A Surge in Activity

We hope everyone had a brilliant Christmas and Day of Goodwill (Boxing day to our Canadian and British friends), we enjoyed the day off to spend with the family before returning to our Gansbaai Guesthouse.

For all intents a purposes, we are fully booked from now to around January 4th. January 4th is usually the day many businesses reopen around the country, so one would expect a drop off in activity around then. Not so in this case, the night of January 6th is fully booked too!

Our guests have been clamouring for shark cage diving spots too, and its this period of the year that a single operator can be booked up for 3 or 4 days at a time. Fortunately, Shark Diving Unlimited and Great White Shark Tours (through Sharkbookings) really helped us out in the busy season.

Merry Christmas!

Its the 24th and Christmas is just an evening away. We at the Roundhouse Guesthouse want to wish all past, current and future clients as well as our friends and family a very merry Christmas!

The Roundhouse is currently near capacity, and we are pleased to host guests over such a momentous occasion on the calendar year.

There is a fire raging in the Overberg at the moment, and no fewer than than three emergency vehicles have sped past us to go put it out. We hope all involved get spend the evening with their families rather than fighting the forces of mother nature.

UPDATE: The fire is now under control, thanks to the Overberg emergency services for their efforts and hopefully no one was hurt.

A Very Busy Guesthouse, and the Christmas Season

Wow, its been almost two weeks since the last update here. That should really give you an indication of how busy we have been. The Roundhouse has been pretty much fully booked the entire Christmas season. When it isn't full, a surprising amount of people inquire at the Adventure centre looking for accommodation and end up at the Roundhouse. If anything, its been an interesting season so far.

Its bizarre, we are so used to the broken English of mainland Europeans, the high English of the United Kingdom, and the twangy English of the USA that hearing English from other parts of South Africa is now strange. Its actually rather amsing.

The jacuzzi was temporarily broken now over the weekend after the element burnt out completely. It was fixed by Monday after a new element and thermometer were installed by Dave, so our prized jacuzzi is now up and running at full capacity again.

The shark cage diving industry has been thoroughly appreciating the warm weather recently. The boats have been fully booked virtually every day for the past two weeks, with little to no sign of the influx of tourists slowing down, not that we are complaining or anything.

Gansbaai, the new Gauteng

Its a remarkable phenomenon in South Africa. Each year, the residents of Gauteng (most populated region in the country) stream down to the coast for their annual holidays. Each small coastal town transforms for a quaint village into a bustling metropolis virtually overnight, and Gansbaai is no different.

Today, the stream of cars began and the level of activity has risen sharply. I spoke to an employee of SAFE Security Systems today when he came to fix a remote, and he also commented on the massive influx of people, most of which are brandishing a GP numberplate.

The Roundhouse Guesthouse is situated in De Kelders, far enough away to avoid the crushing traffic, but close enough so that everything you may need is close by. A bakery and a pub/restaurant is literally within walking distance, reducing the need to fight for parking even more. Lets not forget we can organise Shark Cage diving and Whale Watching for our guests too, reducing the need to go into town even more.

It appears staying at our guesthouse really is the smart choice for the city-dweller looking for holiday without queues and traffic.

Anticipating the Tourist Rush

We have finally hit the official beginning of Summer now with the first full week of December past us. Its usually around now that the massive flux of tourists turns the sleepy town of Gansbaai into a massive beehive of activity. It isn't unusual for locals to almost completely avoid traveling into town unless they need the essentials.

There are new faces around town, which indicates the coming flood of visitors, but town is still delightfully quiet and quaint. De Kelders, and the Roundhouse Guesthouse is enjoying the same levels of peace at the moment. The overcast weather outside with the hint of coming rain certainly adds to the feeling of a sleepy town. Its rather ironic that a day with a remarkable atmosphere is situated days away from the busiest period of the year.

The Roundhouse will become busy to the point of capacity in about two weeks, if current bookings are anything to go by. So if you want to spend a night here, may I recommend you get hold of us sooner rather than lately. The whales are still frolicking in the bay mere minutes away from us, and the weather promises to yield many beautiful summers days to enjoy the natural splendor of the area.

Summer is here!

The last week of so has been absolutely bliss here at the Roundhouse. The sun has been out in full force, and the usual gusts of wind associated with the area have died down to almost nothing (today its back to its usual tricks though, but it will be gone tomorrow). Ironically, most of our bookings with the shark cage divingoperators were for today, the day were most boats can't go out due to the wind.

Dave and Elna have returned from their long trip abroad, and its great to have them back in the thick of things. Its lovely and quiet around here, so they have had some time to get back into the swing of things before December rolls around.

Everything is good here at the Roundhouse, its looking to be a great week.

Cage Diving Ruined by Weather, Again.

We speak alot about weather here on the blog, which usually isn't very interesting to read, but Gansbaai has been inundated with bizarre weather for the last few weeks and it has been wreaking havoc in the shark cage diving industry.

We have had guests moved from trip to trip, hoping that the wind will die down so that the boats can go out safely. Aside from our guests, we have had an unusually high amount of walk-ins at the Great White Adventure centre all wanting to go cage diving this week.

