SHARKS ATTACK!!

On Friday we took a two hour drive to Mossel Bay to try our hands at shark cage diving. Yes that's right. Diving. With sharks. Great white sharks at that. This has always been something that I thought I'd be too scared to do but I felt it was an experience that I shouldn't miss out on. We had to be there at 8.15 so we left at the obscene time of 5.45. The morning feels like a blur as I was still half asleep. At one point we nearly ran over something that Freddie insisted was a wolf but was in fact some kind of husky dog. Anyway, I'm getting off point.

Four of us went but there were only 3 places on the boat as it had been booked for the three volunteers (me Hilde and Freddie (and for free also instead of over 1000 rand, waney!)) and Chanel had very kindly driven us. However when we got there Hilde decided she didn't want to do it so Chanel managed to take her place (not helped by the rude and unfriendly staff I have to say!) But anyway, we got on the boat and were away. We drove out to a small rocky island where a colony of seals live as this is the area the sharks come to (they nom on the seals!) We only had to wait about 20 minutes for some sharks to appear. I knew from seeing them on TV and that they are big fish, but there is no way to gage truly how big they are until you see them in the flesh. And seriously, they are huge. Massive. Enourmous. HUMONGOUS. And I was about to get in the water with them. Separated by a cage yes. But still.

We were the second group to get in the cage. Six people get in at a time. It was kind of long and thin. We put on wetsuits (I hate putting on wetsuits - so hard to get on!!) and snorkel masks and then we got into the cage.

The staff on the boat used a tuna head to lure the sharks closer to the cage, and they really did get close! It was amazing to see them like this you could see even better just how big they are. The biggest ones were easily as long as the cage with six people in it! One crazy moment was when one grabbed the fish head in its mouth and thrashed around with it right next to the cage. You could properly see all its hundreds of teeth and you realised just how strong they really are. I screamed at one point when a shark swam straight at me with its mouth wide open. I knew it couldn't get me but it was still scary looking straight into its mouth!!!

I was quite glad I wasn't in the 3rd group of people as they had some quite frisky sharks who kept hitting the cage (one actually jumped out of the water and hit the cage head first!) It was great to watch from the boat though.

It was such a great experience and I would highly recommend it to anyone! It's a shame that the company were a bit rude and not very helpful but the actual experience was amazing!

Photo credit goes to Chanel Hauvette.