Megan Ho - Roamancing

Roamancing South Africa – Swimming with Penguins!!!

March 9, 2013 by Megan Ho 11 Comments

Part 2 of Megan Ho’s Adventure Roamancing South Africa. Read Part 1 here: Roamancing South Africa – Shark Cage Diving

The next day, we had yet another wonderful animal encounter, albeit a much lower adrenaline one than swimming with sharks. We headed to Cape Point for the day and stopped at Boulders Beach to visit some African Penguins.

Being quite crazy about penguins already, I could hardly contain my excitement upon seeing a whole colony of them. I had never seen so many penguins at once! We viewed them from the boardwalk, and afterwards hustled down to the adjacent beach to get closer.

Penguin colony

The adjacent beach was open to the public for swimming as it wasn’t the home of the colony. However, some penguins had made their way over by water and were swimming and walking around the beaches. Here, we were able to get up close with the penguins. We couldn’t pet them though. As one member of our group found out the hard way, penguins bite!

African Penguins

The beach was full of people, so we made our way to another, less accessible beach between the colony’s beach and the main public one. We climbed over boulders and waded through water to reach it. At one point, I got hit by a rogue wave and was soaked! When we reached it, everyone dove in to go swimming with the penguins. I had unfortunately forgotten my swimsuit. “But… but… swimming with penguins!” said a little voice in my head. Well, I was already wet, wasn’t I? So I peeled off my clothes and went swimming in my underwear.

It was the best decision. Not only were there penguins swimming nearby, but the water was beautiful and warm. The penguins were so quick in the water and kept darting around and popping their heads up. We swam out to huge boulders sheltering the bay and with a little teamwork, manoeuvred everyone onto them where we looked out towards Antarctica. Afterwards, I didn’t even have a towel, but it was utterly and completely worth it.

Lone penguin swimming

Stay tuned for more adventures roamancing the wildlife and wilds of South Africa!

*Photos by Morris M.

Filed Under: Africa, All Aboard!, Around the World, Beaches, Megan Ho, Our Travelers, South Africa, World's Best Soaks Tagged With: african penguins, boulder beach, Cape Point, Megan Ho, penguins, roamancing, South Africa, south africa penguins, south african penguins, swimming, swimming in my underwear, swimming with penguins

Roamancing South Africa – Shark Cage Diving

March 2, 2013 by Megan Ho 16 Comments

My recent trip to South Africa was unlike any other trip I’ve ever been on. For me, travelling usually involves a lot of visits to cities and not a lot of encounters with animals. That all changed on my first few days in South Africa when I came up close and personal with both sharks and penguins (don’t worry, not at the same time).

Shark cage diving was probably the biggest incentive for my trip to South Africa, but as the morning of the dive grew closer, I felt more and more nervous. What on earth was I thinking? I was going swimming – with sharks? I was going to get into a submerged cage while a great white shark circled me like dinner? Was I crazy?! But it was too late to back out and besides, I knew I would regret it if I didn’t go.

Driving to Gansbaai

On the morning of the dive, we woke at 4:30am for a two hour drive from Cape Town to Gansbaai, a small town popular for shark cage diving. I was too nervous to sleep and watched the sun rise as we drove along. Upon arrival, we were given breakfast and a safety briefing, and then headed out into open water. We were told that since it was low season, once we dropped anchor it could take up to an hour of chumming for a shark to appear and that we might only see one or two sharks in total.

However, we had barely dropped anchor when a shark appeared! We hurried ourselves into wetsuits while the crew dropped the cage into the water. It hung off the side of the boat and fit six people comfortably. I opted not to be in the first group to go into the cage as I was still feeling nervous and wanted to see some others go in first. I clambered up to the top deck to get a good view.

Watching from up top

Watching the first group, I could feel my nerves fading away. The crew pulled a tuna head on a line, luring the shark, and it was clear the shark was far more interested in the bait than the people. I had originally envisioned a giant shark ramming the cage face-on, but the shark just followed the bait instead. It did rock the cage at one point, but I could tell everyone was safe in the cage. By the time the first group was finished, I could hardly wait to get into the cage.

Lowering myself into the cage, I felt my breath catch at the cold water. We were still in the Atlantic, after all. I held onto the handlebar, my head above water, gently paddling my feet. It was quite nerve-wracking. From the top, I had been able to see the sharks coming, but now, with my head above the water, I had no idea if there were any underwater nearby. It was only when the crew yelled, “Down!”, we knew there was a shark close by. We pulled ourselves down, and I watched in amazement as a great white swam by. My only other experience with sharks had been on the other side of an aquarium tank and this was just something else.

Great White Shark

We continued to plunge ourselves into the water every time a shark swam by and gradually I felt calmer, though I remained on high alert the whole time. When we emerged from the cage, I was shaking from both the cold water and adrenaline. I had done it! I felt so exhilarated.

The first group hopped into the cage again, and this time one member of the group had the ultimate experience. While still on land, we had been given strict instructions not to stick our hands outside of the cage. “It doesn’t matter how much you want to touch a great white, I can guarantee you they move faster than you and you will lose a hand,” we were told. But with all hands still in the cage, one shark, when passing right up against the cage, flicked its tail into the cage and touched one hand.

