my favorite people here is leaving us this Tuesday.. my roommate Leah Webber, who has been here for about three months, is heading back home to San Francisco and then off to Sydney, Australia for yet another adventure abroad. Leah has become one of my closest friends here, and is so much fun and one of the nicest, funniest girls ever. I am super bummed she’s leaving but promised I would be visiting her in Australia soon ☺

Otherwise, not much is new.. just livin the Cape Town life and loving every minute! Only one month until my parents arrive (yes, that’s you Candace Faye and Johnny V!), and I cannot wait!!

Love to all in the states and elsewhere- miss you!!

Kids, kids, and more kids!

Hi all!

I come to you in the middle of a crazy hectic week at Save Our Seas… we have 100 primary school kids coming every day for about four hours of rock pool lessons, shark lessons, and shark videos. It has been absolutely nuts and totally exhausting, but so much fun at the same time! The kids are from all different schools around the area, and most of them are eager to learn and happy to just be down by the water. A few of them don’t know much about the sea beyond that it is home to “big, scary sharks that will eat you!” (direct quote from an adorable 6th grade boy this morning)

My role this week has been to teach alongside one of our educators, Michael, down at the rock pool out in front of our building. We have a protected area out front which is home to everything from African Black Oystercatchers to limpets, barnacles, sea anemones, urchins, and all kinds of other animals. We have been doing a 20 minute lecture about these animals’ adaptations to their unique environment, then the kids come down onto the rocks and we show them everything close up, and then we bring them over to some touch pools to touch and hold the animals while we finish up the lesson. A lot of them seem really interested in both the animals and the kelp, and it has been a lot of fun to hear them asking questions and getting excited about life in the ocean. Often there has been two or three kids in each group that are especially interested and will ask what kinds of programs they can join and how they can be a marine biologist. It always makes me smile ☺

They then move on to a shark lecture inside SOS with another educator, Paul, and their third “station” is a shark video showing footage of the White sharks that breach out near Seal Island. All of the teachers that have come along with the kids so far have seemed really happy with the trip, and a few of them scheduled follow-up days with us so we can go a little more in-depth with smaller groups of children. All in all, it’s been a good week so far and it has made me a lot more confident with the lecture material and the sea life living in this part of the world.

In addition to the school groups, I have continued working on projects for the main area of SOS, including a presentation board about Shark Threats and a powerpoint lecture about the importance of kelp and rock pool life. I have spoken to Alison Kock as well and should be getting out on the research boat with her within the next two weeks or so. Can’t wait!

Yesterday was one of the coolest days ever- the school group that was supposed to be here ended up cancelling, and since I had taken the train all the way down and didn’t have a pressing project or anything to get to right away, I decided to take advantage of the sun and calm seas and go surfing at Muizenberg (a few train stops away from Kalk Bay). I called up my friend Brocq, who works with Alison Kock’s husband, Morne, and since he also had the afternoon off he said he’d be happy to give me a surfing lesson. I grabbed my wetsuit and hopped off the train at Muizenberg, and of course on the first day I decide to surf in South Africa they spot a shark right off the beach. The Shark Spotters flag was red, which means a shark has recently been spotted and may still be in the area. Most of the surfers had gotten out of the water, but after 20 minutes or so people started swimming back out. We headed in and within about two minutes of paddling out I had completely forgotten about the shark. The waves were perfect for a relatively new surfer, and I managed to catch a good number of waves and stand up pretty well on most of them (although still a bit wobbly ☺. It was SUCH a blast and such an amazing workout (my arms are killing me today!) and I am pretty sure I’ve been bitten by the surfing bug. It’s so convenient for me if I bring my wetsuit to work, because Muizenberg is right on the way home, and I can just hop off there and meet up with people in the afternoons. I’m hoping the winds stay the way they are now for the next couple weeks so the waves don’t get too messy.



Aside from internship and surfing stuff, I have been enjoying the weekends with roommates and other interns by spending time at the beach, heading to the Old Biscuit Mill market on Saturday mornings (amazing local vendors with all sorts of food and other goods), and getting out to explore hiking and running trails. This past weekend I was able to go out on Animal Ocean once again with Steve, and we had an absolutely gorgeous day of sun, flat water, and clients who were very excited about diving with the Duiker Island seals. Steve, the Captain of the ship:



My favorite spot on the boat...



