Underwater with Greg Lecoeur

We were so very lucky to have Greg Lecoeur on the Zodiac with us to chronicle our Sardine Run experience on film!

Greg is a professional nature photographer and diver who specializes in underwater photography. He has an extensive publication list and I am looking forward to seeing his photographs of the 2015 Sardine Run in upcoming scuba and nature magazines.

Sardines for Father's Day

It took me three years but I finally got Vince to dive the Sardine Run! 

Theoretically, the Sardine Run happens in South Africa every June and July when the sardines migrate from Antarctica. They swim along the southern coast of the Indian Ocean along the Wild Coast to Durban through a trough where the continental shelf steeply drops off into the deep ocean.

I say "theoretically" because during some years, the sardines are a no-show. Apparently the sea temperature needs to drop below 21 °C because sardines prefer water temps between 14-20 °C. If not, the sardines do not run. 2013 and 2014 were dismal, but the sardines started running this year by mid-June in KZN. By all accounts, 2015 is gearing up to be a great year for the Sardine Run!

surrounded by dolphins

I have to admit I had never heard of the Sardine Run before Vince mentioned it to me three years ago. I am not a scuba diver and really have no interest in meeting a shark face to face underwater without a cage to protect me.

But the Sardine Run happens to coincide with something I do care about - the return of the Humpback Whale to the Wild Coast - and I was told there would be a good chance to see whales from out on the boat.

And we would definitely also be able to see dolphins since they are the key to making a sardine "bait ball."

This is the way it works. Once dolphins find a large school of sardines, they circle around part of the school, cutting off a large number from the rest of the school. They create a whirl pool around the sequestered sardines who spin around and around in circles until they form a tightly packed ball of bait. Then the crafty dolphins feed on the captive sardines. This phenomenon does not go unnoticed by others however. Out of the sky come gannets and cormorants who dive deep into the bait ball and eat their fill as well. Then there are the whales and the sharks who come in for some sardines too.

Humpback whales, like sharks, are feeding opportunists. If the dolphins take the trouble to make a bait ball of sardines, the whales are more than happy to join in and take advantage of a free meal served up by their friends.

circling dolphins

Jill watching the diving gannets

Vince getting ready to go overboard.

there he goes!

I brought snorkeling gear with me on the boat, but I wasn't sure if  I could actually go into the water if there were confirmed sharks swimming around. And in fact, Vince saw two sharks just swimming around the boat almost as soon as he entered the water. He said one actually circled back to get a better look at him before heading out to catch some sardines instead. No thanks!

I didn't need to snorkel like Jill to see the sardines anyway. The sardines were visible from above the water swimming around and under the boat. Besides I didn't come for the sardines; I came for the whales and dolphins. And I could see so many of both from the safety and security of the boat! They were putting on quite a show too. The whales were peduncle slapping the water with their tails and pec slapping with their fins, rolling on their backs like a puppy dog and clapping their fins together like a seal, breaching, lunging and spy hopping. And we saw a ridiculous number of common and bottlenose dolphins all swimming around and under the boat. We even saw a couple of loggerhead turtles!

humpback peduncle slap

I didn't take many photos of the Sardine Run though for a couple of reasons. First of all, Vince was busy with the GoPro and took hours and hours of footage of the sardines and sharks below the surface as well as the dozens of frolicking whales and dolphin pods all swimming around us in the boat. I had only brought my little Canon on the Zodiac and not my 35mm Nikon. (I didn't have a waterproof casing for it.)

Secondly, we were so lucky to have a world famous underwater photographer on board. I gave him precedence and a wide berth in our little Zodiac. (Between the diving equipment and the people, we were packed in like sardines!) No matter how good my photos might have been had I elbowed in for a better vantage point, they would never have been as good as his. I sure hope he got a photo of a dolphin breaching too!

Photo by Greg Lecoeur

photo by Offshore Africa

photo by Greg Lecoeur

photo by Offshore Africa

Vince surely earned his Sardine Run tee shirt

For his next adventure, Vince wants to dive with the fur seals and sevengill sharks off of Simonstown in the Western Cape. He can do that in July when I am safely back in the United States for the month. Have fun honey!

All in all, it was a great Father's Day. And as a result, we now have a new Father's Day tradition. From now on, Vince will remember and celebrate his Father's Day Sardine Run by eating a sardine sandwich for all his future Father's Day lunches.

Happy Father's Day, Vince!

Sandton Scuba

Vince has been a certified open water scuba diver for more than 40 years! He once was very diligent about keeping his certification status and dive log up to date. (Certification lasts a lifetime, but when presented, an active log precludes any additional check-out procedures administered by responsible dive operators on the day of diving.)

Vince snapped this picture of Alex and Nick diving in the BVI

But as he has discovered when diving in many places outside the USA such as the Caribbean, Thailand, Costa Rica and Mozambique, he has rarely been asked to present his certification card and log book for inspection. (Australia and the Great Barrier Reef is a notable exception. Like everything else, they care deeply about such things!)

But since we are about to check out the Sardine Run in the Indian Ocean and Vince will be diving with sharks and whales, he figured he'd better make sure his paperwork - and his diving skills - are all in tip top order.

