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Aug 18th - Day Two In S. Africa but First Day on Water

         So today was definitely not one of my better days as far as making a good impression. I was so excited this morning to get to meet Chris and Monique Fallows this morning and I even got a hug from Chris which made my morning. We walk out to the Apex Predators boat to go out to seal island and on the way there I was fine and enjoying the ride. However, once we dropped anchor and I could feel the boat rolling underneath me I was fighting to keep down my breakfast - which already wasn't much. This is despite the fact that I took Dramamine last night and this about an hr and half this morning before going on the boat like instructed. All the staff from Apex were amazing but Monique topped the cake. She seemed to know that I was fighting sea sickness and actually told me to just let it out and that I would feel better. So I walked over to the edge of the boat, leaned over, and up came my breakfast. She was such a doll she had tissues and a glass of (purified) water for me and told me to focus on the horizon and/or land to help calm my stomach. Needless to say I was in no position to get into the cage and just sat in the front of the boat focusing on seal island and watching the seals play and bark at each other. Monique also made me feel better by telling me that it took her 2 years to get her "sea legs" and she threw up almost every day when she went out on the  boat at first. Luckily the other people on the trip were amazing and understood but most of everyone else had been on the ocean and had been diving in the ocean for while now.
        So before we even left the shop this morning we were warned that this year has been an odd year for great whites. Chris said that they normally start seeing them in April/May but this year they didn't get here until June and that they haven't seen any in the last couple of days. That's part of nature. The animals don't always come when you want them to. It's like taking your car into the shop for a problem and they can't replicate it but once you leave it starts acting up again. The animals are here then when you want them to come out they are like "HAHA! Fooled ya." That being said we did get a chance to see something called a cow shark. This is not a shark I have heard of before but it was really pretty. Not sure if my pictures (b/c I was in the boat and not the cage) came out though.
        We were anchored off of Seal Island which allowed us to see Cape Fur Seals hanging out on their island There are something like 65,000 Cape Fur Seals that call the island home. So from what I understand the island is all females and their pups and the males only come in to mate. Watching the seals play in the water was really cute - especially the pups as they are learning through their play. When we did start the boat up the seals kinda popped up from the water and looked at us. Then as we drove slowly by they were curious and would come up and swim parallel to the boat but not quite next to the boat.
         They did take us closer in and we got to see a whale. Most of the pictures were of the head/upper body. I missed getting a picture of the tail as it dove for a deep dive but it was stunning to see.  Tomorrow we have a dive and we are going to the Two Oceans Aquarium which should be awesome. I still need to walk down to see the S. African Black Footed Penguins. The problem isn't the going down it's the coming back up.
       Time to go get some dinner and go see the penguins because tomorrow is taken up already and on Sunday we go to Mossel Bay.

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