Before I start I just want to say a massive happy birthday to the girlfriends mum, Lucy, who I know is one of my loyal readers of this blog. Hope you had a great day.
On to my day. I was told that I would be picked up from Berghof at 8, so I was up and about fairly early in order to make sure I was ready.
He arrived at 8:45. After 45 minutes waiting at reception chatting to Rosie, our receptionist, I was picked up. I was a bit annoyed but understood that there was probably a reason he was late. I got on the bus and chilled out for the 2 hour drive to Gansbaai.
When we got there, we sat down on a few tables and had breakfast while signing the documents we needed to sign, while our 'Shark Master', who was this big, rugged South African dude who looked as though he would happily fight sharks with his bare hands, told us about what was going to happen today.
At around 12, we set off. We travelled for about 15 minutes into the ocean, before setting the anchor and attaching the cage. We then all went upstairs for our briefing about the dos and donts of the day. While he was chatting they were testing out the bait, and a massive shark came up and snatched it. Naturally, we all then ignored our Shark Master and watched the Sharks, we had 3 circling the boat at this point. So far so good.
After he finished the briefing, we all headed downstairs to get our gear on. The winds started to pick up and the boat started rocking very heavily. Oh no. I used to get seasick as a kid, but on my last few boat trips it seemed as though my seasickness had gone down a bit. Oh no it hadn't. After getting my wetsuit, I went to the side of the boat to take a few breaths, and calm my dizzy head down before putting the wetsuit on. The wind picked up, the boat rocked harder and I felt worse and worse. Slowly people started to join me on the sides, feeling queasy too.
I didn't manage to get off the side. As the day progressed the boat rocked harder and harder, it got colder and colder, and I felt worse and worse. By the end of it, there was 3 of us puking over the sides. There was a middle aged woman on my right who was puking, so I had her hair in my right hand so she didn't mess it up, while I was puking, and the guy on my left had his right hand on my back, helping me out, while he was puking too. We looked like a right rough trio, all puking, all helping eachother out.
I was distraught. I missed everything because of my sickness. I had hoped to go down in the cage, but every time I got up to go towards it I felt rough again. I missed the best day to go down, too. They told us after that if they get 3-5 sharks, it's a very good day. We had 8 sharks around the boat. Everyone went in 3/4 times, except for yours truly. The sharks we huge, and getting so close to the boat. I was absolutely gutted. My luck is against me this weekend.
Hoping for an early night tonight, aiming to visit Robben Island tomorrow, so hopefully I'll be alright for that. We'll see.
Wifi's down again so this post may appear tomorrow morning, so I apologise in advance if it's late.
Harry
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