I was lucky enough to spend 3 weeks over the Christmas holidays with Anton and his family in Glentana, along the coast in South Africa. Absolutely beautiful there! Plenty of braai’s (basically a bbq), wine, relaxing and some day trips here and there.
The big adventure was a trip to Gansbaii in ‘Shark Alley’ for a shark dive with great whites. Shark Alley is the only place in the world where great whites jump out of the water while hunting and feeding on seals. We did our dive with a company called White Shark Projects, and I was really happy with the whole experience.
We had driven to Cape Town the night before for a party with some of Anton’s friends, so we had to wake up at 4am and drive a couple hours to Gansbaii. Anton kindly let me sleep while he drove. When we arrived at 6am they fed a really nice light breakfast while we waited for everyone to arrive.
They loaded us on the boat and took us out on the water for about 20 minutes before stopping. It was really foggy out and we couldn’t see much at all, not even the nearby Seal Island, but we could certainly smell it! Even though we were there in the summer, December and January are actually the low season for seeing sharks, July and August the best, so I was a bit worried we might not see anything at all.
To attract the sharks to the boat, they mixed up some chum – a combination of fish oil, guts and sea water. They kept throwing out the back of the boat to create a chum line leading back to the boat. They also tied a fish head to a buoy and threw that out in the water aongside the boat. This acted as bait to attract the sharks near the surface and near the boat. A 3m long cage was attached to the side of the boat, and submerged a couple of metres. It was less than a metre wide, and fit 5 people comfortably.
The fog cleared a bit and we saw our first shark before the first 5 people were suited up and in the cage! It was so cool. Out of nowhere there was suddenly this giant shark right beside the boat. After that they rushed everyone into the cage just in case this was our big shark sighting for the day. The shark came back and the first group was in the water for quite a while, although there wasn’t much action towards the end. Anton and I ended up in the second group. There weren’t any sharks around, but they said that if we wanted to see anything we just had to get in the water and wait. They gave us some 7mm thick wetsuits, complete with booties. We also got a weight belt to help us submerge, and a snorkel mask.
The cage opened from the top, and we just climbed in trying not to poke our feet outside the bars of the cage. The water was absolutely FREEZING!! The wetsuit helped, but I couldn’t believe how cold the water was! They didn’t even make us practice submerging for when a shark came by. The 5 of us in the cage started joking about peeing in the water to warm up, and we heard this voice from the boat “Guys, don’t pee in the wetsuits, we have to clean those.” Whoops. The water in the suits eventually warmed up from our body heat, and that made it a bit better.
Along the inside of the cage was a red bar for us to hang on to, and another near the bottem that we could hook our feet under when we pulled ourselves under to see a shark. It was so exciting when the first shark came around. Up on the boat they yelled “Down! Down! Down!” and then we just had to hold our breath, pull ourselves under and look around. Even though the water was pretty clear, the sharks just appeared and then disappeared out of nowhere. We had to be extra careful to only hang on to the bar on the inside of the cage, and not the cage itself. Sometimes when I was trying to hook my feet under the bottom bar I’d be resting my feet on the outside bars of the cage and then it was like “oh shit don’t do that!’. The gaps in the cage were actually really big. I could have easily reached my arm all the way out had I really had the urge.
We were really lucky and got tons of shark action while we were in the cage. It was so exciting I didn’t even mind waiting around in the freezing water. The guys on the boat would throw out chum and pull the tuna head towards the cage drawing the sharks near, and some of them came close enough that we could’ve touched them. One of the even came towards us with its mouth open to bite the tuna head. So awesome!! It was cool and kind of creepy to be under water and watching the sharks swimming underneath the boat. Their eyes are so flat and black and expressionless.
I was really lucky and got to stay in the cage for about an hour in total. When it was time for the next group to come in, one of the girls was seasick so there was an open spot, and Anton generously let me take it. The people didn’t stay in for long, so soon Anton was able to come back in as well. In total we saw about 4-5 different sharks that came around multiple times. All the sharks were between 3-4m long, but great whites can grow to be 7m long I think. The whole experience was so amazing I didn’t want to get out of the water in case I missed something. I didn’t find it scary or nerve racking or anything either. I felt pretty safe inside the cage. Outside the cage would be a different story!
After the dive they brought us back to their office and gave us more snacks and a chance to watch the video from our dive. Overall the whole morning was just awesome.
I totally recommend shark diving if you ever have the chance!! One of the best things I did all over Africa. I would do it again in a heartbeat.
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