South Africa - Hermanus and the shark diving

Skip and the bait - the bait before us that is
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Frank writes - On the way to Hermanus we were to stop at Gouritz River bridge where the world’s highest bridge swing is (65m).

The day was perfect. When we arrived we looked down on this great canyon with bridge across. Swinging or jumping looked like madness. But as we waited us oldies were put to shame. There was an elderly man on the bridge; he had long white locks and he was going to bungee jump with his wife. It was his 66^th birthday present. He calmly put on the gear and with great elegance swallow-dived from the bridge. We waited for the youngsters to do the swing.

Sharky's first glimpse of Chris before he gets into the cage
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Sarah went first. We watched her fall for about 5 seconds before the rope took command. ‘How was it?’ we called out – ‘terrifying’ she called back. We congratulated ourselves on being so cowardly. Bebs and Chris swung together. Their weight swung then out with greater velocity than Sarah. Bebs seemed to be buried in Chris’ jacket although she said she saw everything!!

Becs writes - standing on the edge was absolutely terrifying as your brain fully realised that it really was quite a long way down and you were going to attempt to survive the fall by hanging on to a flimsy bit of rope. You can feel your mind getting scrambled by what you're about to do but somehow, after the countdown, you jump off the platform. When falling your mind goes completely blank and a mad panic and you are incapable even of screaming, although that could have been because our stomachs were in our throats! Then at last the rope pulls taught and you realise you will live . . . only to do something more stupid the next day!

Sarah suited up
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Chris writes - Ever since we planned the trip, shark cage diving has been casting an alluring glance at us. We've heard mixed reports from people on the experience: ecologically unsound, detrimental to the sharks, overpriced and underwhelming....and sharks being conditioned to see humans as bait...yes that's right us as bait. Even Arthur Blackpudding (aka Duffus) was vehemently against it.

Well we arrived in Hermanus, 100 miles east of Cape Town, and stayed at a friendly backpackers in the centre who had kindly organised for the three kids to go cage diving and for the parents to go whale watching. We went to bed fairly early after watching a documentary featuring a surfer who'd had his bollocks chewed off and spat out by a gnarly Great White...radical dudes...and was pleading for an end to cage diving.

Becs and Sare in the cage
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After a broken sleep (Sarah slept soundly as usual) we woke up to sound of the rain against the window...would it be too rough to go, we'd soon find out as we were picked up by Great White Adventures (ironic given where we were)featuring Brian Hamilton (the skipper not a singer). After stopping off to buy a waterproof camera we hauled into Gansbaai and waited for the weather to abate over a hearty, healthy breakfast. Things did not look good, apparently all the other operators had sacked it off for the day...then Skip (Brian) bounced in and announced that if we were all game (15 of us) we were going and better still we would have the sharks all to ourselves (or the other way around) as the other operators were too yellow.

Shark head butts Chris
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The crossing was pretty rough to Shark Alley and Dyer Island where all the seals and consequently Great Whites hang out but I managed to hold my guts together and took in the bracing sea air. After 25 minutes we dropped anchor...and nothing else I hasten to add and the cage was dropped into the water. The cage was apparently a feat of modern engineering you could now fit 5 divers in at once offering excellent viewing points.

Skip reiterated that today would be a great day to see Great Whites perhaps up to 40 viewings as there was no competition and with that he tossed out a huge Tuna head to try and draw Jaws in. At the same time a couple of the crew discharged chum into the sea to act as scent (seal poo basically). We all clambered onto the Bridge and port side and waited for the sharks to arrive. I can't remember if Sarah spotted the first one but it was certainly someone with a similar shriek and there we saw it. The menacing tail fin, the lopsided grin, the teeth in desparate need of a brace, it was all there. Grey on top so difficult to see from above but white on the bottom offering great visibility from the cage (thanks for the info Skip). "Don't worry this was a small one and pretty shy too as he wouldn't go near the cage".

What an enjoyable experience standing 65m over a river!
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Apparently when sharks touch metal (which they are naturally drawn too because it is shiny) they give a reflex action which results in their head tipping back like a flip-top lid on a bottle of pop - we were hoping to see that in action later. Gradually as the tuna head was reeled in and tossed back out more and more sharks came but they never got it (so as not to associate diving boats with food allegedly), although surely this just antagonises them..we would soon find out.

It's OK Becs you can look now
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Nearly two hours had passed and we were all feeling quite desensitised to Jaws, having seen so many but Skip never loses his enthusiasm, "here's one coming up on the left, another coming up on the right, ah he's small about 2 metres, that one's got a cut on her head after hitting the rudder". Then suddenly, we got the call to arms, like the Lone Ranger and Tonto we were told saddle up into our wetsuits and get in the cage. My heart pounded, my stomach heaved (with the swell and smell of the chum) I squeezed into my too small a wetsuit and clambered into the cage, camera at the ready. As some sort of perverse reward Skip rewarded up with up to 30-40min in the cage per group (3 groups of 5) as it was so cold out of the water. Normally you only spend 10mins max at a time in the cage but can go in more than once....would 40mins be long enough?

Back the other way...Becs has finally emitted a whoop!
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Now, I am not an experienced diver nor a strong swimmer and yes I know you didn't need either as you basically pull yourself up and down in the cage and go down just holding your breath with your feet resting on a bar but it is disorientating. "Where do I put my hands? I swear my feet are sticking out. Where's the bar?" I mouthed but nobody heard or understood. Particularly with Skip above issuing instructions like a demented drill sergeant "up, down, breathe, left, right, up, breathe, and down, left, right". Crikey I'm knackered, was that just a practice or was there really a shark?

Safe at last in the boat
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Then Skip hollers "coming on your....oooooooooh he's big, about 4 metres" ....out came the camera and click. As it passed slowly I thought "that wasn't too bad . . . good visibility and the shark didn't seem too bothered but where do I put my feet?"

All silence, waiting and then, a gargling sound, lots of thrashing...was that a gnawing sound?...gasp for breath and then I am thrown into the water, hands and feet seemingly slipping out the holes. Over the multitude of sounds there is the faint sound of Skip saying he won't do that again.

Tell me again why are we doing this?
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@#$k this I thought I'm out of here and the cage door was opened and I had clambered out before my weight belt could be taken off, not exactly sure what had happened but sure it wasn't for me. Becs and Sarah stayed in for a further 20-30min loving every minute of it though.

Safely back on dry land we discovered that one of the fellow divers had filmed the footage on our digital camera...great we could really see what had happened out there in Shark alley. As it turns out the 4 metre Great White appeared from no where pretty much head on for the cage. At the time I was practicing my up, down, left, right breathing exercises and rebounded off the buoy as Jaws slammed into the cage right about where my forehead was, it's nose tip just getting through the bars....didn't see that one coming did you Skip? Jaws proceeded to gnaw myside of the cage then thrashed about in anger, knocking all into the cage and under and completely missing the Tuna head which Skip had dragged onto the boat.

Skip said that Becs should have married a real man but there's not much point when your balls are in a shark's mouth.

Frank writes - We left Hermanus in the pouring rain the following day at five. We were to get to the airport to go to Johannesburg. We were going to the Kruger National Park but before that were to spend two days walking in the Drakensberg Mountains. I had insisted on this. I got on the plane with a certain amount of trepidation. The youngsters still had adrenaline coursing through their veins from the previous day. The first ten days had been amazing. What of the next ten?