Cape Town "Adventure"

Ok so as many of you know we have been in Cape Town for the last few days to attend the Social Media World Forum Africa event which took place at the Cape Town International Conference Center.

When the conference ended yesterday we had an arrangement to meet up with Ashley Shaw who heads up Lightspeed at the Alba Cocktail Lounge just before a Silicon Cape meetup at the same venue.

When we were done at about 6pm last night we decided to stay in the area to have a meal and it was when leaving Alba Lounge that this little "adventure" started. We walked out onto this walkway:

You know where this is going right? :) as we walked along here Lisa had to tread really carefully not to get a heel stuck in these rather large gaps in the walk way - anyway as we walked the rental car keys dropped out my hand onto the walk way and....... yes you guessed it through one of the gaps and into the sea below!

Man I can't even begin to explain the feeling of disbelief! It was high tide so all I heard was that dreaded "plop" sound as the keys went into the water.

Ok so now what?

A call to the rental company was a rude awakening. Here was the thing - insurance didn't cover this little eventuality and they wanted to:

1. Bring out a locksmith to unlock the vehicle
2. Tow the car back to the airport
3. Then replace all the locks on the car including the ignition - nice

This exercise I discovered would cost me in the region of approx R5,500 Wow - just for dropping the key.

As you can imagine I wasn't too keen on giving them the go-ahead. We went ahead and had a rather "tense" dinner as we were trying to figure out what our next move would be. I had a far fetched plan to find a diver to go in at the spot the keys were lost and recover them for me as I saw this a better option to the rental company's plan. :)

Nothing was open at that hour so we got a taxi back to our hotel.

Anyway...... this morning I decided to follow my initial idea of trying to find the keys with the help of someone who could work underwater :) I made my first call to Table Bay Diving since they had an office at the V&A Waterfront. My call was answered by Sken who runs the training center and after a brief chat on the phone explaining my predicament I discovered that this happens pretty regularly :) and the best part was he actually does these recovery exercises frequently! Ha! How's that for following one's intuition!

Another taxi ride to the Waterfront for the meeting with Sken -  he arrived with his equipment ready for the "mission."

When we got to the spot it was now low tide - which was a huge blessing I discovered. This was the environment that greeted us:

There was no way any diving was going to happen - too shallow - I think Sken was secretly happy that he wouldn't be getting into the water. Anyway we spent a good 45min checking this environment from a jetty. No luck. Our final conclusion was that the tides (and there were 3 since the keys had fallen into the water here) had sucked them deeper into the harbour. You can only look at a small space for so long until you decide that there is not going to be much else you can do and just accept the inevitable - these keys are gone.

So we thanked Sken and started the walk back to the dive shop to wash hands etc. As we got back onto the walkway Sken decided to do one more check from the top through the cracks.

And you're not going to believe this - from the top he spotted the keys wedged in between two rocks below!!

We did a little happy dance I can tell you! Anyway Sken found a way to build a "bridge" from the jetty onto the exposed rocks climbed over and retrieved the keys.

He mentioned to me that he has recovered keys (the most often) wallets and rings - mostly by having to dive though! Lesson: when going to the V&A Waterfront make sure you're extra careful with anything that can fall! And if you should by some chance have anything go overboard don't hesitate to give Sken a call! :)

Here we are back at their shop. Sken with his wife Chantal and myself holding THE keys :)

I will be eternally grateful to Sken's kindness and helpfulness!

If you know of anyone who would like to take some diving lessons and go for an ocean dive don't hesitate to give him a call at Table Bay Diving! Chantal is a registered tour guide who runs day tours in Cape Town - including the Peninsula, Cape Point, the Winelands, and Safari trip about 2 hours out of Cape Town. Chantal's website is http://www.ctours.co.za and you can also connect with her on her Facebook Page

Thanks again to this great helpful couple!

And now for a glass of Champaign