“I touched a great white shark! No, wait! A great white shark touched me!” We were all so envious.

By the end, we had seen ten different sharks including a few babies, with the largest shark being three and a half metres. Not bad for low season!

In the cage

Stay tuned for more adventures roamancing the wildlife of South Africa … next up Swimming with Penguins!

*Photos by Morris M.

Filed Under: Africa, All Aboard!, Around the World, Megan Ho, Our Travelers, South Africa Tagged With: chumming for shark, diving, diving in South Africa, Gansbaai, great white sharks, Megan Ho, roamancing south africa, roamancingsa, shark cage diving, shark cage diving in Gansbaai, sharks, South Africa

A Roamancing New Year!

January 3, 2013 by Emme Rogers 10 Comments

Wishing you, our wonderful community, a year filled with …

Moments of Utter Delight

Lori Yearwood jumping with utter delight!

Interesting Perspectives

Plaza de Bolívar in Bogota, Colombia from a pigeon eye view.

Good Music

Tasty Eats

Some seriously tasty eats in Bogota, Colombia.

Smiling Faces

Welcomed by a warm smile from a boy in the market in Hurghada.

Welcomed by a warm smile in the market in Hurghada, Egypt.

Dancing

New Friends

Daniel Noll, Audrey Scott and Erica Hargreave in Marsa Alam after their talk at the UNWTO Conference on Partnering with Media in Challenging Times.

Annelise Larson getting set to dive into her first Lobsterblast at the Yorkton Film Festival.

Our two newest Roamancers: Hannia Curi and Megan Ho.

Jaime Tenorio, Steve Peters, Caitlin Burns and Lina Srivastava in Plaza de Bolívar, Bogota, Columbia.

Old Friends

Enjoying a sunset stroll at Point Roberts with Andrew.

Lucy Duck simply quackers for the lovely ladies of Yorkton, Saskatchewan.

Ken, Cam and Erica waiting to be charioted to the Golden Sheath Gala.

Erica and Caitlin exploring Bogota, as photographed by Lina Srivastava.

Furry Friends

Erica and Satchmo having some red boot adventures in the Canadian wilds.

Cato Cat and Lucy Duck road tripping across Canada.

New Experiences

Me and Audrey Scott quad biking in the desert near Hurghada, as photographed by Daniel Noll.

A Bit of the Ridiculous

Love

Alley Cat Amour in Hurghada, Egypt.

Laughter

Quad Biking Cat in Hurghada, Egypt

Unexpected Beauty

… and of course, Good Health!

Happy New Year!

With Love from all of us Roamancers.

xoxo

Filed Under: All Aboard!, Around the World, BC, Canada, Colombia, Down South, Egypt, Emme Rogers, Erica, Hannia Curi, Lori Yearwood, Lucy Duck, Megan Ho, Middle East, Our Travelers, Roamancing, Saskatchewan, Satchmo, South America, The Red Boot Diaries, Travel TV, Tunes from the Road, US, West Coast Tagged With: Annelise Larson, Audrey Scott, bogota, Caitlin Burns, Cam Bennett, canada, cato cat, colombia, Daniel Noll, Egypt, emme rogers, Erica Hargreave, Golden Sheaf Gala, Hannia Curi, happy new year, Hurghada, Jaime Tenorio, Lina Srivastava, Lobsterblast, lori yearwood, Lucy Duck, Marsa Alam, Megan Ho, New year, Plaza de Bolívar, Point Roberts, roamancers, roamancing, Satchmo, Steve Peters, UNWTO, wishing you a year filled with, yff, yorkton, yorkton film festival

#RoamancingSF Part V – Berkeley

September 28, 2012 by Megan Ho 2 Comments

To finish off my trip in San Francisco, Chance took me for a tour of Berkeley. As an alumnus of UC Berkeley, Chance couldn’t wait to show me around campus. We met up with his friend, Dan*, also an alum, and started off walking around campus and exploring their old classrooms. Neither Chance nor Dan had been back since they had graduated, so it was quite the trip down memory lane. I had flashbacks myself when we headed to Doe Memorial Library. The grand building and beautiful reading room made me feel like I was back at the University of Bristol, which is where Chance and I met, incidentally.

Doe Memorial Library

We wandered over to the Jubilee Bench, a semi-circle bench donated by the class of ’87. Also known as the “whisper bench”, we could hear each other’s whispers at both ends of the bench. We got a kick out of telling secrets across to each other.

Telling secrets

Afterwards, we went off in search of a T-Rex skeleton in the Valley Life Sciences Building. We had trouble locating it, but all we had to do was say the words “dinosaur skeleton.” Someone overheard us and knew exactly what we were talking about, and pointed us in the right direction. The skeleton was gigantic; all I could think was how much I would not have wanted to run into a live one!

