Recently in Back In the Day Category
This was way back before I started college, 2001 or 2002 I think,
when I headed to South Africa for on an early excursion for my vacation
for about a month. One day when we were touring around Cape Town one
of my friend's noticed a place where you could book a day trip cage diving
with Great White Sharks. Now, I wasn't altogether too keen about it,
because after going through the shark tunnel at Sea World a couple of
times when I was younger, I was pretty much terrified of the creatures.
However, at the price (about 1000 Rand, or $140) it was a steal when you
compare doing it to shark diving in California, which is now at least $400
to get in the cage. What the hell, I thought, I might as well go.
Anyone who's seen the original Jaws film might feel a little uneasy about getting into a cage in Great White Shark territory, particularly as Jaws busted Richard Dreyfuss' cage. However, I was assured that the cages are pretty much indestructible, so I wouldn't need to go and get a new life insurance policy straight away.
We headed to Gansbaai at about 8.00 am, which took about half an hour from our Cape Town hotel. We had a bit of a nervous breakfast and a briefing, then we boarded the boat and headed to the dive spot. The place wasn't exactly brimming with sharks, but the apprehension was kind of making me hope that they wouldn't turn up, despite paying all that money. However, after about an hour, a couple of them did show up, attracted by all the chum that had been thrown into the water by the crew.
Half an hour later I was in a wetsuit waiting for my turn to get into the cage, nearly feinting with fear as huge dark shapes circled out boat, which seemed pitifully small. I guess I was just apprehensive about getting into the cage, because once I was in there and got my head underwater the nerves totally stopped. I just wanted to see the beasts. It was a little murky at first, and I couldn't really see much, but then someone pointed towards a huge cigar like shape with fins out to the left of us. It was just cruising slowly around before turning and towards us. Even then though, it didn't look like it was in attack mode. It just swam up towards the cage. Maybe showing it's full glory about three metres in front of us, before circling around us slowly.
I saw three sharks while I was in the water, which was about thirty minutes or so. Two of them seemed pretty relaxed and just wanted to know what was going on in their territory. The third one was much more inquisitive, and gave the cage a knock a couple of times, which was a little disconcerting, but I was pretty much in too much awe of the beasts to be too scared about them.
When my time was up, and I was back on the deck, I wasn't exactly desperate to go in for the second time, but I felt like I was on a high for the rest of the day. A couple of days later I was still thinking about the huge shapes floating around in the blue, occasionally taking a closer look at us. Probably the coolest thing I've ever done. Take a look at the travel website for more. I’ll stick some photos up when I can get my home PC running again, or I remember to bring my camera into work!
Anyone who's seen the original Jaws film might feel a little uneasy about getting into a cage in Great White Shark territory, particularly as Jaws busted Richard Dreyfuss' cage. However, I was assured that the cages are pretty much indestructible, so I wouldn't need to go and get a new life insurance policy straight away.
We headed to Gansbaai at about 8.00 am, which took about half an hour from our Cape Town hotel. We had a bit of a nervous breakfast and a briefing, then we boarded the boat and headed to the dive spot. The place wasn't exactly brimming with sharks, but the apprehension was kind of making me hope that they wouldn't turn up, despite paying all that money. However, after about an hour, a couple of them did show up, attracted by all the chum that had been thrown into the water by the crew.
Half an hour later I was in a wetsuit waiting for my turn to get into the cage, nearly feinting with fear as huge dark shapes circled out boat, which seemed pitifully small. I guess I was just apprehensive about getting into the cage, because once I was in there and got my head underwater the nerves totally stopped. I just wanted to see the beasts. It was a little murky at first, and I couldn't really see much, but then someone pointed towards a huge cigar like shape with fins out to the left of us. It was just cruising slowly around before turning and towards us. Even then though, it didn't look like it was in attack mode. It just swam up towards the cage. Maybe showing it's full glory about three metres in front of us, before circling around us slowly.
I saw three sharks while I was in the water, which was about thirty minutes or so. Two of them seemed pretty relaxed and just wanted to know what was going on in their territory. The third one was much more inquisitive, and gave the cage a knock a couple of times, which was a little disconcerting, but I was pretty much in too much awe of the beasts to be too scared about them.
When my time was up, and I was back on the deck, I wasn't exactly desperate to go in for the second time, but I felt like I was on a high for the rest of the day. A couple of days later I was still thinking about the huge shapes floating around in the blue, occasionally taking a closer look at us. Probably the coolest thing I've ever done. Take a look at the travel website for more. I’ll stick some photos up when I can get my home PC running again, or I remember to bring my camera into work!
