From our long night out with our new Alaskan friends, Tony & I were happy that we didn’t have to get picked up till 9:40am to go swimming with the great white sharks. Brendan & Pat got dropped off & we just waited till our van came to get us.
Ali & Tim their day in Camps bay, went to lunch there where they ran into (older English player) while walking down the street. They also decided to have dinner in Camps Bay, where they stayed to watch the Ivory Coast vs. Brazil Game.
Now, to continue on with our journey, there was one other Italian in the van with us, we tried picking up 12 Mexican’s, however, the driver came back & said they had too much tequila last night & to come back. So we went & picked up 2 guys from Jordan, that took forever as well, then got 1 guy from North Carolina, & finally went back to pick up the 12 Mexican’s, but only 2 made it. I was happy because 1 was a girl, so I wasn’t the only girl going on this INSANE excursion.
After a 2 hour drive (going extremely fast), we made it into the town of Gansbaai – this town is between Cape Agulhas & Cape Point. There are 100’s of great whites patrolling Gansbaai’s shores – there are signs all over that say Do NOT Swim. We were with the White Shark Projects. They had a very cute bed & breakfast house that we all went into for a delicious breakfast/lunch. From the little porch we sat outside on eating our food, you should see Dyer Island (this is where all the seals hang out & then when they want food they have to swim across Shark Alley, where if they are lucky they will make it across, but then they need to make that swim back again).
This whole time I was very nervous. I still wasn’t 100% sure if I was going to go into the water but I was just enjoying my breakfast. Then they went through instructions with us & we headed to the boat. I was thinking the boat would have been a little bigger than what we got on to. However, we did see all the people who were from the trip out before us come back in one piece, so that was reassuring. However, it doesn’t help when the boys were saying things like, “Hope you’re enjoying your last meal” or “It’s a good day to be eaten by a shark.”
We all boarded, put on our life vests, & cruised for 15 minutes to get out to the point where the cage was in the water. On the way, one guy held up some raw fish & this bird was flying with us trying to eat the fish from the guys hand – it was pretty cool because we were going SOOOO fast.
Finally, we anchored the boat & while they were pulling in the cage, someone yells SHARK!! We all go to one side of the boat, and when I saw this enormous beast in the water, I looked right at Tony & was like “I don’t think I can do this.” We hadn’t even started throwing out the chum to attract the great whites & they were already right at our boat. This one girl who worked on the boat then started to throw some in & all of a sudden instead of 1 enormous shark, there were 2. One even tried biting the back of the boat where they were throwing the chum in & the guy started hitting the boat to make noise so the shark would not bite the boat.
The cage was now ready for the first group. We only had 10 people & you could only have 4-5 in the cage at a time. I had to first see others do this, and sure enough, Brendan was the first to get suited up in a wet suit, mask on, and hopped on top of the cage and slid in. That was what I thought the scariest thing was – actually getting into the cage. You are sitting on top of this cage, holding on with open water around you – hang on tight, otherwise one slip the wrong way, you are not in the cage but open water with the sharks. So Brendan was in there for like 5 minutes by himself, but then finally Pat was ready along with 3 others. The crew throws 2 huge dead fish heads on a rope right in front of the cage so the sharks come right up to the cage. While watching Brendan & Pat in there, this one shark, jaws opened went right to Brendan’s side of the cage. Again, I was like, I don’t think I can do this. My stomach & body were in knots just watching this.
So after about 30 minutes, they told the us to go suit up. I thought, ok, I’ll just put the wet suit on & if I feel up for this, I’m ready to go. But next thing I know, everyone’s out of the cage, 2 people are in, Tony’s next, so I just go after him. Again, the scariest part was getting into that cage. Once in the water (which actually wasn’t that cold, probably do to the fact my heart was racing), you have to make sure to hold on to the top of the cage & put your feet on the front of the cage, NOT through the cage, just resting to hold you steady. The guys in the boat will then yell, “DOWN, to your left” or whatever side the shark was on. So we would hold our breath, push ourselves under the water, try and hook your foot to the bottom pole & look the direction. We had weights on us too to help us stay under easier.
As they yelled, DOWN to us, our first look at a great white was directly straight ahead of us. He was swimming right to the cage & then as he turned, his HUGE black eye looked even creeper at me than the Lion encounter a few days back. We came to the top of the water, and everyone was yelling, like OH MY GOD! I was breathing so hard, Tony had to make sure I was ok, I told him I was and but you know it we heard DOWN again. These sharks were everywhere & I still can’t tell you how big they are, it was so intense. We had our underwater camera, so hopefully we got some good shots. We were in there for about 30 minutes. The other girl was down with us at the same time, and she had enough after like 10 minutes. But I held strong & stayed for the entire time. The boys were proud!
After a few more views of this amazing creatures from above the water, we then headed out to see Dyer Island where all the seals hang out. We got there pretty quick, but poor Brendan, wasn’t feeling his best. They told him to suck on a sucker, but that didn’t do it for him. Poor guys!
Dyer Island was covered, from top to bottom & in the ocean with seals – they were everywhere!!!! Oh & it smell bad – like a really gross, old, used toilet. However, it was really fun to see all the seals hanging out and to also hear them making so much noise. From there we headed back to dry land. We didn’t get to see any sharks breeching from the water, but I think our shark encounter was even closer than that.
They had treats from us and hot drinks with we got back. There was a guy videoing the whole time while we were on the boat, so we got to watch the video of what we just did which was fun. We also got certificates that said we survived the shark dive. They had some showers for us to use if we wanted to, but only Brendan decided to go for it. Hahahahaha however, Brendan didn’t lock the door to his room & Newman, this guy in charge of the place, walked right in on him. Newman screamed higher than I probably could & we all started dying laughing. It was soooo funny, then Brendan comes out like nothing happened, hahaha. Ahhhh….good stuff.
We had a 2 hour drive back, where some people slept, then we got stuck in traffic, but finally made it home around 8pm, just in time to shower, change & run to a nearby bar to watch Ivory Coast vs. Brazil. We went to this 2 storey restaurant/bar, enjoyed a good curry soup, & pasta, maybe a glass or 2 of white wine, & then we headed home because we were exhausted from a fun filled – frightening day!
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