Zebras, Ostriches, and Sharks

2-17
After class the other charlie, jenny and i decided to go walk around on the campus nature reservation. It is a quite big area of land that has quite a few different animals. Charlie got a phone call once we got in and had to leave so jenny and I set off to see some animals. At first we saw a huge hare, and it ran away once it saw us. Then we kept walking and saw another hare, and we kept going on and all of a sudden I saw something move way in the distance. I couldn't see it but kept looking, and all of a sudden out of no where I see a zebra that is quite camouflaged and all of a sudden looked more and there was a total of 10 in all but it was hard to see them until they moved because those stripes hide them well. We also saw some hartebeest, grysbock and birds. It was quite cool because the nature reserve is like in our backyard and thus meaning zebras live in my backyard! That was about it for the week until Friday.

2-19
Once I got home from class Jaime Rachel and Jason all were on the phone trying to book for shark diving. They asked us last minute if we wanted to go so Mike, and I joined in with them. First we booked the shark diving and had it on Saturday the 20Th, at 9 am. We were booked but we didn't yet have a vehicle to get there. So Jason Mike and I go to the airport and rent a car from Avis and we get on the road 2 hours within of randomly making reservations to shark dive. The place we were headed was to Mossel Bay, South Africa. This is a 4 and a half hour drive from Port Elizabeth. SO we got on the road and had some phone numbers for hotels and called on the way but the only hotel room we could have booked was 1,500 rand, and was the presidential sweet. We were not going to pay $200 us so we decided we would book once we got there and we made it to mossel bay found a decent hotel and stayed there. The room actually was one of the nicest hotel rooms I have stayed in with a California King sized bed, a queen sized futon mattress, and one twin bed. It was only $100 US and so only $20 for each of us. We went to bed early for our adventure the next day.

2-20
We woke up early and drove to the harbor. We had troubles finding the place and nearly went and moved cones to get to a restricted area, but we then decided that was to sketchy and turned around and found it. We eventually got in the boat the Shark Warrior, with 14 total people and headed off to sea. We were on the boat for about 40 minutes and we got to the spot where we then started to chum for shark with fish guts, and I don't mean I did this but the crew did. After an hour of baiting for sharks we spotted our first Great White shark. SO the crew put the 20 feet by 10 feet cage in the water and alerted the first set of divers to get in. Mike Jaime and Rachel were in the first group and what you do is they have a rope with a tuna head on it and throw it in front of the cage to get the shark to come by and then the people in the cage hold their breath and go down further in the water to see the shark. Later on Jason and I were able to get in and it was fantastic. It was crazy to see so many Great Whites attacking the bait and bumping into the cage. At one point one of the sharks came very fast straight on to the cage and rammed into the cage and ended up shaking the whole thing and bending one of the steel bars, while I was in the cage. It was such an adrenaline filled experience being so close to the great white that everyone watches on TV. All in all I was in the water in the cage for about an hour and by the end of the day we saw 14 different great white sharks. We also saw seals, and a baby hammer head shark. Shark diving was super fun and i took many pictures of it. When we were done shark diving we went home and napped and I went to bed early for our next day.

2-21
We woke up early at 5:30 and got on the road at 6:30 to Oudtshoorn to the Ostrich Farm. We drove through a very beautiful area called Robinson's pass http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/13315731.jpg for a picture. We got to the farm and had a little of a tour and information was given and we went to hand feed the ostrich corn. We fed about 4 of them and they are pretty aggressive and sometimes bite but they don't hurt when they bite. It is really funny to watch them and feed them. After we drove to the other side of the farm and went into a male and females cage and stood on ostrich eggs. They are equivalent to 24 chicken eggs, and can withstand 800 pounds of pressure. After this we went and sat on ostriches and mike and Rachel rode them. It was one of the funniest things I had ever seen them riding the ostriches. They sit on them and grab their wings and try to hold on, quite comical. After that we wathced 3 trainers race ostriches and that completed the tour. We then headed home and drove through the garden route which is South Africa's prettiest drive. It is along the ocean and very beautiful.

This next weekend I am going off the worlds tallest bungee jump and going zip lining in the canopy near waterfalls in tsiktkamma. http://www.stormsriver.com/images/HomePic3.jpg and here of the garden route http://www.kfptours.co.za/images/enlarged/garden_route.jpg.