Of course there has been a night out here or there, and those are a great time as well ☺



I'm not sure if I included this in last week's blog, but last Friday I was able to take the day off from SOS and head to my roommate's primary school where she teaches and help her do some painting lessons with the younger grade. They were absolutely adorable and it was so much fun. Here are a few of the little painters :)



Alright, that is all for now! Miss everyone back home :)

Don't eat shark fin soup!

Tomorrow will be the beginning of my second week at Save Our Seas, and I am already loving the opportunities I have had at this organization. This past week was spent focusing on a few different projects, including educational information for the public in the main area of the center, preparing a shark lecture for school groups that will be visiting over the next two weeks (70-100 kids a day!), and helping to prepare a lesson on rock pool life for the school groups as well.

I was also finally able to meet Alison Kock, who does the White shark research here for SOS, and listen to one of her White shark lectures. It was really informative and made me even more excited to get out on the boat with Alison to help with tagging and behavioral research. I will start doing that in about two weeks, and I can't wait! Here are a couple recent pictures that Alison and her husband Morne took while watching White sharks feed on a decaying Brydes whale carcass.. such amazing shots.





I have learned so much in just one week; everyone at SOS has been extremely welcoming and happy to help with anything. I am able to look right out to the ocean from my office window, and have enjoyed seeing Southern Right whales slowly cruise by on several occasions. We also spent a day taking an environmental school group, ages 14-18, out to the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve and doing an educational 5K nature hike. The kids loved seeing the Sand Hoppers, learning about the role of kelp in sustaining the ocean ecosystem, and the gorgeous views of the sea from our hike. It was a beautiful day that ended with the group painting vuvuzelas made of dried kelp- a great way to round out the day’s lesson and let them take a keepsake home to remember what they learned. Here are a couple shots from the day:





I have also been borrowing documentary videos from SOS to watch at night, and thanks to these I have learned quite a bit about the huge problem of overfishing certain shark populations and shark finning that takes place off the coast of South Africa (and many other places in the world, unfortunately). The footage of this horrendous crime is absolutely heartbreaking, and I strongly encourage anyone who is interested in shark conservation to look further into this issue. Some shark species have lost over 90% of their populations due to long-line fishing (illegal in a few areas, but unfortunately still legal in most areas and practiced regularly) and the desire for shark fins (fetching hundreds of US dollars per fin) for things like shark fin soup, leather products, jewelry and skin care products.

Long lines are used mainly to fish for tuna, swordfish and shark, and their length ranges from one to over 100 miles. They are kept near the surface using floats, and there are baited hooks attached at intervals of about 100 feet. They are a huge threat to the survival of many species of shark, including Blue sharks, Mako sharks, Hammerhead sharks, and several other species found here off the coast South Africa. Since long lines are far from species-specific, they catch all sorts of animals- sea turtles, whales, dolphins, seals, all kinds of fish, and even fishing birds. Here are a couple images of some unfortunate long line bycatch.





The majority of sharks that are caught using long lines are caught only for their fins; the rest of the body is usually discarded back into the ocean and considered “bycatch” (shark meat is of relatively low economical value, so most fisherman are strictly interested in just the fins). Shark finning also takes place by fishing for individual sharks, bringing them onboard and cutting off their dorsal and pectoral fins while they are still alive, and then throwing the live shark back into the ocean. The sharks then sink and starve to death, are eaten by another animal, or drown since they cannot move to force water through their gills for oxygen. I know this is a disturbing photo, but after seeing the footage of finning, I think it's important for people to actually see how terrible it really is, rather than just hearing about it...



Shark fins are sought after most specifically to accommodate the ever-increasing demand for shark fin soup, an Asian delicacy. Shark fin soup can fetch up to $100 per bowl, and is eaten mainly by affluent consumers and travelers to Asia who are unaware of the decimation that shark finning causes. The fin is tasteless, providing only a gelatinous bulk for the soup, which is then flavored with chicken or other stock. It is served in many restaurants and sometimes served at weddings as a sign of affluence.

These irresponsible fishing practices are leading to the decimation of many shark species. Since 1972, the populations of Blacktip, Tiger, and Bull sharks have decreased by over 90% each. Long lining and shark finning has become an enormous problem in many parts of the world, including South Africa, and the limited resources for regulation of this issue allows it to happen more often than not. Organizations like SOS are striving to make the public more aware of this worldwide problem, but there is still a long way to go before shark populations and many other species are in the clear.

