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Bright and early this morning (at 5:30 am, to be precise), the group got together to take the buses to Gansbaai to go shark diving. So exciting! The trip down was about a two hour bus ride, during which I attempted to sleep, but Courtney and Kenny entertained us all with mask shenanigans and early 90s sing alongs.
Our trusty boat was known as the Barracuda, and after waiting around for a while, we finally launched. The water was kind of choppy, with 6-8 foot swells, and the boat ride out to “shark alley” was pretty fun (if not wet). I managed to get into the first group to go in to the shark cage. After donning a wetsuit (which was fun to get in, let me tell you), I hopped in the cage with five others, and they threw the bait out. We got some great sightings of Great Whites! The sharks came pretty close to the cage, and just swam right by. Very exciting. However, the swells were getting bigger, and by the time I got out of the water, I knew that things were not going in a good direction.
After I got out of
the cage, I saw at least three people from our group hanging over the side of the boat. Although I wasn’t feeling 100%, I thought I’d be able to handle it…well, guess what, not so much. I definitely got seasick for the remainder of the trip, hanging over the side (then the bow) of the ship, creating my own shark chum. Luckily, I was in good company. One girl from our trip, Kristin, has chronic motion sickness, and has thrown up on every long traveling trip our group has taken…so she was proffering advice to everybody who was hanging over the side of the bow. In total, out of 18 of us, 9 of us actually saw our breakfast, and quite a few more didn’t feel well.
However, we got some great shots (photos are generally courtesy of Courtney and Erin C., as I was slightly preoccupied with things other than photographic ventures). All in all, it was exciting to see the sharks, however, I’m not sure I’d pay the money again to spend all that time yakking. Our group is definitely closer now for the experience of shark-chum creation…and this is an entry that you guys probably didn’t
appreciate. Oh well. Enjoy the pictures.
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Uncle Kevan
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the undersea world
Jacques Cousteau would be proud of you (as would your uncle Robert). Having been seasick once, I'm very sympathetic-- and know you're feeling better now that you're back on terra firma. Enjoy.