Caught between a Rock and Shark Place

I finally found a couple of friends that happened to have no pressing plans for a week. We packed a car full of things like sunscreen, costumes and flip flops and headed down the coast for three days and roughly 2000 kilometers towards Cape Town. Potholes and bad driving aside, the perfect road trip had begun.

I'm pleased to report our Mother City has not changed much. Table mountain is still standing. You should still wear sunny day time clothes armed with an extra jumper, hold onto your caps and hats and take an umbrella and a camera with you wherever you go.  Each day there will always be a ray of sunshine, a spot of rain, a gust of wind and something good to take a picture of.

What I hadn't bargained for was the complete calm and acceptance of the locals on the beach when the  Shark Alarm casually sounded  as I was about to dip my big toe into the decidedly chilly False Bay waters. At first I wasn't sure they meant it.  No one seemed to be flailing around or running at speed to shore, they all just sort of moved in one big human wave, calmly but purposefully making their way out the ocean.

A white flag with a black shark was raised and every one nodded in silent agreement that yes, the sea was partially unsafe to be splashing around in for the time being. Everyone went back to reading, tanning and playing ball games as if nothing much had really happened so I was pleased that another non-local asked one of the Bay Watch style lifeguards what was going on.
I myself was certain that some one had accidently leant on the siren and caused a false alarm, becuase if this had happened any where else I have been in the world there would have been mayhem, people crowding around and trying to get a shot of the sea creature they had been swimming beside that was most definetley not your Friendly Flipper variety.

But no,the lifegaurd confirmed in her calm and people managing manner that there was nothing to worry about, they had (just) spotted a shark, very probably a great white and that as soon as the area was deemed clear we could all go back in.
Go back in!? 

I wanted to take a picture of this typically Capetonian way of handling the amazing things that surround them. The magnificent mountains, the meeting of the two mighty oceans, baboons on the roadside and sweeping beaches as far as the eye can see. Vineyards that had been there for hundreds of years, sunsets from Chapmans Peak. Great Whites swimming amongst on their coastline.
All things most people stand and gape at, then reach into their bags and take a picture of. The Capetonians, they glance around them and accept that they live in the midst of so much beauty and natural wonder and then they sigh and go back to being chilled out.
So I decided to join them.  I sat with my back to the mountains and kept my eyes on the waves. The only real picture I wanted to take that day turned out to be something that you could not really capture, so I left my camera in my bag and the picture will just have to remain in my mind.