So he's refreshing his skills at Sandton Scuba in Bryanston today. Scuba Sandton is a one-stop dive shop. Along with PADI courses and organized dive trips, you can rent (or buy) equipment for all your diving and snorkeling needs, including underwater cameras!

Sharks and whales? I am happy to just snorkel!

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

... or should I say the big, the little and the ugly ... wildlife of South Africa.

It started off with the Big Five: lion, rhino, cape buffalo, elephant and leopard, the five game species that were most desired as hunter’s trophies in times gone past. They now represent the five species that visitors to classic African wilderness areas most want to see. Next came the Little Five which I blogged about last year.

vultures

But now it seems everyone wants to get in on the act. There are the ugly five – and if you’ve seen them, you know that they deserve this title. Although having said that, they are no less interesting and they do add to the whole African experience!  They are the:

• Hyena
• Wildebeest
• Warthog
• Vulture
• Marabou Stork

Cape mountain leopard

There are also the impossible five, because of their being so elusive and hard to find.  Trust me, they are. I have only seen night camera photographs of most of them. They are the:

• Aardvark
• Cape mountain leopard
• Pangolin
• White lion (in the wild)
• Riverine rabbit

seals on Seal Island

And in the sea, there are the Marine Five.

• Southern right whale
• Great white shark
• Bottlenose dolphins
• Cape fur seals
• African penguins

Five is not enough for the air. Kruger National Park has come up with the Big Six Birds, the ones that most birders come to the park to see.

southern ground hornbill

The Big Six Birds are:

• Kori Bustard
• Martial Eagle
• Lappetfaced Vulture
• Pel's Fishing Owl
• Saddle-billed Stork
• Southern Ground Hornbill

Southern hemisphere night sky, February 2015

Not to be outdone by the terra firma, the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa has even come up with their own list, the Big 5 of the African Sky.

• The Southern Pleiades open cluster
• Eta Carinae Nebula
• Coal Sack Nebula
• Omega Centauri globular cluster
• Milky Way Galaxy

Sadly, nowhere on any of these lists are some of my favorite iconic African animals. So I will come up with my own list. Some are easier to find than others, but it wouldn't be Africa without them:

• Zebra
• Giraffe
• Hippo
• Cheetah
• Gemsbok
• Kudu
• African wild dog

The Troyeville Hotel Book Club

Daisy with award-winning cookbook writer Anna Trapido

The Troyeville Hotel, first licensed in 1939, is a Johannesburg original. Serving unfussy, award-winning Portuguese cuisine, it’s been the hangout for artists, musicians, political activists and sports fans for generations. The Troyeville Hotel's restaurant features consistently in lists of the best places to eat in Johannesburg.

The Troyeville Hotel dining room

And the Troyeville Hotel hosts regular book evenings that have become a fixture of the city's cultural life. The category of books varies from evening to evening. Fiction. Non-fiction. Biography.

Last night, a cookbook. Star Fish by Daisy Jones. The book identifies the top ten most sustainable fish in South Africa and provides recipes for each one. Locally farmed oysters, anchovies, squid, locally farmed rainbow trout, snoek, hake, locally farmed mussels, yellowtail, sardines and other oily fish, and locally farmed kabeljou.

menu

Daisy, a journalist who lives in Kalk Bay, has written a very personal and atypical cookbook. Yes it has recipes, but it is also filled with the results of extensive research on the fishery industry, first hand interviews with fishermen, conservationists and farmers, personal anecdotes and gorgeous pictures and illustrations by Craig Fisher.

books for signing

And the best part of going to a cookbook book talk at the Troyeville Hotel is that the talk was accompanied by a specially prepared menu featuring many of the sustainable fish documented by Daisy. Yum!

We started off with snoek fishcakes with a delicious spicy mayo dipping sauce. Next, a calamari and mussel salad with roasted peppers and chick peas.

Then we had a choice of main course. I chose the prawn curry (not on the list but I'm sorry, I just couldn't resist!) and Vince picked a Portuguese specialty of the house, the Beef Trinchado (not seafood, but he couldn't resist.)

magnificent views

Questions and answers provided the audience with some good recommendations for fresh fish in Cape Town and Johannesburg. Of course in Joburg, it is La Marina. And Daisy gave us her picks in the Cape Town area. The Little Fisherman in Lakeside and in Newlands.

Here's an interesting tip about the anchovies too. Practically all of the anchovies farmed in South Africa are ground up for fish food or exported for feed for poultry and pigs or used for bait. All of it. So if you want to put fresh South African anchovies on your pizza, buy some at the nearest bait shop!

Thursdays are Brazilian at The Troyeville Hotel

Another fun fact. The ubiquitous cans of Lucky Star pilchards are just sardines. Same fish. Sardines are the teenagers, pilchards are the adults. And ironically, none of the sardines who make their run up the coast of KZN to lay their eggs are caught for food. The only ones fishing for sardines during the sardine run are the trailing sharks, whales and gannets.

We will be back to The Troyeville Hotel for more interesting and informative book club evenings and for the authentic Portuguese fare. Both are very appetizing!

