DAY 4 - SHARK CAGE DIVING IN GANSBAAI
Overnight: Southern Sun, Cape Town
To Gansbaai for Shark Cage Diving At 5:01 am, my phone rang and Ibrahim announced himself. "You have a pick up for five. I am waiting for you in the lobby." I had just stepped out of shower and need another 10 minutes to get ready. At 5:09, the phone rang again and Ibrahim said, "I am running late. You are holding me up." I pleaded two more minutes, threw my cameras in the bag, hung a Do Not Disturb card on my hotel door and ran downstairs. By the time I reached the lobby, the receptionist was walking towards me. "Please hurry, Sir. He has already left." I ran outside the door and Ibrahim had started the car. We picked up five more people from Cape Town - a Peruvian couple, an American couple and an English girl. Gansbaai / Kleinbaai was about 180 km south east of Cape Town - a 2 hour drive by the road. And Ibrahim did a good job of getting us there, while all of us went back to sleep. At 7:30 am, we stopped outside the Great White House restaurant, a barn like white building with a wooden roof. Marine Dynamics, a shark diving and whale watching outfit welcomed its guests and operated out of here. I met the incharge Marilie and later the skipper of our boat Hennie. After a quick breakfast, Hennie took us through a short 15 minute briefing about the days plan. He was the man in control. We then put on our orange life jackets and boarded the boat - Shark Fever.
Swimming with Great White Sharks in the Atlantic Hennie anchored her off the Dyer Island. Beside it was another island Geyser Rock. And in between the two was a strait called Shark Alley. Dyer Island and Geyser Rock were breeding colonies for African penguins, seals and other marine life. Alex and Jonathan, the volunteers on the boat, got us into the diving suits. While Warran and Benz worked hard to "chum" the sharks. They threw in heads of Tuna and some salty fish soup to create an odour trail. Marine Dynamics picks up fish waste that is not fit for consumption/export for baiting. About five minutes after we anchored, Hennie called out, "Watch out on your left." A shark was mating with a seal and the seal was giving it a fight. The fight would last about five minutes and usually happens around sunrise and sunset, and we were lucky to catch it. The sharks were already there. While we were busy getting into the suits, a shark hit our boat! Everyone got into the suits. The waves rocked the boat pretty hard, and some of us, including me, got sick. Hennie had told us about it and it was pretty normal. I went to the edge to throw up and felt a little better. The first set of five people went into a cage that was lowered on the side of the boat. Strict instructions from Hennie said, "No limbs outside the cage. No touching the shark." We were just in suits. No breathing apparatus. The way to do it was to hold your breath and go inside the water. Stay there for as long as you could and then surface. We would float with our neck outside for most of the time and go in when the shark was around. In the next set of five, I got into the cage. The water of the Atlantic was cold. It started to seep through my suit and I could feel the chill. Some of it got into my mouth and I had to keep spitting to get the salt out of my mouth. Hennie or Benz or Warren would shout "Divers down down" and we would pull in a long breath and go in. The first time they did that, I took a deep breath and dipped into the ocean. And there she was! A huge 3m Great White. All the sickness, cold and salt was worth this one view. She circled the boat and with a quick dash of her tailfin, vanished into darkness. I came up and breathed heavily. Must have been like 10 seconds inside the water. "Divers down down down," they shouted. A deep breath again and in I went. The sharks came so close, I could touch them if I put my hand out of the cage. "On your left. Divers down," and down we would go. We had done about 15 such sightings. I was getting better. The body had adjusted to the cold water and I was breathing deep enough to stay out 30 seconds. It was surreal the sharks swimming a foot away from you. And then a large 3+ meters male just emerged from the bottom and headed for our cage. Thud and a micro second later, it vanished into the dark sea. It took us a few seconds to realize what happened, but it was all okay. We surfaced to the boat a few minutes later. I was completely drained out of energy. And it was good to be breathing with the nose again (as against mouth during the dive). But the boat was rocking pretty hard, and I felt sick again. After everyone completed their dives in the cage, we headed back for land. The trick, Jonathan told me, during sea-sickness is to focus on land (a fixed point outside the boat) and that really seemed to help. Hot beverages awaited us when we got back to the restaurant. Hennie took our leave and went back to the sea for another expedition exclusively for the volunteers. Lucas showed us the video he created on the boat - and it was superb! How he captured footage that did not need editing before viewing was mind blowing. Ibrahim drove us back to Cape Town through South African country side. When I got to the hotel at 2:45 pm, I was tired, tasted like salt and smelled like fish. So that was it. A brilliant experience swimming with the sharks. Unlike the zoo, this time around, the humans experienced the cage.
