Gansbaai
SOUTH AFRICA
Shark Diving
By AARON
Sunday, May 8, 2011
So you would think the best deal on cage diving with great whites would be to drive the 2 ½ hours from Cape Town, rock up to the dive office on your own, and sign up right there. No transfers from Cape Town, no processing fees, and no commission to pay any hostels or tour agencies selling your tour, right? Wrong. Apparently, by booking through Hermanus Backpackers, we were able to save a combined $510 Rand (around $80USD) and we also get a free night at the backpackers lodge! Don’t ask me how that works – I even asked the shark dive company how much it would be if we just booked at their office instead of Hermanus Backpackers, and the price was still higher. Oh well, this is Africa after all.
Regardless, Lyndi and I were on a money-saving high as we pulled into the tiny coastal town of Hermanus, and we parked Sparky out front and checked in to our hostel. After a brief walk in the rain along the coast, we promptly headed back, cooked some dinner and called it an early night, as we were in point of fact, cage diving with sharks the next day!
Early next morning, while the mist was still blanketing the town, we pulled out onto the coastal highway and headed about 45 minutes further east to the town of Gansbaai (pronounced “Hans-BYEEE!”). Marketed as THE place for great white shark viewing (just don’t ask Mossel Bay), Gansbaai has been home to numerous documentaries by Discovery and National Geographic on these predators of the sea. As it turns out, the company that we were using (Ecoventures) has been the subject of many a documentary by both major travel icons.
Lyndi and I were the first of our full group of 20, and were greeted in the town office with hot coffee and tea and a full breakfast spread. After the rest of the group showed up on the transfer from Cape Town, our guide, Robert, briefed us on the day and after that we were off!
We headed out on the “Megalodon II”, Ecoventures newest boat, and after the captain cranked the two outboard 220cc engines to what seemed like full throttle, we arrived at our destination in about 15 minutes. After another briefing on the top viewing deck by Robert, we were greeted by a couple of great whites circling the boat in no time.
Everyone anxious to get in, we all donned out head-to-toe wetsuits, mine with a stylish hole right in the butt, and watched as one of the crew threw tied bait out into the water to “lure” the sharks closer. Before anyone could even get in the cage, one of the sharks got a bit too close and WHAM! nailed the side of the boat going not for the bait, but for some seaweed that had apparently floated a bit too close to the port side. It literally sounded like someone had taken a sledgehammer and given the side of the boat a good whack. Wow.
Lyndi and I were part of the second group to get in, which didn’t bother us at all, because on the deck of the boat, you got great views of the sharks darting out of the water as they tried to “sneak attack” the bait from underneath. Sometimes they were lucky, other times they were not, but we never tired watching these dark shadows move stealthily underwater, only to breach the surface in a split second – about the time it took for one beat of our rapidly pumping hearts.
When we finally got in the cage, the first thing in our minds was, “wow, this water is really cold”. The second thought through my head was, “this wetsuit isn’t doing much considering the hole in the butt”. But all ideas of cold water and cold drafts in my nether-regions were quickly forgotten every time the bait handlers above would yell “DOWN!” which was code for “there’s a big shark swimming right by you!”.
By the time we had gotten in the water, there were seven great whites all around the boat competing for whatever bait was tied to the rope on board. All of the sharks were big, but there was one in particular, with scars all over his body, that could have easily played the starring role in “Jaws Gets His Butt Kicked by Bigger Jaws”.
I guess the main thing we realized, and what this company is trying to achieve through these tours, is that the sharks really aren’t interested in the cage or the people inside. In fact, the only reason they even get close to the cage is because the able baiters on board are dragging the bait closer to the boat in order to get the sharks themselves closer. Nevertheless, it was still an amazing experience being that close to that big of a shark, and not just one but seven of them!
Due to a lot of people being too cold to re-enter the cage, Lyndi and I got to go in the cage for two 30-minute sessions which was more than enough to satisfy our great white viewing desires.
Once the bait was dragged in, as quickly as they came, the sharks were gone, and just like them, so were we. We arrived back at the docks about 20 minutes later and once we were back in the office in town, we were greeted with a warm lunch, wine and beer. Because floating in a cage underwater works up an appetite. And the sharks ate all the bait.
So while we ate our ample lunch, we watched a DVD that one of the crew put together of our day out at sea, and I’m happy to say some of the guests purchased it for the low price of $45USD. It was a nice DVD, but wow, $45 dollars? I guess there is one born every minute.
After our lunch, Lyndi and I said goodbye to our single-serving friends, hopped in Sparky and headed off to our next destination. We were happy, full and felt fulfilled in our shark viewing endeavor, so how could we one-up this awesome excursion? Well I’ll let Lyndi be the architect of that story, and I must say, what a fine story it will be.
