Shark Cage Diving!
Trip Start
Feb 20, 2011
1
16
81
Trip End
Ongoing
Gansbaai, Western Cape, South Africa
Saturday, April 9, 2011
We were picked up at 4:30am from the hostel and driven 3 hours away to Gansbaai. There is a section of water between the mainland and a small island (home to lots of seals) nick-named 'Shark Alley' because of the number of great whites that frequent the waters in transit. We were provided with breakfast on arrival and had a briefing by the skipper about how the day would pan out, how we would enter the cage and health and safety (keep limbs inside the cage!) We then donned our life jackets and boarded the boat. The ride out to the alley was very choppy and I felt a bit sick! The boat was then anchored and 'chum' (a mix of tuna, anchovies and sea water) was dropped into the sea to attract the sharks. A tuna head was tied on to some rope and one of the skippers threw it out at intervals before reeling it in, to tease any passing sharks. Soon enough, one huge one passed by trying to bite the head, but it kept being pulled in. It snapped quite a lot of it and we saw its pearly whites but they were generally quite calm and not as vicious as 'Jaws' makes out!
The cage was also not as scary as I had thought. Part of my fear came from the fact that I thought it would be left out in the middle of the sea with thousands of sharks circling you and body slamming the cage. The cage however, fitted 5 people and was attached to one side of the boat. I felt much better.
Getting the wet suit on was an ordeal in itself. For some reason I could not get it on, no matter how many people tried to help! I changed suits and after more struggle finally got in to it. The water was absolutely freezing and I think that was definitely the worst bit for me. We had to lean on the back of the cage and walk down the front cage struts to get in. When the sharks came close to the cage, you had to hold ur breath and duck down underwater (grabbing a red bar inside it) to pull yourself down. Every time you came up for breath, the skipper would shout for you to duck 'down' again and again. It was very tiring! You did get a good view of the sharks though and they didnt come so close that you were really scared, they were quite oblivious. In total there we saw about 8 separate sharks but no more than 2 at one time. After our dive we were able to watch the sharks from the top and had a great view of them. Just before we were about to leave one of the sharks grabbed the tuna head and finished it off!
I
Comments
crazy girl, i think the cold water would have been my worse bit, very proud of u adventurer
No one should miss Shark Cage Diving when visiting South Africa. I did it recently and it was great. The company I booked it with was Shark Discovery ( sharkcagedive.co.za ). I can highly recommend them. Everything was very well organized and it was an unforgettable experience!