Hey folks, long time no blog!
The last time we chatted, I was deep in the heart of South Africa, swimming with sharks, fending off IP lawyers at the ICANN meeting (different sharks) and a whole bunch of other things that I just never had a chance to blog.
Podcasting?
Never had a second to pick up the
microphone. It still takes me about two hours to do a non-live podcast
- 40 minutes of recording and about 90 minutes of production. I'm
resigned to the fact that this is just how long it takes and stitching
the various pieces together, rendering the MP3, uploading the file and
production notes - it all takes time. Time that was in *extremely*
short
supply in South Africa.
So no Podcasts. I'm about two shows behind, but given my current situation - which I'll touch on in a second -dear listener, have no fear, it won't be hard to get caught up.
In our last episode, my attempt to risk my life by dangling myself in front of wild sharks was thwarted by Mother Nature. Even with the rough water and the distinct lack of sharks, it was a great day on the water. I snoozed a little bit, caught some rays and generally relaxed. The folks at Shark Diving Unlimited were cool enough to give us a return vouchers to make up for the less than stellar viewing occasion.
My Monday was spent getting caught up on some much needed sleep and some overdue shopping. This was really the first chance I had to actually get a look around Capetown and it made for quite an enjoyable day. (As an aside, I have to say that even thought I didn't really talk about it too much - the ICANN meetings were pretty intense and we all worked really hard and got a lot done and by the time Monday rolled around, I had no problem dipping into my vacation days and enjoying the far-off locale that I found myself in.) Greenmarket Square is pretty cool and I actually managed to knock-off most of my Christmas shopping. In the afternoon, I went to Robben Island with Elliot's family and had the good fortune to be on a tour conducted by one of the former political prisoners. It was pretty amazing hearing him talk about his experiences as a prisoner under apartheid and how he was jailed under their anti-terrorism laws. I have a pretty exceptional clip of him admitting to the deeds that he was jailed for (attached to this post).
I spent Tuesday with the Noss and Teare families touring the southern Cape. We took a day trip that included a swim with the penguins at Boulder Beach, running after ostriches in Table Mountain National Park and wading in the tidal pools at the Cape of Good Hope. We finished off the day with a great dinner back at the Teare's place in St. James.
Tina Dam, Mike Arrington, Sudhir Bhagwan and more of Gene Teare's
family joined us it really made for a great end to a great day. I was
extremely impressed and thankful for the hospitality that the Teare's
extended to us all. It was a great boatload of people and we all felt
very welcome in their home.
Wednesday was my last day in Capetown and I was dead set on seeing sharks. So, I got up at 5:00am, hopped in the front seat of Jeff Lotter’s tour bus (Lucky was nice enough to share with me) and made my way to Gansbaai once again.
This time, we weren't disappointed. Although there wasn't a frenzy of shark activity, we did get to see more than our fair share of this awesome animal. I'll never forget ducking my head below water as a shark passed the cage and looking right into its eyes as it slipped by. It was close enough that I was concerned with keeping my fingers inside the cage.
Just to keep things grounded here on Ross' blog, I've gathered a few links to activities that I would view as being way more dangerous than shark diving:
I returned to Capetown late afternoon and after an especially pleasant dinner with Marilyn Cade, I hopped on my plane back to Toronto and arrived late Thursday evening. It didn't take long to get recovered from the jet lag. If it had, perhaps I wouldn't have been so motivated to get my Christmas lights up but that's the subject of another post entirely.
So far, I've only had the chance to upload my pictures from the two days of my trip. Over the next few days, I'll be uploading the rest - stay tuned to the space for future releases 