We are 3 weeks away from Summer, and it still feels like Winter.

The Quiet Week turns into a Busy Week.

Well, it appears the Gods heard me say we will be running at half-capacity, and decided to rectify that. This morning we had 13 breakfasts to do, the most we have had to do for a single breakfast time in a long time. We only have seating for 12 people too, so it was a crazy morning today.

While we were busying running around and getting everything done, thunder was heard in the distance. It was far away, but still very loud. It rained for about 15 minutes, and the weather cleared up nicely. We called the cage diving operators to find out about tomorrow, and apparently a big storm is rolling in that is preventing all the operators from sending boats out tomorrow and possibly Friday too.

Monday started with a reasonably quiet week, and now its really busy today (Wednesday). We have 3 clients arrived today at 1am from Sweden, so we still have a long day ahead of us.

Who knows what Friday will bring.

A Quiet Week In Gansbaai

Its Monday again, and we start another week with weather that simply won't make up its mind. Thankfully, it isn't storming like it was last week so our guests can enjoy the area properly without having to resort to carrying an umbrella.

It appears to be a quiet week here at The Roundhouse; we are only going to be running at around half capacity for the week. The Great White Adventure Centre is also rather quiet at the moment. Perhaps this is the proverbial calm before the storm, as December is fast approaching and the level of activity in Gansbaai is legendary during that period.

Welcoming out the Sun, and the Guiseppes

After Monday's near-cataclysmic storm, it was a relief to see the wind has finally gone from almost gale force levels to a gentle breeze. The sun is out today, with enough cloud cover to make the sky look like a painting. Its a lovely summers day out here. Funnily enough, the local information centre has a "today's weather" box on their website, and during the storm this box stated it was an ordinary summers day outside. We had a good chuckle about the websites optimism.

Yesterday morning, 'the two Guiseppes' (as Jenny likes to call them), who barely speak English, thought they were going to be late for their shark dive as the shuttle hadn't arrived yet. So they started getting really frantic about getting to the crew house, and enlisted Jenny to take them there. She went to fetch the car keys, only to find that the shuttle had arrived while she was inside. 'The Two Guiseppes' were visibly relieved and went off diving. This morning they had another dive, so instead of tempting fate, they politely organised a lift with Jenny this morning. Both Jenny and I found their reactions rather amusing.

A Killer Whale in Gansbaai

The most extraordinary thing happened over this past weekend week (it has been a week of extraordinary occurrences, that's for sure).

Besides an unusually high amount of walk-ins at the guesthouse, and a random 13-person strong Dutch group who booked for cage diving this coming weekend. Jenny Reich saw what she thought was a Killer Whale. The following day, while taking guests out and about, she saw a Killer Whale (it may have been the same one) along with a calf. The guests she was with caught this on film too.

To further corroborate this bizarre occurrence, Janeen from the Great White Adventure Centre told us she also saw a Killer Whale with a calf when she was driving with her husband.

What a lucky week it was last week, with a natural predation AND the preposterously unlikely occurrence of finding a Killer Whale along our coast. It appears our luck may be out as I write this now during one of the worst storms I've ever seen in Gansbaai. There was lightning a for a short time too, and the wind is howling to the point that I keep thinking roofs are going to be ripped off!

All we can do is weather this particularly nasty storm and hope Summer comes with a little more grace.

An Unbelieveable Spot of Luck.

On Tuesday, two of the Roundhouse's guests (Mr Kotinkaduwe and his partner) had the most ASTONISHING bit of luck on their trip with White Shark Projects.

While traveling to the anchoring point, Mr Kotinkaduwe saw a seal and starting taking photos of it. A split second later, a Great White flew out of the water and bit the seal before taking the poor seal into the murky depths. Witnessing a natural predation is privilege for cage divers. However, what makes this story so special is he got it on film!

We have asked Mr Kotinkaduwe for a copy of the photo, and hopefully he will send us one when he gets homes from his stay with us. As soon as we get it, we will post it here for you all to enjoy.

Blue Monday, and Sunny Kruger Park

Its a rainy and very gloomy Monday here in De Kelders, with no sight of the sun coming out for the rest of today, but a very bright week is ahead of us at the Roundhouse.

The Polish party (as we like to refer to them) are enjoying a thrilling stay at the Kruger National Park with Dave and Elna. Apparently, everyone has been spoilt with astonishing game viewings. A herd of elephants, hyenas feeding, and the big five being the highlights of their remarkably lucky trip. And, to top their trip off, the weather there has been absolutely perfect. We are all very jealous here. They are actually en route to Mozambique for the final part of their scuba holiday.

We will do our best to post pictures when Dave and Elna return.

The Roundhouse is once again a very busy guesthouse this week, with all but the Carcharias suite being booked up today. Since there is no wind (for a change), 5 of our guests managed to go out and dive with Great Whites today.

Thats all from us today, lets hope the weather clears up and Summer starts its much needed approach.