So, on a lighter note, this past weekend was a fabulous end to the week. On Friday night we said goodbye to a fellow VAC intern heading home to Germany, and Saturday was spent lounging on the beach at St. James, which is near where I work in Kalk Bay. My roommate Gen and I took the train down and set up shop on the sand for a few hours- it was beautiful. Unfortunately we didn’t spot any sharks in the water (they are regularly seen offshore in that area- especially in the summer), but it was a great beach day nonetheless. We headed home to change and grab a cab to Newlands, where the Western Province rugby team was playing the visiting Durban Sharks in a regional championship match. It was my first rugby match since seeing some in Australia, and the atmosphere was amazing. The stadium was packed, and people were completely amped about supporting their Western Province team. The Afrikaans cheer that we were chanting the whole time was “WP Jou Lekker Ding!” which is pronounced nothing like how it looks, but means “Western Province, you’re a really good thing!” or something cheesy like that. Here is a picture of some of my fellow VAC interns and myself at the match:



It was pretty hilarious to see a bunch of American and Canadian girls yelling in Afrikaans… I think the Afrikaaners next to us got a kick out of it, too :) We followed up the rugby game with my first night out in Claremont, a neighborhood just south of my home in Observatory. So all in all a successful, super fun weekend! Wish me luck for the week ahead with tons of kids running around SOS- should be interesting! Hope all is well back home and that everyone is enjoying fall!

Dusky dolphins and Save Our Seas!

Hello everyone!

So it’s official: I started my real internship today at Save Our Seas (SOS). I had a meeting this morning with Meg Ledeboer, the woman who will be my supervisor for the duration of my time at the shark research center. SOS is located in Kalk Bay, which is a beautiful little seaside town with a working fishing harbor and lots of little shops and cafes. It is about a 35 minute ride on the train, but the view is amazing- the last 10 or so stops are right along the beach and I have a full view of the sea (as long as the train’s not too crowded :).

Vanessa, my internship coordinator, picked me up this morning at 9 am and drove me there just to help me become familiar with the area before having to take the train alone. Vanessa actually knows Meg from her time at the University of Cape Town; Meg was head of the zoology department, and Vanessa studied zoology. I can’t believe how lucky I was to get to know Vanessa, as she is responsible for connecting me with both Steve and now the people at Save Our Seas. I owe her big time.

Anyway, the meeting went very well and it sounds like there will be plenty of opportunities for me to get involved in different areas. They are hoping to expand and improve the area of SOS where the public can come in and browse, so they were hoping I would have some ideas about particular wall presentations and how to make the center more kid-friendly and educational. I will also be involved with some of the teaching of the school groups, and next week happens to be Marine Week, so there will be 60-70 kids coming to SOS every day. The man who runs the school program is named Paul, and he said he’d be happy to have someone else along to teach and help with all the kids. They do shore investigations, where they take the kids out in front of SOS when the tide is low and explore the various organisms that live in the five different zones: Littorina, Upper Balanoid, Lower Balanoid, Cochlear and Infratidal. They also take field trips out to Cape Point where they do a nature/marine walk and lecture for the kids. These trips are usually followed up by a video and short discussion about shark characteristics, safety and conservation back at SOS. All of that should be a lot of fun, and will definitely help me learn very quickly.

The last thing I’ll be doing, which I am so excited about, is joining Alison Kock, the primary White shark biologist at SOS, to head out on the boat to do some field research and see what working with White sharks is all about. Since Alison is in between research projects, I won’t be out with her every week, but hopefully I can get more involved in this over the next month. I can’t wait to experience this and hopefully contribute to their work in the field.

So that was today… yesterday was an absolutely amazing day as well. Steve, Vanessa and myself organized a VAC intern trip to Hout Bay with Steve’s boat, Animal Ocean, and not only did we dive with Cape Fur seals again, but we came upon a pod of Dusky dolphins that were incredibly playful. They stuck around our boat for over 15 minutes and when we all hopped in to dive with them they began darting around us and swimming alongside. Steve handed me his underwater video camera and I was able to take some pretty good footage of 10 or so different dolphins- it was an experience none of us will EVER forget. Here is a frame from the video footage I took:



This is a picture taken the same day by Evert Nel, one of Steve’s friends who is an amazing wildlife photographer:



From the crazy crowded minibus adventure getting eight of us out to Hout Bay, to the wild bumpy ride home in the waves, it was definitely one of the best days I’ve had yet in South Africa, if not ever. I can’t wait to get out again and see what else is out there!

