Today I got up at 6, took a cab to the nearest train station, and took the train(a one hour trip) down to Simon’s Town where my scuba diving center was located. The trip costed $3. At 9, I dove the Seal & Cow Shark dives, though unfortunately neither showed up today. In addition, it was pretty cold out on the ocean. The windchill didn’t help either, but I did get to experience the “falling off the boat backward” dive launch. The boat was a small zodiac dive boat with twin Yamaha outboard engines that was driven to 40 knots. The water was very surgy, with ~25 ft(8m) of visibility on my 1st dive, and 3 ft(1m) of visibility on the 2nd. I was able to see some tiny Shy Sharks and some kelp, but apart from that it wasn’t all that interesting. Due to the large group, everyone kept bumping into each other and the cold weather made it difficult to regulate buoyancy by modulating lung oxygen content.

Meanwhile Rushi got up, had breakfast at the Cape Royale, and rented a car; a Hyundai subcompact – manual transmission, of course. He then drove down to Simon’s Town to pick me up.

After the dive, we headed south on the peninsula to Boulder’s Beach. The claim to fame of this beach is that it’s one of the few places in the world where penguins are always present and easily view-able. Before seeing the penguins we stopped to get some snacks at Cafe Penguino, also located on Boulder’s Beach. Rushi’s tomato & cheese sandwich wasn’t bad, but my egg & mayo sandwich was horribly disgusting. We are amazed that it is on their menu.

Sure enough, we saw dozens of African Penguins at Boulder’s. These penguins used to be called Jackass Penguins, but I guess they felt that was too mean to them so they changed it. They got the name due to the unusual sound they make, which is similar to someone playing a really long note on a broken accordion.

Still, these guys were pretty cute. Some of them were very shy, hiding under the walkways when approached & peeking their heads out, and others kept flapping their wings, as if trying to fly. Watching them try to navigate sandy terrain was especially hilarious, as they kept stumbling and almost falling over. It’s amazing they can survive outside of the water when they’re so clumsy(but are they as clumsy as they are stupid, Vader wonders.) They actually looked pretty intelligent.

On the way back we stopped by the Brass Bell for some drinks & pizza. The Bell is a bayside restaurant built literally on the rocky shore. Fierce waves were crashing right outside the windows and Rushi kept commenting on how it would make for some great surfing. I ordered a lemonade that had to be the best lemonade I’ve ever had, while Rushi had a beer. The pizzas were fantastic as well. The Bell had a great vibe and seems to have been around for a long time, as our hotel concierge used to visit it as a child.

We crashed soon after getting back to the hotel, since we were still on our Kilimanjaro schedule of getting up at 6 AM and sleeping by 9 PM.

Continue To Day 14 – Predator Exhibit Dive & The Cape of Good Hope

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Continue To Day 14 – Predator Exhibit Dive & The Cape of Good Hope