The Polish Party, A New Employee, and Peculiar Weather

The massive 19 person Polish party is touching down at Cape Town International today, and Dave is already en route to go collect them and their diving equipment. This group has booked out the Roundhouse completely, so its all very exciting. They leave for Mozambique on Thursday for their diving holiday booked through Scuba Mozambique, so things are very busy in the Roundhouse today.

Today also marks the first day on the job for Jennifer Reich, who will be looking after the Roundhouse while Dave and Elna are in Mozambique and then the United Kingdom for the next four and a half weeks. We are ecstatic to have her and her expertise on board.

The season of Spring is still doing its utmost to wreak as much havoc on the sea as it possibly can with wind and swells that seemingly unpredictable. A local shark cage diving operator told us that they had lost as many as 20 days out on sea last month due to weather, so hopefully the weather will start settling down so all our guests can enjoy the cage diving without fear of weather ruining it.

Shark Diving today!!

Another great winters day with flat seas and hopefully excellent sharks!! We are on our way out to join a tour again. Looking foward to getting some nice close up photos of the sharks and hopefully coming back with my camera in one piece!! Took a nice shot of 2 dolphins the other day!

Still a storm

We are still having strong winds with high seas but this looks to clear by next monday with a series of good days following this. Lets hope!!

The Weather

We have had a week of cold fronts with 3 cold fronts back to back. The shark boats have been on land for 4 days now and there is a slight hope of it being a sea day tomorrow. Friday looks great for the diving and the sharks are normally very active after the storms so this looks great. Unfortunately there is another cold front coming in after friday on Saturday afternoon so it will be back to land again! We have a lovely group of spanish divers with us and we are entertaining them with Cape Town tours, Hermanus tours and tomorrow a Cape Agulhas tour. They are having an amazing time but cannot wait to get out to see the sharks!! We look forward to an excellent night tomorrow with Pablo (one of our guests) cooking a spanish omlette for the group. We are inviting Andre Hartmen around to talk about the sharks and have made a special request for him to bring his Snakes to show off!

Shark Diving

The Sharks have been a little lazy over the last few days and a bit shy on coming too close to the boat alot of the time. There is a large cold front on the way so aftee this the activity should pick up nicely. The Great Whites are normally very active after bad weather.

Great Whites

We are at present taking more Great White Shark photos for our archives and have had some success. Yesterday the sharks were passive and only staying mid water alot of the time not wanting to play too much. I did however manage to snap a good photo just after the shark missed the bait and came back into the water. On wednesday we had a lovely 4m+ shark trying to breach the bait over and over again giving us great photo opportunities! I am in my element!! Today the wind is blowing so will give it a miss. Looks like the weather will only clear up mid next week again.

Life in Gansbaai

We are in full swing this winter with a mixture of warm sunny beach days contrasted with cold stormy days with high seas. The swell is 7.2m today but looks beautiful from land with perfect pipelines forming along the breaks. The boats are all off the water but it will be back to businesses tomorrow. The shark activity has still been amazing with one boat the other day recording 23 Great White Sharks on a trip! We also have plenty of Whales in the bay now just metres from the shoreline! Life is great here!!

Shark Diving today

I left early morning to collect our client Alex from the Airport. The morning was fresh at 7c on the way to cape town. On the way to Gansbaai it climbed to 15c by 10am. We got to the Roundhouse and then we dropped off his bags in his room and went straight to the crew house for the Shark diving. We had an excellent time with the sharks are Alex had a couple of close up encounters with the sharks from the cage. We had about 8 different sharks with 1 breach on the bait which was very nice. All in all it was an excellent day!

06-07-2009

Today started wintry with rain and a bit chilly at 17c (same as the UK!! :-)) Time to wear the winter clothes again! Yesterday and Saturday was a different storey however and it was beach weather (23-24c) We went to the tidal pool and had a braai (BBQ) by the ocean. The kids had a try with the fishing rods and had a blast! The sun poked out at around 11am and it has been a nice day since. The seas were not really affected by the small cold front and all shark diving went ahead as usual with all boats booked up fully! Sharks as usual were excellent and apart from a few sea sick sufferers everyone had an excellent time at sea! The Whales are back in numbers and we are seeing them daily now and in numbers. The Whales as we all know here are much better on our side of Walker bay rather than the tourist popular Hermanus. A few of our clients have bragged about their experience of sipping a glass of wine at sunset in the Jacuzzi whilst watching the Whales breach (jump out of the water) in the bay. This is PARADISE!!!

03-07-2009-Roundhouse

The weather today was blustery and seas picked up. A few of our guests were out at sea with the sharks and I took a couple of clients to Cape Agulhas. It was an excellent day out and we all had a great day visiting the most southern tip of Africa. We saw a Stingray at the beach at Strausbaai and has a great burger a Cafe Nostra on the beach. We went up the Lighthouse and stood at the most southern tip between the 2 oceans. (Atlantic & Indian) We then headed 1km down the road to the newest shipwreck on the coast (1983) called the Meishu Maru. I was amazed to see that the wreck had been completely turned around and the bow of the boat which was previously headed towards the beach was not headed out to sea. The seas must have been really big to turn such a huge structure!