Wednesday 22 August 2012

Task #10 - Swim With Sharks


This task, I thought, was never going to get accomplished because my mother would never allow me to dive with a predator around. However, this time she willingly allowed me to do so as it was in a controlled environment :)


So, on a recent trip down to Cape Town I went diving in the Aquarium with five ragged-tooth sharks, also known as gray nurse sharks. There has never been any fatal attacks on humans from these sharks, but there have been attacks.... I went into the tank with only the dive master and got to spend 30 minutes with the sharks, as well as stingrays, turtles, and a whole bunch of fish! It was awesome!


The dive master allowed the sharks to come super close to me, I think at one point, one shark was only 15cm away from my head. It was a little bit nerve-wracking but it was such an amazing experience......





I'm so excited I managed to get this one checked off my bucket list, and so far it has been my favourite experience..... <3

Task #9 - Go On A Road Trip

Hey Bloggers! I'm sorry I haven't been posting things in a while, been a tad busy. But one of my latest ventures that I can remove from my bucket list is to go on a road trip!

My boyfriend and I decided to go and check out the Drakensberg region of South Africa. It's about halfway between Johannesburg and Durban and it's a massive mountain range. So it's ideal for outdoor people! :)

We decided to spend five days there and stay in different places along the way so we could see and experience as much as possible! Our plan was to stay at the Amphitheatre (cool mountain lodge place) the first night, then move down to Champagne Valley, and finally end up in Mooi River!

The plan did work, for the most part - it decided to snow! Normally the snowy week happens in July, but of course this year it decided to happen in August. ALL of the highways were closed once we got to our checkpoint at Harrismith.... Including the important main highways from Joburg to Durban.... It was crazy. We quickly booked ourselves into an inn in Harrismith and then made plans with our other accomodation to scoot everything back by a day. So it was a great start! But still, it was awesome, especially to see SNOW in AFRICA!!!! :)

The next morning we woke up to find that most of the roads were still closed but we managed to take back routes to the Amphitheatre! We spent a freezing night up in the mountains, but it was beautiful! :) Looked so much like the Alps! The following morning we decided to go on a hike up the Amphitheatre, because of the snow the hiking trail wasn't cleared properly, so we were literally walking in each others footprints on the edge of a very high mountain!!! I was scared, I won't lie!

After surviving we made our way through Champagne Valley and then finally reached Mooi River. We stayed at this beautiful lodge where the rooms are actually individual treehouses! :) Upon arriving, we were told that because of the 1m of snow, there was no electricity or water.... we had food and candles, so it was a fun night, consisting of candlelit dinner and flashlight billards :) But it was beautiful, our treehouse had an unobstructed view of the Drakensberg and it was magnificent....

 
Needless to say, it wasn't the trip we were expecting with a few issues and delays, but it was so worth it. The Drakensberg looks so much better with snow!!!!