The bus eases out of Cape Town before sunrise and the city’s granite shoulders—the flat top of Table Mountain and the ridged Twelve Apostles—recede into a ribbon of ocean and farmland. By mid-morning you’re standing on the edge of a still, green pond at Le Bonheur Reptiles & Adventures, the steel cage humming in cold water. The crocs circle like old kings, patient and deliberate; your guide clips on your harness and explains how the creatures use the murky shallows to both hunt and loaf. When the feeding starts the animals move with surprising speed, each tail flick and bubble exact and inevitable. Twenty minutes in the cage feels longer and faster at once.