Our Shark Diary - March/April 2008
You may have noticed that there was no newsletter for March. My apologies! We opened our new shark shop on the 1 st of March and I have literally been run off my feet for March and early April.
You really didn’t miss much in March as we had so much wind, which was really strange for that month, that we had to cancel over 14 trips in the month, basically half the month. March is really early in the season and we normally have around 70% shark sightings then. Of the trips we did have, we saw sharks on almost every trip, bar 2, which is really good. We also had fantastic dolphin sightings and Brides Whales. We even had a few breaches, which is very early.
In April the shark cage diving industry suffered a terrible loss. On the 13 th of April, a freak wave struck an operators boat in Gaansbaai (the other shark diving area off Hermanus). The boat was anchored off a reef and a huge wave hit it and capsized the vessel. Sadly, 3 tourists, two American and a Norwegian where trapped under the boat and drowned. We could not get to sea that day as the conditions in False Bay where too rough, but we had minute by minute updates of the rescue operation. The rescue operation was very quick and professional, and between the rescue crew and other boats in the area 16 of the 19 people on the boat where saved. It is a very sad accident to have happened.
This brings me to the point of Safety. Safety is something we take very seriously. Our vessel is always up to date with its marine survey, we have more than enough life jackets, and our crew is trained in First Aid and CPR. We always have a dive master on board our vessel as per regulations, and before each trip, we give our guests a safety talk. We also only go out to sea in good conditions.
Rob and I have just come back from the Kruger National Park. Normally we tend to go to away to the bush to remote area’s, with no electricity, no camp game fences, just us and the wild. As we only had a few days in the area, and we had the two little kids with us, we decided to visit S.A’s most famous game park. We came back very impressed with the wild life we saw. I would really now recommend the Kruger Park, for the average person, who doesn’t have a lot of time in South Africa, and wants to see good wild life. Accommodation varies from private lodges to camping or staying in self catering bungalows in the park. The ablution facilities are excellent, as are the picnic sites. The only down fall is that it is very commercial and thus there is a lot of people there, and for us it didn’t feel as though we where in the bush at all.
On of our best experiences was watching a herd of elephants grazing in the grass in a river bed. We were on a bridge when I spotted a crocodile in an elephant’s path. Now elephants have terrible eye sight, and the crocodile was up wind, so they were totally unaware of each other. We waited for a long while, and watched the ellie move towards the croc. Suddenly when it was almost on top of the croc, he spotted it. He nearly jumped out of his skin, he reared up, his ears flapped, and he trumpeted and veered away.
The other experience was a lion kill. We spend hours watching two lionesses and 4 cubs that had killed a young buffalo. The amazing thing is that the next day when we returned at dawn, the lioness and cubs were still there. This is not usual, as cubs are very susceptible to being killed by hyenas. And for the lionesses to stay overnight at a kill, that would have attracted many predators and scavengers certainly surprised us.
Our shark shop is also a bookings office for other trips,( winelands, skydiving, baboon walks, nature trails etc) including trips to the Kruger Park, so if you are wanting to go on a safari after your time with us, please let us know and we can arrange it for you.
Until next month
Best Fishes
Karen Lawrence |
