SHARK WEEK

Hello friends! This past weekend I did something I never thought I would do. Although I have always enjoyed Discovery Channel's Shark Week, I never really wanted to be near any sharks myself. This weekend a friend from the program and I went out to Gainsbaai, also known as Shark Alley, to do some cage-diving with great white sharks.

The driver picked us up at 4:30 AM to travel out to the sight which is about 2 hours away from Cape Town. We drove the same way we will be driving on our Garden Route trip and once the sun rose it was a beautiful drive. We finally arrived at the lodge around 7:00 AM, where they fed us breakfast, we signed our lives away, and they told us about how the day would go. Finally we headed out to the boat. We got lucky because it was a gorgeous day out, and the water was pretty calm. This was the one thing I think I was most worried about going into the trip because I had heard that most people got sea sick on the boat ride out. Fortunately for us, nobody had to add to the chum and get sick overboard. Chum is what they use to lure in the sharks. It is basically mushed up tuna, anchovy oil, and ocean water all mixed up into a nice disgusting puke- colored liquid that is thrown over the back of the boat and into the water.

When we got out to our destination in the water, about a 15 minute boat ride, one of the guides told us is might take up to an hour for the sharks to come around. They lowered the cage into the water on the side of the boat and continued to throw chum in the water while also throwing a lure out into the ocean that had a bunch of huge dead fish on it (gross). I think at this point the sharks no longer scared me and I was more worried about getting hit in the head with a bunch of dead fish. We went up to the top of the boat to wait for the sharks and in about 10 minutes time we already had our first two sharks! They were much bigger than I thought they were going to be and I was starting to get a little nervous.

We got into our wet suits, and waited for our turn to get into the cage. Six people could go into the cage at one time, and I opted to go on the second so I could make sure the first group made it out alive. Once it was our turn, we got into the water (which was a nice and warm 50-ish degrees) and all nervousness went out the window and just channeled into excitement. You are submerged up to your shoulders and holding onto the top of the cage bars. When a shark is approaching the crew yells at you to go down, and you hold your breath, grab the red bar inside of the cage, and tuck your feet under the bar at the bottom of the cage to hold yourself down. We also had weights on to help keep us under. From there on, you just watched the sharks swim right by the cage! So close you could have stuck your hand out and touched it. It was a complete adrenaline rush and I was so glad I had made myself go. We stayed in the cage for about 20 minutes and then later on got back in again after everyone had had a chance to go. We ended up seeing 8 different sharks, the biggest being a juvenile female who was already 10 feet long. It was so exciting that you almost forgot you were getting mouthfuls of chum-water. :) Let's just say you could smell yourself and everyone around you the whole 2 hour ride home.

So now I can officially say that I have been within a few inches of great white sharks! Seems like everything I am doing in Africa has to do with animals - holding owls, petting cheetahs, diving with sharks. Still on the list: riding an elephant, riding an ostrich, going whale kayaking, and of course going on a safari to see the Big 5! It is seriously amazing here and I can't wait to do more things outside of my comfort zone!