From Great Reds to Great Whites

Puncture dealt with, we headed off down the Cape Peninsula and our home for the night, Simon's Town backpackers. The main draw of this town is the colony of African penguins who reside at the nearby Boulders Beach. The beach itself is very attractive with white sand strewn with beautifully rounded boulders. It makes a lovely setting for taking photographs of the very cute penguins. I could have spent hours watching them go about their business of building nests, protecting their young, bickering and wandering off down the beach for a plunge into the icy cold sea. I had to be dragged away before I filled yet another memory card with photos. There was just enough time before it started getting dark to make it to Cape Point and the renowned Cape of Good Hope, the most south-westerly point of Africa (as apposed to the most southerly), where we duly stood in line to take our photo next to the sign proclaiming this.

The next morning the weather had improved greatly, which we were grateful for, as the National Botanical Gardens, Kirstenbosch, was on the agenda. These lovely gardens sit between some very smart suburbs of Cape Town and the backside of Table Mountain offering some gorgeous views. There also happens to be a very pleasant cafe were we indulged in breakfast and then, after our walk around the garden, a very luxurious English tea complete with cucumber sandwiches and scones. Worth the trip for this alone.

We continued on our journey, skirting around the edge of the township area of Cape Flats, marking a strong contrast with the massive white washed villas and the armed security card patrol cars of the leafy suburbs around Kirstenbosch. However, soon you are in the countryside again and after around forty minutes or so you pass the first vineyard of the famous Stellenbosch wine area. Stellenbosch itself is a very attractive town with avenues of oak trees, quaint little whitewashed buildings and a old university town vibe. We stayed at the very smart (for a backpacker) Banghoek Place and enjoyed a quiet night in, catching up on episodes of House and making sure we were hangover free for the next day's activity, which was, naturally, wine tasting.

Whilst it is very feasible to drive yourself around the vineyards, in particular given the high drink driving alcohol limit here, we opted for being driven around in a minibus so that there was no limit to our indulgence. This proved to be a good idea as South African wines are decidedly drinkable (and strong). We started the day at Simonsig where we were given a quick tour before tasting the excellent quality wines, starting with their well known sparking wine (this being the first estate in the country to produce bubbly), followed by a lovely pinotage (the only grape specific to South Africa), and finishing with the standout Merindol Syrah (probably the best wine of the day). After that I'm afraid my memory of the wines is not quite so good. The second stop of the day was the Fairview estate, near Paarl, which in addition to producing wine, produces goats cheese and award wining camembert which made a an excellent addition to the tasting. The final vineyard of the day was Tokara, which is ultra modern in design with beautiful views back to Table Mountain in the distance. We finished off the day with dinner a Wijhuis, and a bottle of the entertainingly named Goats do Roam, from the Fairview estate.

We decided that there was time for one last vineyard, so stopped off at Vergelegen the next day, on our way towards to coast. The grounds of this estate are very large, with a very picturesque Cape Dutch style homestead. We had a pleasant lunch and a decent glass of white before continuing on to Klien Bay, the base for our next adventure – diving with Great White sharks. The weather had unfortunately turned pretty miserable, and we sat in our guest house watching the storming weather approaching with some intrepidity. To be honest it was cold enough out of the water let alone in it and we were almost hoping the trip would be cancelled because of the weather.

However, our luck was in, and next morning at 8am we were bundled onto a boat, huddling in fleeces and rain coats, and speeded off to Dyer Island, home to African penguins and seal breading colonies, and as a result shark-infested water. At this point, I really didn't know if I more scared of the thought of getting in the cold water or of the sharks. Our luck continued – as soon as we got to the island, and the crew had tossed bucket loads of anchovy oil and fish blood into the water, we got our first glimpse of a dorsal fin circling around the boat. Within minutes we'd squeezed into our 7mm wetsuits and been shoved into the cage attached to the side of the boat. It was then a case of holding your breath and diving down each time the shark approached whilst being careful not to let any of your limbs poke through the cage. They circled in front of us, checking out the tuna which the crew were enticing it in with. A couple of times it headed straight at us which was pretty exciting, although didn't make great photos as it churned up the water reducing visibility to almost zero.

I was initially disappointed that the operators who do these trips don't use scuba gear, but in reality, as the best views of the sharks are near the surface, its not a problem. They claim the reason is that, as you don't know whether the sharks will turn up five minutes or two hours into the trip, it takes too long to get people into the water with scuba gear on. Whilst this may be true, I also think the fact you can get more people into the cage without gear at one time may be a factor.

After twenty minutes of watching the sharks from the surface whilst the rest of the group had a go, we got back in the water. Unfortunately, by this time, the sharks had got bored of us and we sat shivering for twenty minutes seeing absolutely nothing. Nevertheless it was still a great experience and we felt privileged to be so close to these awesome creatures. The tour operators were keen to emphasise the dangers facing the Great White's existence, who some experts believe will be extinct within 10-20 years, and do their best to make sure the tours have as little impact on the sharks as possible. We saw three sharks in total and the largest of these was around three meters. This is apparently pretty large for sightings these days as the larger ones are becoming rarer and rarer due to them being killed for their jaws as trophies. As the female sharks can't breed until they are around four meters this has a huge impact on the species.

Back on dry land and eventually warm again, we watched the storm approaching, which was forecast to have swells of up to eight meters. Indeed the next day was pretty miserable, so we mainly stayed in the car, briefly jumping out at Cape Agulhais, the most southern point of Africa and the point were the Indian and Atlantic oceans officially meet. Whilst its claim to fame is more impressive than the Cape of Good Hope, it is unfortunately less attractive. As the wind increased we arrived at Little Brak River, near Mossel Bay. Our backpackers for the night proved to be an excellent choice as there was no one else there giving us a bathroom, kitchen and living room to ourselves. Excellent opportunity to catch up on some more House.