Dinosaur skeleton

Possibly due to being in the presence of the T-rex, we were feeling hungry, so we headed over to Cheese Board, a favourite of Chance and Dan’s during their time in Berkeley. At first, I was put off that the pizzeria only served one of their own creations each day, but the queue snaking out the door and down the street was promising. We got a pizza to split between the three of us, and sat on the boulevard to enjoy it. I wasn’t disappointed. On the menu that day was corn, red bell peppers, feta cheese, mozzarella, cilantro and garlic olive oil. It made for a delicious pizza.

Cheese Board Pizza

With our bellies full, we drove up to the Lawrence Hall of Science in the Berkeley Hills. The drive up was quite nerve-wracking, as we weren’t sure if Dan’s car would make it up the hills, but it persevered and we made it in the end. We were rewarded with a spectacular view of the bay area and spent our time pointing out the different landmarks like the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island.

View from the Lawrence Hall of Science

We finished the day off at the Berkeley Pier. It was chilly by the water, and the pier was much longer than it looked, but we didn’t stop until we reached the end. We could see the rest of the pier extending out towards the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance. Other than a few optimistic fishermen, we were alone out there. We sat out there for awhile, just three recent grads (well, one almost graduated) contemplating life.

On the Berkeley Pier

*name has been changed

This is the final part in Megan’s #RoamancingSF series. Read Part I, Part II, Part III and Part IV.

Filed Under: All Aboard!, Around the World, Megan Ho, Our Travelers, US, West Coast Tagged With: #roamancingsf, alma mater, alum, berkeley, berkeley pier, chance, cheese board, dinosaur skeleton, Doe Memorial Library, jubilee bench, lawrence hall of science, megan, Megan Ho, memory lane, reminiscing, san francisco, t-rex, UC Berkley, valley life sciences building, Whisper bench

Megan’s My Vancouver – That Idea of Home

June 12, 2012 by Megan Ho 5 Comments

Prologue from Erica: Every summer we work with a couple of aspiring creatives to help them hone their crafts and introduce them to various tools of the trade. This summer, we are working with two wonderfully talented UBC Students ~ Megan Ho and Hannia Curi. As an introduction to Roamancing, I had them each do a post on ‘My Vancouver’. Here is Megan’s.

“What does Vancouver mean to you?”

Recently, I was asked this question and I didn’t know how to answer. For me, Vancouver has always been home. I’ve lived twenty-odd years in the city and so Vancouver has meant different things to me at different times. I spent my childhood with my nose in books, dreaming of the different countries and worlds I read about. Regular trips to Vancouver Island caused me to long for the smaller-town feel of Victoria; I often felt restricted in the “big city”. But as I grew older I came to love the city I called home. At seventeen, I learned that Vancouver was ranked the world’s most liveable city and realized I was lucky to live in an apparently world-renowned city. After graduating high school, I chose to attend UBC and stay in the city – after all, I loved Vancouver, so why should I leave? I had come to think of Vancouver as the best city, the perfect home, the place to which I would always return. I loved the tree-lined sidewalks, the nearby ocean, the diverse cuisine, and the mountains that perpetually indicated north. I even loved the rain. It was mine and it was home.

Vancouver's Skyline from on top of the Law Courts

And then I went away for a year on exchange to Bristol, United Kingdom and everything changed. I never thought I could think of somewhere else as home, but I did. Suddenly, my world was cobble-stoned streets, centuries-old buildings, and the student dorms where I had been placed. When I longed for home, it was no longer the house I’d grown up in. It was my regulation dorm room and constantly messy kitchen. When I wanted to sleep in my own bed, it was the standard size single covered with cheap bed sheets that called.

Bristol, United Kingodm

When people in Bristol asked me about Vancouver, I tried my best to paint them a picture of my Vancouver. I told them about the neighbourhoods, the cherry blossoms, the sushi and butter chicken and poutine. I told them about Gastown and warm summer nights spent in deep conversation by an unlit Olympic torch. I told them about cycling along the Richmond Dyke, the nude beach on university campus, and the ubiquitous rainboots that covered the sidewalks in the winter.

Wreck Beach on UBC campus

But when I came home last September, I found none of that was my Vancouver anymore. While I had missed it all at first, I had learned to live without all of it in Bristol. Home was no longer a certain street of restaurants and shops or a tasty dish or the weather. No, home was – and always should have been - the simple feeling of not wanting to be anywhere else. It was belonging. And in those first few months back in Vancouver, all I wanted was to be back in Bristol where it felt like my “real life” was waiting for me. But as time went by, I learned that while I could never quite capture the way I felt when I lived in Bristol, I could still feel at home in Vancouver. Shortly after I returned to Vancouver, a friend took me sailing at Jericho Beach. As we glided over the water and the salt water sprayed at me, I felt a giddiness build inside me. I looked back at the shore and at the city and I felt a happiness for being exactly where I was. At home.

A rainy west coast day, the kind that makes me feel at home

There are still days when I wish I was back in the UK and days where I think it can’t get much better than exactly where I am. Vancouver is still home, but it’s home in a different way now and it’s one of many homes. It may no longer be the place I will always return to, but I know it’s the place that will always be there for me. And in that way, what could be a better home?