Off road adventures in a Christmas Stocking

Men are notoriously difficult to shop for, especially so when your husband says "I don't want anything for Christmas this year!" I am sorry, but that doesn't cut the mustard in my book, and so I could not leave his stocking hanging at the fire place looking all forlorn whilst Father Christmas brought everyone else a gift.

Oh what to do, what to buy? As I said, men are notoriously difficult to shop for!
First stop...the hardware store. I spend a good hour in there. I leave with a tape measure!!( He is always losing his, so that is a winner, I think).
Next stop, the mall. Spend at least an hour there. Leave with nothing!
Back to the hardware store. Another 30 minutes. Leave with a tool box. A man always needs another tool box!!!
Still the stocking gift alludes me. Darn it!

Its now Christmas eve!! Panick Stations!! When in doubt go into the book store.
The perfect gift spots me this time. Its the "Drive Out" Magazine.

A few months ago, whilst visiting my sister, Rob became so engrossed with this 4x4 outdoor enthusiasts magazine. The magazine even strangely found itself in our luggage on its way to Cape Town.

Christmas day arrives. The tool box gets a raised eye brow! The tape measure gets a strange look! But,the magazine gets a warm smile and a nod of approval! Hooray for Karen!!

Yesterday I picked it up to see what the "fuss" was all about. I was engrossed. What a fantastic magazine. I spent 3 hours reading cover to cover, every article, every readers post, everything!

I am now going to subscribe to "Drive Out", but am I doing it for Rob, or for me??

Relaxing in Greyton

On boxing day we were invite to go to some friends in Greyton. I haven't been there in ages and ages. For those who dont know the area, its a little country village about 2 hrs inland from Cape Town. It is nestled between 2 rivers, and Riviersonderend (river without end) mountain range. It is such a pretty place that you can literally lose yourself in its wonders. Its a place to go if you seriously want to do relax, and that is what we did.

We spend some time at the river. Rob, my dad and Jordan went for a paddle. Adam ran around with no clothes, like kids should and I ate more watermelon than I thought was possible.
A really awesome day was had by all.

T'is the season for snakes

We, ourselves, represent the most ferocious animal ever to inhabit the planet earth.

With summer here in Cape Town, not only do you have to be aware of sharks, but its also SNAKE season. The two snakes that are very much local to our area are the Cape Cobra and the Puff Adder. Both are extremely dangerous and can inflict serious damage if help is not immediately taken.

The Puff Adder is a slow moving lazy snake with a bad temper. This snake you will probably meet whilst hiking and almost stepping on it.When annoyed, it strikes vigorously in all directions and has the capability of a lightning-fast sideways strike without withdrawing the head. Fortunately it often gives warning of its intentions by hissing noisily. It relies on its perfect camouflage to escape detection and will rather freeze than move off. I think that it is a beautiful looking reptile.Here below are pics of Puff Adders.



The Cape Cobra is considered the most venomous African cobra, and is the cause of sudden snake bite fatalities. This snake is aggressive and will rear with its hood spread and advance in this posture if it is surprised or pursued.

Both feed on rats, mice, lizards, birds ( Cape Cobra) etc.

So now that I have mentioned the scary facts on these two beautiful reptiles, snakes play an extremely important role in nature and its really important that we conserve them.Someone as passionate for snakes as we are for sharks is Sean Thomas. First pic is of Sean with a Cape Cobra.He is an amateur herpetologist, who lives just around the corner from us, in Glencairn.(Nice snake territory!!), He has been involved with reptiles for over 22yrs and also does snake tour to teach people more about snakes and promote conservation of them.

Why not be brave and join him for a snake tour? His website is www.seanthomas.net

I think I will!!
Karen

The cat ...picture

Here is the pic from yesterday's post

A cat with class!

 

Here is the cutest pic sent in by Jurgen batsleerof of his cat wearing our beanie hat.

The Great Whites of False Bay

The Great Whites of False Bay was written by Dirk Schmidt. It depicts the Great White Sharks which dominate the False Bay area and present a unique hunting behavior of breaching during predatory events.

The book contains spell binding images of the Great Whites breaching and hunting seals within the False Bay area, as well as delving briefly into the life cycle of the Cape Fur Seal, Seal Island’s history and False Bay, without diverging too much from the awesomeness of the White Shark hunting these waters.

The Great White shark is undoubtedly one of the most well-known and most awesome apex or macropredator of the seas. It is the largest predating fish on earth and has earned a much maligned reputation as an indiscriminate man-eater.

Despite the enormous popular and scientific interest in the Great White, it remains one of the least understood of the sea's creatures. Its combination of size, menace and mystery, make the Great White Shark a modern day 'monster' that many people find irresistible.

Dirk Schmidt captures some awesome images of Great White Sharks in False Bay and illustrates the shark’s explosive presence during predatory events. His images of Great Whites allow us to share a rare insight into Great White Shark behavior

Women

Media Hype around shark incident

I have a google alert for tags on Great White Sharks and Shark cage diving. In the last two weeks, I have had about 50 alerts to a year old shark incident off Guadalupe Island, so I thought I would have my say as well.
Having seen the video footage, it is clear to me that there are two reasons why this incident occured.
Problem no 1. The Cage.-The viewing ports on that cage was too big for a normal commercial operation, where you have the average diver involved. Where you have a film crew involved and there is specialised filming equipment, yes, the ports are larger than normal, but those ports where far to large and thus the saftey of the diver was compromised.

Problem no 2. The bait handler. The bait handler has one of the most important jobs on the boat. His job is to use the bait to attract the shark to the cage, yet make sure the diver in the cage is safe.The bait should never be allowed to dangle in front of the cage unattended. The handler dragged the bait directly towards the cage, and the shark went straight for it and ended up with his whole body in the cage. ( The shark did not breach as reported. A breach is when a shark propels itself from the water).