The Sardine Run

That should be Vince with his GoPro

Vince really wanted to scuba dive with the sardines this July during the annual Sardine Run in the Indian Ocean off the coast of South Africa. He wanted to do it last year too but just like last year, he is simply too busy at work at this time of year. That pesky job! And unfortunately diving with the sardines is not the kind of thing where you can just bop in on the fly if you get a free day or two over the weekend. It takes advanced planning. It is quite a production. To be more precise, scuba diving during the Sardine Run is an "expedition."

So what is the phenomenon exactly? The sardines migrate from the colder waters of the Cape into the warm sub-tropical waters of the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal in a northwards direction, coming close to shore in the Wild Coast area during autumn and winter, moving further offshore in the Durban area and finally, disappearing into the vast blue yonder.

Because of the cold currents along this stretch of coastline and their appetite for plankton, these fish converge close to the shoreline and to the surface, making ideal targets for hungry predators and perfect viewing for snorkelers (that would be me)  and scuba divers (that would be Vince.) And by predators we mean cormorants and dolphins, okay. And sharks and whales, not okay.

In order to participate in an expedition you have to first be a master diver. Check, Vince is. And you have to be willing to dedicate a week to the experience. No check, Vince isn't. For a week (the minimum length of an expedition,) the drill is the same. First the sardine safari organizers use reconnaissance planes and helicopters to locate the sardines in the open ocean. If they find them, then they communicate the location with the group on shore who race to the identified sweet spot by zodiac. It is very controlled and very monitored because it is also very dangerous. Did I mention there are sharks? And you are not in a cage? And whales who come flying up from the deep with their mouths wide open to catch any or all of the food in their path before they burst out of the sea? Yeah.

Anyway, I am sure it is super cool to see live and I feel bad that Vince can't do it this year. During the height of the sardine run, he will be way off-shore back in the US of A. Here's hoping for next year! In the meantime watch this great video called The Sardine Chase by Nick Bernhard from the 2013 Sardine Run.
 

Happy Easter from Valley Lodge

ebony cross with new Palm Sunday palms

Easter tabletop tree

Easter ostrich

At least an Easter ostrich actually lays eggs ... As opposed to an Easter bunny.

Easter rhino

Easter shark

Easter rondavel basket and inside ...

filled with Easter goodies

White Shark Africa

Cabo San Lucas

You know, I could be perfectly content to vacation on a beach somewhere hot and tropical with a beer or an umbrella adorned cocktail in one hand and a book in the other. A little shopping, a spa treatment or two and all my meals expertly prepared by somebody (anybody) else. But I had two sons. And every time I would suggest such a vacation, they would stare at me open-eyed and inquire, "yeah, but what are we going to do there?" So what we did or rather what they wanted us to do became the driving force behind our family vacations.

Crkey! It's a long way down into the glacier!

Zip-lining in the Costa Rican canopy, underground snorkeling in cenotes and cave rivers in the Yucatan, heli-skiing in British Columbia, ice-climbing on glaciers in Alaska and fly-fishing alongside bears catching salmon in the Brooks River.

with the bears of Katmai

And if that last one does not sound adventurous to you, let me tell you it most certainly is. As soon as the seaplane lands on the Katmai shore, you are greeted by a National Park Ranger at the waters' edge who instructs you on the way to behave when you encounter a bear on the lodge grounds, in the river when you're fly-fishing or on the hike from the lodge through the woods over to the observation platform.

Don't run!

Not if, but when. (Clap and make a lot of noise with your bear bells, slowly back up, and whatever you do, do not turn and run.)

And that is how I found myself on a boat speeding out of Mossel Bay towards shark-infested waters in order to climb into a steel cage and encounter great white sharks face to face. Yes I could have stayed back at the resort, had that cocktail and read that book but I never would have heard the end of it from my son and husband if I did.

And like most things I have done as a result of indulging my sons and husband, they end up being a ton of fun. It was a beautiful morning, the water was super warm and the shark sightings had been very good in the preceding days. We were in for some fun.

White Shark Africa came highly recommended by my friends at Kariega, all of whom survived their encounters with their limbs intact. And everyone who was on the boat with us that morning looked sane to me and non-suicidal. Ok, let's do it!

As soon as we dropped anchor and lowered the shark cage into the water, the crew started chumming. It didn't take long before several silhouettes started appearing in the water. Once some sharks were committed to the dance, the diving began. I climbed into the cage with only a snorkel mask on. The crew threw a large chum bait float on a rope into the water in front of us to attract the sharks and lure them over towards the cage.

The spotter yells either "down ahead" or "down left" or "down right" depending on where you should look and down you go under the water looking through your mask in that direction.

If you're lucky, you watch the shark swim at close range by the cage. If you're really lucky - or really unlucky depending on your level of nervousness - he crashes into the cage right at your face. Yes I was really lucky and let me tell you, it scared the freakin' crap out of me.

See?

I survived! And yet ...

Not without a little post-traumatic-shark-syndrome.

I cannot really describe the chilling feeling you get when you see the shark grab the bait and do his death roll right in front of your face.   

His crooked teeth inches from your nose.

His cold steely eyes looking right at you while he does it.

I was so happy to be behind bars!