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Published: October 16th 2008
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On Saturday it was the Great White Shark Diving from Gansbaai harbour about 2 hours drive from our luxury warm beds in Franschhoek Valley and we set off at 5am - can't believe how many early starts there have been. Still rather go shark diving at that time rather than work 😊. After a picturesque drive through the valley watching the sunrise over the mountains (in between dropping off to sleep and Miss Satnav barking directions and waking us up...speak for yourself Ian), we arrived at the meeting point about 5 minutes from the harbour. Uncle Jeff was deliberating throughout the week (Although Aunt Irene didn't think it was wise!) whether or not to join us, with his possible sea sickness the stumbling block. After we had all paid our Rand and bought our non shark proof underwater disposable kodaks, Jeff plucked up the courage and got his credit card out of his wallet after assurances that the sea was relatively calm that day.
We headed out of the harbour on our boat, which was a lot smaller than we'd expected thinking that a shark would snap it if it wanted to, and 20minutes later we had anchored in shallow
water and the guys at the back of the boat started "chumming", which is baiting the sharks by throwing fish heads, guts and things into the water around the boat. We all headed up to the top of the boat for our safety talk, which, unfortunately for Jeff and other sufferers, was prime motion sickness territory. Within minutes of the Afrikaan guy saying "welcome to shark alley", Jeff had lost all of his bronze tan achieved from the wonderful South African lifestyle, and now had a colour more similar to the grinch.
Anyway, we left Jeff to the longest four hours of his life and headed downstairs as there was already a Great white shark testing out the water near our boat. After another group went first, Lizzie and I donned our wetsuits ready to jump into the cage that had been lowered off the side of the boat into the 14degree waters. Jeff declined.
The sharks were 15 feet long and looking mean, with the dorsal fin sprouting out of the water scarred and battle worn. The guys on the boat throw out a rope with a smelly tuna head attached to it and when the shark
goes for it they pull it in for the shark to try and catch nearer to the boat. When they see a shark they a shout "DOWN DOWN DOWN"when you take a breath and stand on the bottom of the cage underwater for a few seconds and hopefully see the shark from there. Lizzie and I had jumped into the cage and chilled our bits, when our first sighting was on its way. "DOWN DOWN DOWN" and under we went. As we were under the guys obviously pulled the bait a little too close and so the shark decided to head straight for us in the cage and obviously wanted to taste the cage instead of the gourmet tuna head provided. It wedged its nose inside the cage for what seemed minutes, less than a foot in front of mine and Lizzie's faces looking down the throat of this huge killing machine through it's rows of razor sharp teeth (am I dressing this up enough?) while nervously trying to wind on the kodak underwater disposable! Apparently you're supposed to punch them on the nose if they come towards you but we can reveal that is easier said than done. Luckily
the shark didn't like the taste of the cage (or the sight of my Beyonce J-Lo Ass in a wetsuit. Lizzie looked sexy though, think it was the goggles) and went on its way.
Was an unbelievable experience and was all over very quickly and, while Lizzie was happy that she'd seen enough and decided to watch them from the boat, I had another attempt in the cage and although there were a few more sightings from underwater, the cold water became too much and my shivering ass hopped out of the cage to see Jeff had braved his way down to the deck, although the smell of the barrel of fish guts can't have helped the sickness. We then headed back to the bay, to Jeff's relief (and a dutch girl called Michelle who I think thought she was going to die if she lost anymore fluid from her stomach).
Overall, we were so glad we had managed to get a trip after our previous effort was cancelled, and had an awesome day that couldn't have gone any better (other than if Jeff had not needing refuelling with food, liquid and electrolytes when we got back!).
Next stop Cambodia and the ancient temples!
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