Great White Sharks!

About two hours out of Cape Town lies the small South African town of Kleinbaai, on Shark Bay. It is known as the "World Capital of the Great White Shark," one of most incredible creatures in the sea.

It was there that I joined a group of people going for an open ocean cage dive, where you climb into a metal cage while fish guts and seal decoys are thrown into the water. Then ... you wait for the great whites to arrive.

And they did! Two of them rammed our cage with open mouths, and we could see right down past their teeth into their mouths. It was an awesome (and terrifying) experience! I'll never forget it!

The marine biologist aboard, Alison, throws out a seal decoy to attract the sharks.

Alison took this picture from the deck of the boat. This female shark was 4 metres long.


I took this picture with a disposable waterproof camera inside the cage.


Some (blurry) underwater photos

Danger! Danger!

Penguins! And baboons!

On the way south to Cape Point, there lives a colony of wild African Penguins. You can walk along a raised sidewalk to visit them, seeing their nests and eggs. They are about the cutest things I've ever seen!

If you look closely at the photo below, you'll notice an egg at the feet of the penguin in the centre. Also, to the upper left of that penguin you'll see a young penguin, still covered in brown down.

Further along the road there was a small troop of "chacma" baboons eating roots and insects along the highway. There were several signs posted warning people not to feed them, as they can get rough. Baboons get into gardens and garbages, kind of like raccoons back home. They've learned the sound made by locking a car ("beep, beep"), and if they don't hear it, they'll try to break into the car. Pretty smart animals!

Table Mountain

If you lived in Cape Town and you looked out your window, you'd probably see Table Mountain. If you look at the photo to the right, you can probably tell why it is named after that piece of furniture.

Table Mountain is thought to be one of the oldest mountains on Earth, almost five times older than our Canadian Rocky Mountains. It sits high atop the city of Cape Town, and yesterday I rode a cable car to its top.

You can hike all around the top of the mountain, and I learned that at one time elephants could be found stompting around its summit as well. The views of the city and the ocean were incredible!

Cape Town, South Africa

If you look at the signpost to the left, you'll see that I'm a long way from home. But Cape Town, South Africa is a city that has mountains and an ocean, just like my city (Vancouver, right next to Richmond.)

The most famous mountain in the city is called "Table Mountain." If you look at the photo below, I think you can tell why it is called that. Table Mountain and the other mountains here are very old, about five times older than our Rocky Mountains. Until very recently, elephants used to stomp around at the top of the mountain. Wouldn't that be cool to see?!

Singapore

Singapore is an island city, just like Richmond. But it is also a country. That's just one of many things that makes Singapore such a fascinating place to visit.

Unfortunately, I only had one day to spend in Singapore, but it was a busy one. I spent time looking in the great shops here, toured a beautiful orchid park (Singapore is almost on the Equator so orchids grow well), and strolled through a busy night market

I hope to come back to Singapore one day so I can spend more time discovering this interesting city!

World's Smallest Capital City

It's my last day on the Maldives, and I am in the capital city, Malé. They tell me it's the smallest capital city of any country in the world: it's only 1.9 kilometres long and 1.3 kilometres wide. There are few cars; most people walk, cycle or use motorcycles.

I walked around Male (it doesn't take long!) and saw many interesting sights. Take a look:

Approaching Male from the airport island (and passing the jail island)


The President's Palace


A Prayer Tower (Muslims pray several times a day, and they are called to the mosque from speakers on this tower)
At the fruit market


Fishing boats


At the fish market

Learning How to Scuba Dive

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I've been learning how to scuba dive here in the Maldives. It's been a lot of fun, and getting close to all of the sealife living among the coral reef has been amazing.

My instructor's name is Bette, and she is from Germany. She taught me a new kind of sign language to use underwater; that was fun for me! You learn how to say things like, "I'm O.K." and "I have no air."

The scuba gear is really heavy when you are on land, but you feel weightless once you are in the water. I have done a shore dive (where you walk into the water from the beach) and an open water dive, where you jump off a boat into deep water. I saw all kinds of amazing things down there. If you've every seen the first part of "Finding Nemo," you'll know exactly what I am talking about.

Bette took the following pictures with an underwater camera:

Byng Blazer Spotting

Those Byng Blazers are showing up everywhere in the Maldives! Here you can see our logo on the prow of a "dhoni," a traditional Maldivian fishing boat:

... and in a banana tree ...

... and in the tree of a fruit I don't know the name of (but I think it might be breadfruit.)

The Maldives

Have you every heard of the Maldives? It's a tiny speck of a country (actually, hundreds of tiny specks) in the Indian Ocean to the southwest of India.

The Maldives are part of a large underwater mountain range, on the tops of which coral reefs have grown. Over time, the coral traps sand and an "atoll" develops. An atoll is the top of a coral reef formed around a lagoon.

I am staying on the "North Ari Atoll," which is a 25 minutes seaplane ride from the capital of the Maldives, Malé. There's me getting on the plane, which was made in Canada and flown by two pilots from Vancouver (in their barefeet, which seems like fun!)

There isn't much land wildlife on the North Ari Atoll -- some birds, a couple of spiders and the amazing flying fox bat. There are about ten of them on this atoll, and they are huge! When they fly by (they're quite active during the day) it looks like Dracula flying by! They eat the fruit that grows all over the atoll.

The atoll is very small; it only takes about 7 minutes to walk all the way around it. It is surrounded by a fine white sand beach. Every day is sunny and warm (did I hear something about snow back in Richmond?!)

The most incredible thing about being here is the sea life. I have been snorkeling around the atoll and it is just like swimming through the movie "Finding Nemo." There are clown fish, manta rays, one sea turtle (so far) and small black-tipped sharks. I'm told that if I'm lucky (or unluckly!) I'll see a hammerhead shark. I have been learning to scuba dive and I hope I'll soon have some underwater pictures to share with you all.

An atoll from the air


Arriving at North Ari Atoll


Flying fox bat


Black-tipped shark feeding on some small fish


Manta ray


A bird that I don't know the name of (it looks like a white heron)


Flying fox food (bananas)