This is a picture from a few days ago, when Steve took me out for my first Sevengill Cowshark dive. We were at a site called Miller's Point, which is on the way out to Cape Point. It is a gorgeous area for a shore dive, full of kelp and fish and these guys (it doesn't look very big in this photo, but it was probably about two meters long):



Here is a better photo (again taken by Evert Nel) to show how long they can get relative to a human:



I absolutely love this photo! They are amazing sharks- they have the most primitive skeletal structure of any shark and can be identified as individuals by the pattern of spots on their back. SOS is actually doing a Photo ID research project to try to identify individuals living in False Bay. The main researcher's name is Robert Raw, and his paper on the ID project is really interesting. The project is still being developed, and they are encouraging anyone who dives with the Cowsharks to take photos from above and submit them to SOS to increase their database. So, come dive with the sharks with Animal Ocean and you can be part of a really cool shark conservation project :)

Alright, so for now, I am going to do my best to settle in at SOS, and when research and projects and everything else gets underway I will surely update my blog with the latest events. Thanks to everyone who is keeping up with me, and feel free to e-mail or comment here, as I love hearing from anyone and everyone! I will leave you with this adorable picture of my friend Lydia, who is from the UK, squeezing into her 9 mm wetsuit!

Animal Ocean

Hello everyone!

I am trying my very hardest to keep up with the blogging, but I am already getting behind. There has been so much packed into the last two weeks, I could write for days and it wouldn't even cover half of it. Once I start my internship at Save Our Seas (this coming Monday, October 4th), things will probably slow down a little bit. I am so, so, SO grateful to have gotten to know Steve and to experience what he has shown me over the past few weeks. I feel like I have gotten the V.I.P. treatment and a total insider's look at Cape Town and its surroundings.. Steve has brought me to so many places that I otherwise never would have been able to venture to, and I am so lucky for that!

The last week or so has been filled with more diving, exploring the coastline, and doing projects for Steve's website, Animal Ocean (check it out, and then come to Cape Town and do some diving/exploring with him- he is awesome!). Tuesday this week was awesome.. we hiked up a trail called Silvermine and to Elephant's Eye Cave, which overlooks tons of vineyards and all of beautiful False Bay, where Seal Island is located. Steve's cousin Alison came along, and it was so much fun to hear more about life here and what it's like to be a 20-something in this part of the world. We took some incredible pictures and found a Table Mountain cockroach (yum!), various beetles (more Steve's thing than mine...), and some really cool lizards.



Elephant's Eye Cave provided amazing views of False Bay and we were able to take some great shots from within it, where the cave outline formed a kind of frame around False Bay:



Yesterday was an absolute BLAST- I took the train to Plumstead, the stop where he usually picks me up, around 9 am, and we started the day off having no plan whatsoever beyond a potential free dive at a site near Cape Point. After deciding to take a little road trip out to Cape Point and stopping to see wildlife along the way, we packed up dive gear and headed out. Little did I know we would end up seeing penguins at Boulders Beach, baboons along the side of the road, ostriches and their chicks feeding on the beach, and five or six different cow sharks during our dive. It was absolutely stunning- both the views of the coastline from the road and each animal that we saw. Here are a few of my favorite photos from the day:



Nesting penguin at Boulder Beach (literally right next to the parking lot)



One of many baboons just hanging out on the side of the road



Coastline on the way out to Cape Point



Ostriches and their chicks on the beach

There are quite a few more that I love, but since it takes so many MB and so much time to upload on here I have just picked out my favorites :) Here is one that is not so scenic, but I like it because this is basically what I have been wearing for the past two weeks and this was just before I saw my first Sevengill Cow sharks!



Hope everyone likes these! Today consisted of office stuff for Steve, including finishing up a presentation for him to use for clients on the boat before seal diving and cow shark diving. We printed those off, I printed and laminated a few pictures to put up on my (very bare) bedroom walls, and then I came home to do laundry, clean, and cook some dinner with the roomies. The next few days will most likely consist of exploring more of Cape Town with roommates, doing a few hikes, and a possible seal dive in Hout Bay again, this time bringing along other VAC interns for Steve to meet and entertain :)

Start my internship Monday- eeek! Wish me luck with all the shark experts :)

I'll leave you with this little treat, thanks to Evert, one of Steve's friends who loves to do wildlife photography and joined us last week for a dive with the seals:

Heritage Day in SA

Hello!

