Shark!

Thursday December 9th. Up at 4:00 am, quick breakfast of an orange, banana, cereal and yogurt, in the bathroom, so as to not wake my room mates. Then I was picked up by a White Shark Project mini bus, along with four other people from different hotels, and driven two hours out of town to Gansbaai for shark cage diving!

First they served us breakfast as they told us about what we were about to do and how it all works. Then out to the boat.

We kitted up in our wetsuits and were divided into two groups. My group was second so we headed up to the top of the boat and watched the action from there. The sharks responded to the chum in the water and came to investigate the tuna head and the toes of the bait in the cage...

Then it was my turn. Surprisingly I wasn't nervous, just climbed in and followed instructions. The water was quite cold, 12 degrees celcius, but the wetsuit was thick. We didn't use snorkels or tanks. Part of the cage is above water and you keep you head above until the spotter yelled down! At which point you hold your breath and push yourself down under the water. Absolutely amazing to see the first one swim up and have a look. We were under for about a half hour and there were dozens of passes as a number of sharks swam by. The water is clear to a point, but the sharks just seemed to appear at times, from the front, left, right or scariest - below...

We got out and watched from above again, and then we had a second time of another half hour. Incredible viewing, and a once in a lifetime opportunity. Sometimes we saw two or three at a time. One swam right by the cage close enough that I could reach out and touch it! One stuck it's snout right up to the bars and one breached its head trying to get the tuna head!

On the trip back I talked to two Americans, Chris from Pennsylvania and Laura from Tampa. Chris had the foresight to rent an underwater digital camera from the outfitters, and four of us went in on it to share the photos. So, on the way back I was going to be dropped off first, so I ran in, got my laptop and rejoined the bus for the ride to Chris's hostel, where we up loaded the pictures. Great technology! Then I walked home (about half way from Table Mountain).

Spent the evening sorting pictures, updating and emailing.