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Published: April 14th 2008
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Cinsa
Lovely setting, wish I had had longer here. After the previous days adrenalin packed activities at Storms River I decided to relax just up the coast at Jeffery’s Bay; this small town exists almost entirely for surfing, international enthusiasts flock here to ride the Supertube waves that roll in along the coast and are thought some of the most perfect waves in the world. I wasn’t quite as adventurous as the pros but did have a 3 hour lesson on some of the smaller waves; unfortunately I haven’t improved much since Australia and seemed to spend half the time spinning submerged under a breaker, still fun when I did manage to catch a wave.
After an overnight stop in Port Elizabeth I finally left the Garden Route behind and moved onto the Eastern Cape region. This part of South Africa is far more like the black Africa with which I was familiar, the towns are all single story and more sparsely spaced, the local housing is much more basic (mud brick and thatch). The signs of western modernity that were so prevalent in Cape Town seemed to steadily decrease as I headed north.
This region is all about the coastline, the beaches and the lush rolling grasslands that stretch
The Hole in the Wall
Nice Place to spend an afternoon inland to support the local small farms. It was bound to be a change in pace for a few days but I felt quite a welcome one. I stopped first at Cinsa then further on at another small village on the coast called Coffee Bay, the distances between both of which took the best part of a day to traverse. Both spots were idyllically set on the Indian Ocean with chilled out backpacker hostels, beaches and hiking to keep the gusts entertained (not to mention the lively bars). One hike in particular from Coffee Bay stood out. It was a 10km trail along the coast which wound along the beaches and adjoining grassland and even through copses of large cacti trees, very pretty. The final destination for this trek was a place called the Hole in the Wall, a rocky outcrop perching on the edge of the beach which has had a cave eroded through it over the millennia. This hole breaks the big rollers from the Indian Ocean to form a warm lagoon behind its protection, we picnicked and swam there for most of the afternoon and occasionally jumped into the waves as they were passing through the hole
Black Tip Reef Shark
Coming to investigate me, they swam so close! only to get washed at speed inshore. There was also a shop entirely for hammocks on the hill near Coffee Bay; needless to say I’ve never had such a relaxing shopping trip.
After all this relaxation I needed a bit of activity so I travelled up to town just south of Durban called Umkomass, this sleepy place is the gateway to the nearby Aliwal Shoal, one of the worlds top ten dive sites and my home for the next three days. Despite rather poor visibility over the course of the first two days and four dives I saw a pod of bottlenose dolphins (always a pleasure), lots of loggerhead and green turtles, several rays and a couple of white tip sharks. It was nice being in the water again and I took the opportunity to become PADI qualified as a Nitrox Diver (diving with enriched air eg 36% oxygen won’t go into detail).
Although the first few dives were fun the main reason I was on the Alwal Shoal was because it is one of the few places in the world that you can go Scuba Diving with Tiger Sharks! Over the last eight years the local shark experts have
The big female Tiger Shark
She was so much bigger than anyhing else in the water & her confidence really showed been studying the tigers and working out how they behave and react to divers in the water and how to dive safely with these huge predators, something that a decade ago was thought impossible. We were told on the boat that our primary concern was to keep the sharks unsure as to whether we were a threat or food, we had to stay vertical in the water (ie unlike fish), not thrash around, look them in the eye whenever possible by checking all around us (they often try to come from behind) and most importantly not to swim away when they start swimming directly at you. All these instructions were to help keep us safe in the water, but first things first we had to attract the sharks, the crew dumped a container full of fish oil and parts over the side attached to a buoy, this created a scent trail in the current which soon had the water teeming with black tip sharks, these were between 1.5 & 2m long alone so were big fish in their own right. The crew waited until a tiger shark was sighted then withdrew the container and threw an old washing machine drum
Just so Many Black Tips
Amazing number of sharks all moving randomly and independently filled with fish overboard, this sank to around 8m and was to be our reference point for the entire dive.
The moment we rolled back off the boat we were surrounded by the black tip sharks, they darted between us, around us, constantly brushing our fins & trying to figure out what we were. There must have been between 30 and 40 of them all around us at any one time moving constantly and unpredictable through the water, their proximity to us was staggering. As long as you kept your hands to yourself the black tips were not a threat although when you checked behind you to see one a few inches away you couldn’t help but start. The ones we really had to watch were the Tiger Sharks the first of which, a 3.5m female turned up after a couple of minutes underwater, they move slowly and calculatingly through the water, the sedate great dane to the black tips yapping terrier. The big female swam between us and around us, trying to sense weakness or just trying to figure out what we were. She was soon joined by two other smaller tigers (still 3m long) so that we now
Through the Legs
This is the shot I got of the smaller tiger coming through my legs just after the close encounter with the big female had around 40 black tips and three tigers to try and keep an eye on. Quite a breathtaking experience, over the next hour we drifted with the bate box in sight and watched these aesthetically stunning sharks swim all around our group, they have beautiful striped sides and their whole from is wonderfully smooth and streamlined a product of hundreds of millions of years of evolution.
At one point I saw the large female come out of the blue and head directly toward me, she kept coming and was only a few inches from my face before she veered off, standing you ground when a shark that size swims toward you is quite something. The whole time you are in the water you are trying to appear dominant even though you know you are at their mercy and completely in their element, it is an extraordinary feeling, difficult to describe. Just as the female veered off I spotted the other tiger come up between my legs, made for a good picture. By the end of the dive I had been closer to more sharks than I had ever believed possible, you can’t get much closer than being bumped on the
More Black Tips
Its hard to describe just how alive with sharks the water really was, no one shot can capture having them all around you, in every direction. back of the leg by a black tip. Amazing creatures, amazing experience, amazing place, just hope some day to come back.
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Mazza
non-member comment
Relaxation?
This is definitely not a blog for Granny! You write about these deadly creatures with something boarding on affection. Quite extraordinary!