Today was Heritage Day here in South Africa, celebrating South Africa's history and all its people. It's also known as "braai" day here in Cape Town, which means something similar to a barbeque. It is a national holiday, and because of that most everyone was out and about rather than at work. All museums in Cape Town are free, and there are large street festivals and markets throughout the city. It was a beautiful day here (the first warm day since I've arrived!), so my roommates and I decided to take advantage of that and get out to explore.

One of my roommates teaches dance in a township near Cape Town, and for Heritage Day her students put on a performance down at the Community Gardens this afternoon. The Community Gardens are a number of green spaces and walkways near downtown that are covered with gardens, koi ponds, picnic areas and cafes. It's a really nice area to sit and enjoy a sunny day.

There were four other groups in addition to my roommate Leah's students, and all the performances were pretty amazing. I tried to upload a clip of one of the dancers, but it takes way too long with my internet connection here, so I will stick to posting some pictures of the performaces on facebook and just a select few here:



Leah's group did hip hop, which was very cute, since they are all late elementary to early middle school age. The performance lasted for about an hour, and then we headed to the nearby South African museum, which featured exhibits on different South African groups and their traditions, including the various languages spoken throughout the country, the different artifacts found in each region, and the differing rock art found in each area. There was also an enormous exhibit on marine life of South Africa, so of course this was my favorite part. There was a large shark exhibit put on by Save Our Seas, where I will be interning, so I spent the better part of two hours strolling through that. Very, very cool.

We then headed to the V&A Waterfront to do some sightseeing and a little shopping (essentials: laundry basket, sheets, etc. Almost went nuts buying trinkets and clothes for Will and Worden, but was able to resist for the time being). The waterfront area is beautiful due to its backdrop of Table Mountain and Lion's Head, and also just because of the amount of African art and hand-made items being sold on the street. We strolled through the massive mall there for about an hour, picked up a few things, and then took a taxi home (my first South African taxi ride.. quite interesting). All in all it was a very good day, and I am glad we got out to see everyone enjoying Heritage Day.

The last few days have been quite hectic with a number of dive and snorkel trips. On Tuesday I headed over to Steve's (Animal Ocean owner) to help him with some research for his website, and around 11 am he got a call from a good friend of his who was excited about the Yellowtail near Robben Island, so we spontaneously packed up his boat and headed out to the shores off Robben Island with a few of his fisherman friends to do some spearfishing. I mostly dove in and snorkeled around, hoping no White sharks would appear, and watched the guys chase the fish. One of Steve's friends, an avid fisherman who owns his own fish shop in Constantia, told me a few stories about his White shark encounters. He and a friend were flipped out of the water by a five meter shark one time while spearfishing (the shark came up underneath at a high speed in order to breach while hunting them, like they do to seals near Seal Island). They managed to put a spear in it's eye so that it swam away. Another time he came face to face with a six meter White shark while diving in a kelp bed, and the shark tried to come close enough to bite him but ended up getting scared of the kelp and swam away. CRAZY, I tell you.

Anyway, it was a beautiful day, but the water was still pretty frigid (for me, at least)! We spent about five hours out that day, and in the end we took home six good sized Yellowtail. Watching those guys fish is amazing... they are so enthusiastic about it and so skilled. The next day we took some clients seal diving in Hout Bay, and unfortunately it turned out to be quite windy and overcast for most of the morning, so the three eleven-year-olds were not too excited about getting in the water. But, once they got in and saw the seals all around them they were pretty amped up and could ignore the cold for a few minutes. Everyone ended up having a great time (except for one dad who was seasick and throwing up off the side of the boat- not good), and they took me and Steve out to lunch after the trip. Here is a picture of a shipwreck in Hout Bay that is really beautiful (at least I think so):



This weekend Steve headed up the coast to do some spearfishing with friends at a "holiday house" (what we would call a cabin), and although he invited me to come along I decided to stay in Cape Town to celebrate Heritage Day and have a few days to spend with my roommates, since I haven't had time to get to know them very well yet. It is nice to have a few days out of the water, since I feel like my body has taken quite a beating over the last week and a half! Not sure if I'm cut out for this cold water diving every day :)

SO that's mostly what I have been up to- there are a lot of minor details that I have forgotten for the moment, but hopefully seeing pictures on facebook will fill in the blanks. Missing everyone at home, but enjoying my surroundings in Cape Town! I will try to keep this up once a week- especially once my internship starts on October 1st. Love you all!