Having dived in Guadalupe myself, there are some differences between our operations in False Bay, South Africa and theirs. One is the visibility. Guadalupe has excellent viz and so you should be able to see the shark from far off and thus handle your bait accordingly. We have sometimes only a few metres of vis and so our bait handlers must be quick on the mark, our aim is not feed them our baits. This takes skill and is not as easy as it looks,when it is done properly.

Saying all this,my post is not to have a dig at another operator. Merely to look at an incident and comment on it.

I had a great time in Guadalupe and was very happy with our operator. Rob

What urkes me is the way the media has portrayed this. Again as a "jaws hype". This sensationalism irritates me, using words like "man eater", "great white rips cage apart", and other such nonsense. Sensationalism does nothing to portray sharks in a positive light! Karen

Petition to sign

I am a member of Beyond Blue on Face Book and was sent this petition to sign. Now I am not a petition fan, reason being is that I don't think anything ever amounts to it, especially in South Africa.
However I have signed this because I love sharks and in hope that things actually change. I don't think its justifiable to kill any shark or any animal in fact so that us humans can have a nice safe time in the water, in game parks or where ever wild life is.

There is growing concern in the local and international community regarding the killing of sharks as a means of bather protection. Granted this method has been used for decades at certain bathing beaches, however it is becoming increasingly unacceptable to slaughter wild animals without strong justification.

Please show Shark Life your support by signing the petition following this link.

Thank you
Beyond Blue members

P.S. Please circulate to as many as you can.

http://www.sharklife.co.za/index.php?option=com_artforms&formid=13&Itemid=159

Pelagic shark Trips with African Shark Eco-Charters

The wind has just not stopped blowing. It is really unbelievable.

I remember reading stories of guys at the South Pole going literally mad by the sound of the wind, and I could never quiet understand what they where talking about. Last night as I sat at my kitchen table, the force of the wind pushing itself under the door made such a horrible whistling noise that it started giving me a head ache, that I started to understand how the wind can drive one mad.

We have a good few pelagic trips lined up, and hopefully we can get out.
Here is some info our trips.


From October to May each year the warm Agulhas current sweeps along the east coast of South Africa bringing with it its clear blue water that teems with life.
It is when this clear blue warm water arrives that we head off in search of our blue water predators.

This adventurous trip will take you past Cape Point, and we travel about 20 miles off shore in search of pelagic sharks such as the magnificent Mako and Blue Sharks. These majestic creatures rule this blue world known as the pelagic (open ocean) zone. We will either use the cage to snorkel, or with confident divers, we will personally snorkel with you around the boat. The visibility is normally clear and blue and can be over 30m (100ft) and water temp can exceed 23`c. These conditions make for great photo’s and editorials.

For naturalist wanting a bit of everything then this is a must, because from the moment we get out of False Bay we start to see wildlife that land lovers will never see, a multitude of pelagic birds can been seen including Skuas, Terns, Shearwaters, petrels, penguins as well as the possibility of seeing up to six different species of Albatross. Whales and dolphins of many species are also regular visitors on our run out into the deep.
Large shoals of yellow fin tuna (up to 100kg) and long fin tuna are seen and can sometimes circle the boat. If the fish are around we will try some fishing (catch and release, or for personal consumption).

Mako sharks have the ability to make prodigious leaps out of the water and this can been observed generally on clam weather days.

The average sizes of the Mako’s are around 5ft but we do get visitors of up to 10ft+, observing any Mako is a truly fantastic experience.

Blue sharks are afraid of very little and will approach diver with a lot of interest, only satisfied after a close inspection that you are not a food item; this is great for photos and memories.

I hope this has been of interest to you. I will next blog about the Blue and Mako sharks.

Holiday Season swimming precautions

16 men on a dead mans ship...Ho ho ho and a bottle of rum

With the holiday season here,everyone and their granny is heading off to the beach!

With more bathers,surfers and water sport users in the water,water accidents dramatically rise. Most of these are alcohol related.

Our shark spotters that sit on the mountain are constantly on the alert patrolling the surf zone for great white shark.

However, people must be aware that although the shark spotting programmes are considered very effective, they can never be 100% effective, and people must still use the sea at their own risk.

Considering the number of people who use the ocean on a daily basis, the actual number of attacks by Great White Sharks is extremely low. People are not the natural prey of the Great White Sharks. Cape Town has experienced 6 attacks in the last 5 yrs, and everyone entering the ocean must do so at their own discretion, knowing that they are entering a wild environment in which sharks naturally live.

We are entering their territory; they are not coming into ours.

Shark safety tips

If people exercise caution and are aware of their environment, the risk of attack can be lowered further. Here are some tips in reducing the risk of attack:

* Do not swim, surf or surf ski when birds, dolphins or seals are feeding nearby.
* Do not swim in deep water beyond the breakers.
* Do not swim if you are bleeding.
* Do not swim near river mouths.
* Do not swim, surf, surf ski at night.
* Do not swim near river mouths. Do not swim, surf or surf ski near where trek-netting,fishing or spear fishing is taking place.
* Do not dive for rock lobster using live bait.
* If a shark has recently been sighted in an area where no mountain watches are present, consider using another beach for the day.
* Obey beach officials if told to leave the water.
* Consider kayaking or surf skiing when far out to sea, in a group.
* Pay attention to shark signage on beaches.

I hope that you find this information helpful and you act responsibly in the water.

Shark Spotters

I was just surfing the web and always like to share interesting websites and blogs that I come across.

The shark spotters do a great job so check out there site.The site is very informative and a must for any surfer, and shark lover.

http://sharkspotters.blogspot.com/ and http://www.sharkspotters.org.za/home.htm

I must say I love their shark o meter