Home · Day 5
Tags: Adventure Sports, Africa, Wildlife
Overnight: Southern Sun, Cape Town
To Gansbaai for Shark Cage Diving At 5:01 am, my phone rang and Ibrahim announced himself. "You have a pick up for five. I am waiting for you in the lobby." I had just stepped out of shower and need another 10 minutes to get ready. At 5:09, the phone rang again and Ibrahim said, "I am running late. You are holding me up." I pleaded two more minutes, threw my cameras in the bag, hung a Do Not Disturb card on my hotel door and ran downstairs. By the time I reached the lobby, the receptionist was walking towards me. "Please hurry, Sir. He has already left." I ran outside the door and Ibrahim had started the car. We picked up five more people from Cape Town - a Peruvian couple, an American couple and an English girl. Gansbaai / Kleinbaai was about 180 km south east of Cape Town - a 2 hour drive by the road. And Ibrahim did a good job of getting us there, while all of us went back to sleep. At 7:30 am, we stopped outside the Great White House restaurant, a barn like white building with a wooden roof. Marine Dynamics, a shark diving and whale watching outfit welcomed its guests and operated out of here. I met the incharge Marilie and later the skipper of our boat Hennie. After a quick breakfast, Hennie took us through a short 15 minute briefing about the days plan. He was the man in control. We then put on our orange life jackets and boarded the boat - Shark Fever.
Swimming with Great White Sharks in the Atlantic Hennie anchored her off the Dyer Island. Beside it was another island Geyser Rock. And in between the two was a strait called Shark Alley. Dyer Island and Geyser Rock were breeding colonies for African penguins, seals and other marine life. Alex and Jonathan, the volunteers on the boat, got us into the diving suits. While Warran and Benz worked hard to "chum" the sharks. They threw in heads of Tuna and some salty fish soup to create an odour trail. Marine Dynamics picks up fish waste that is not fit for consumption/export for baiting. About five minutes after we anchored, Hennie called out, "Watch out on your left." A shark was mating with a seal and the seal was giving it a fight. The fight would last about five minutes and usually happens around sunrise and sunset, and we were lucky to catch it. The sharks were already there. While we were busy getting into the suits, a shark hit our boat! Everyone got into the suits. The waves rocked the boat pretty hard, and some of us, including me, got sick. Hennie had told us about it and it was pretty normal. I went to the edge to throw up and felt a little better. The first set of five people went into a cage that was lowered on the side of the boat. Strict instructions from Hennie said, "No limbs outside the cage. No touching the shark." We were just in suits. No breathing apparatus. The way to do it was to hold your breath and go inside the water. Stay there for as long as you could and then surface. We would float with our neck outside for most of the time and go in when the shark was around. In the next set of five, I got into the cage. The water of the Atlantic was cold. It started to seep through my suit and I could feel the chill. Some of it got into my mouth and I had to keep spitting to get the salt out of my mouth. Hennie or Benz or Warren would shout "Divers down down" and we would pull in a long breath and go in. The first time they did that, I took a deep breath and dipped into the ocean. And there she was! A huge 3m Great White. All the sickness, cold and salt was worth this one view. She circled the boat and with a quick dash of her tailfin, vanished into darkness. I came up and breathed heavily. Must have been like 10 seconds inside the water. "Divers down down down," they shouted. A deep breath again and in I went. The sharks came so close, I could touch them if I put my hand out of the cage. "On your left. Divers down," and down we would go. We had done about 15 such sightings. I was getting better. The body had adjusted to the cold water and I was breathing deep enough to stay out 30 seconds. It was surreal the sharks swimming a foot away from you. And then a large 3+ meters male just emerged from the bottom and headed for our cage. Thud and a micro second later, it vanished into the dark sea. It took us a few seconds to realize what happened, but it was all okay. We surfaced to the boat a few minutes later. I was completely drained out of energy. And it was good to be breathing with the nose again (as against mouth during the dive). But the boat was rocking pretty hard, and I felt sick again. After everyone completed their dives in the cage, we headed back for land. The trick, Jonathan told me, during sea-sickness is to focus on land (a fixed point outside the boat) and that really seemed to help. Hot beverages awaited us when we got back to the restaurant. Hennie took our leave and went back to the sea for another expedition exclusively for the volunteers. Lucas showed us the video he created on the boat - and it was superb! How he captured footage that did not need editing before viewing was mind blowing. Ibrahim drove us back to Cape Town through South African country side. When I got to the hotel at 2:45 pm, I was tired, tasted like salt and smelled like fish. So that was it. A brilliant experience swimming with the sharks. Unlike the zoo, this time around, the humans experienced the cage.
Home · Day 5
Tags: Adventure Sports, Africa, Wildlife