south africa

I dont even know how to describe such an amazing vacation! there was numerous times where i sat there in disbelief that not only was on vacation in south africa, but it was just me and my twin sister!
it started off with giggle fits in vancouver, we were so excited to get started on our trip!!! had sushi ( my first time since i left that i had sushi) and set off for our trip. Garnettes first international flight, OMG! lol i was ready to just zone out, sleep, think, read. She wanted to talk..... lol! it was a lot of waiting and long hours flying! 3 days later we arrived in south africa!
Even now i think back, wow! We caught a bus to Shelly beach and arrived at our hotel.
We had a room right off the water! We struggled to make it till 8!lol! i woke up at 5am and just sat outside enjoying the sunrise, the water, watching the waves role in!
the first day was meeting our instructor Karen, and swimming in the pool. going threw the basics, of course. naturally we went to a fish restaurant and ate nothing but fish the whole trip!

We bickered a fair bit in the beginning but we were good after that!
we were in the pool for 3 days before we went to alowoa shoal for our first dive!! woop woop!
well we did everything we needed to and we dropped down to 18m with no problems. within seconds we had our first encounter with a shark! It was really only a grey nurse shark ( sand tiger shark, raggae shark) with tons of teeth coming out of its mouth. Really they are harmless as any fish. you bump into them, they just swim away! There were so much fish, sharks, and a large turtle,It was a great start to our trip!
our second dive was the same place which was alright, more grey nurse sharks.

our 3rd day of diving was the best! We started with a wreck dive! It was amazing, we saw brindle bass, one was the size of 2 people! HUGE! We got to coast along the wreck, went inside a bit, enjoy the change of senery!! We had another dive that day, our first actual drift dive!! woop woop! it was a gorgeous day and we just coasted along, the areas that we moved over, so many scenery! we saw a hammerhead in the distance tooo!!!! another massive turtle! Garnette and I ( besides the baited dive) dubbed this dive as our favourite!

The 2 next days we couldnt dive because of the weather. We spent a lot of the first day walking a long the beach! It was such an amazing view! We ate fish at a recommended restaurant that was just down the beach! We didnt mind the walk at all. Mind you we had to be carefull walking when there was no one else on the beach, made us a bit more vulnerable, but we did alright, and we would be so content afterwards, at least i was! Garnette taught me backgammon a long the way so we would have wine, play backgammon and look out along the beach at night! Lol makes me sigh just thinking about it!
Our second day off we went to Oribi Gorge! We went to the biggest swing in the world!!!! its more or less bunji jumping! lol ha ha i got garnette to go first! she was asking if people didnt go if they would push her off! lol so when the guy did the count down he pushed her right off! lol too funny! i took my camera down with me i was taking all these pics on the way up!lol Wow it felt like i fell forever! In the beginning it was like OMG, then the next moment, i didnt want it to end!

The day we could dive was awsome, we spent 2 dives at 30-40m drift dives along reefs and looking for sharks. well...... being new we used up our air fairly quickly so we misse a SCHOOL OF HAMMERHEADS!!!! damn, that would of been nice to see! Contrairy to popular belief, hammerhead sharks are not very dangerous! look at where there eyes and mouth is situated!!!
Anyways we both had good dives and couldnt wait till the baited dive!

DAY OF OUR BAITED DIVE!!!!!
We woke up to a beautiful day and couldnt wait to get out there!!!
On the way out i felt so relaxed and happy i said, what a beautiful day! lol i guess the way i said it was pretty funny and they were making fun for it!LOL
first dive was more or less checking things out, another drift dive! The current was a little strong so as i was waiting for people that were diving 40m at the reef, my weight belt fell off!!!! Thats how you get the benze! Without the weight belt, i would of shot to the surface, from 30m thats a very very bad thing!!! Al and and roland (Al was an experienced diver there that i became friends with, Roland was the dive master) grabbed on to me, i got the belt around me, Al, tightened it on. fwwwww a close call!
So we waited a couple hours then did the baited dive! COULDNT WAIT! We went out to the spot, threw the bait in with fish oil and blood and coasted along spreading the bait threw the water to attract the sharks!
Mark, one of the guys that worked there dove down and came up with excitment, there was a massive tiger shark and to get in ASAP! Damn germans that were all disorganized but we got in there eventually! i got so close to the Tiger shark it was amazing! Soon we looked below us and there were tons of zambizis below us! WOW! eventually they got closer and closer to the point that they almost hit my fins they came so close!!!! OMG!lol! the tiger left for a bit then came back and repeatedly attacked the bait bucket and the wire it was attached too! OMG it was the most amazing feeling in the world, i was amazed at how close it came! Really, if it would attack i wire bucket full of small fish, what would stop it from attacking us! Thats what made it so excilerating!!!! Garnette was the first up, and when i went up, she said she was almost in tears, she felt like screaming, crying she didnt know what to do she was so excited! It was an unbelievable feeling to do that for someone! To watch the sharks, to watch her so happy, thats what made my trip in the end!
The trip was for her, she knew she deserved and i had probably as much fun in the end! It really was the trip of a life time! I will never forget it!
So we waited a couple hours then did our baited dive!