Protea Banks Dives

The next day we where able to dive. It was cold out and our wet suites where wet...yuck. The night of the election was 2 days prior, and everyone in Africa was celebrating. You could hear go Obama in the streets. Who did we happen to dive with... 2 Republicans, who where very sour about Obama getting into office. Allen a guy we where diving with just kept yelling go Obama,lol, it was really funny. We dove at Protea banks north pinnacles. There where caves and overhangs that we went through, found lots of sharks teeth. There where allot of dangerous fish in there like the lion fish and scorpion fish. This one guy we eventually started calling Blondy went in close for photos, not very smart considering the lion fish can kill you. I went through my air really quickly but at the same time I wanted to see how deep I could go. I went 37 meters...wowza. South Africa is one of the only places in the world that will let you go that deep. The second dive that day was good not as exciting it was in the south pinnacles of protea banks. It was nice diving of course but probably one of my least favorite dives. Gerri and I went to Karen's place for a Braai (barbecue) and we had Grissel which is really thick bacon strips barbecued, and traditional South African sausages, wow was it good.

South Africa 2

I am home now but thought I would update, seeing as I didn't do that much before. The day after the last post, the diving was still delayed. We ended up geting moved from our orriginal room in Breakerview to a bigger one without a beach view. We decided to Hire (rent) a car and we ended up going to a place called Oribi Gorge. One the way there we got lost a few times, almost going to Durban during the first scenic ruite. Oribi Gorge ended up being a beautiful drive up the mountain. Little huts where everywhere. It was crazy to see the people dressed so nice, boys with the backwards hats just like you would see walking the streets of canada, except you would see them crawl out of the clay huts. Homes where either made of clay or brick, mostly brick. On the hills if alot of the homes made of Brick didn't have roofs. When we got to Oribi Gorge we first got something to eat. The inviroment was amzing. We sat on big fluffy couches outside overlooking the forest. After food we drove around and made our way to the big 5 site. There I decided to do the swing jump. The swing there is the largest in the world and is at the top of a water fall 100 meters high. You have to walk down this metal cage ladder then get straped to safety cables. Gerri pushed me forward so I would go first, the brat. When I looked down I though, what the heck am I doing? The man there was very nice, I told him he might have to push me. The count down started then what do you know I felt 2 hands pushing me right off the cliff. There was an outline of a body at the bottom to make matters worse. Wow though it was a crazy feeling falling then being slowly pulled back up. If we had no though of money we would do it again. After we walked around to the table over hang. You can see where we jumped and baboon castle really well. We started walking around when I heard rustling in the bushes, scared me until a deer jumped out and ran away. We got back to the main hut and got a few things from the gift shop.

Ok so our trip here was very very long. The london airport is a bit of a nightmare, and our plane was delayed so we had to run like hell when we got to johansberg. When we got to Durban it was like being on the beach. We caught a shuttle bus to Shelly Beach and the next day started our diving lessons.Karen is our instructor and an amazing person. She's dived all over the world. The first three days where in the pool doing drills. We got into the ocean the boat ride out is very exciting with boat going in all directions. We went to Raggies Cave off of Alawal Shoal, and as soon as we got down there there where tones of sharks everywhere. They are sand tiger sharks and very doppy animals. I was a little nervious but it didn't take long to realize they are as harmless as a fish. We also saw a green turtle which was great. The next dive we had some divers that hadn't dived in a really long time. Hugh was a older man and he got sick on the way out and almost pucked on me, lost a fin and paniced on the way up. all not so nice. The next day we did a deep 30 meter wreck dive. you can get something called narcosis (a.k.a. drunk-osis) which makes you feel like your are drunk underwater. I went down to fast and had some problems with my regulator so I had to come up and then I was ok. The wreck was amazing it was at a place called pruduce which was a ship that went down 100's of years ago. There where these large brittle bass fish that where about twice the size of us. You can't tell from the pictures though. The next dive was my fav. where you don't attatch the bouy line and drift with the current. It was amazing to see all the fish. We saw more sharks, 2 turtles and a hammer head shark.

Today we can't dive because of the weather. It was supose to be at protea banks. Protea is one of the top 5 diving sites in the world. Then as soon as we can we will do the baited dive in search of the tiger sharks.

Africa is such a beautiful place. There are monkeys everywhere on the side of the road. Can't wait to do the safari's.