Please find the overview of my Garden Route trip here.
What do you do the day after a video of a great white shark breaching a shark cage goes viral? Go shark cage diving of course!
I was notified that my pick-up in Cape Town on Saturday morning would be at 4:00 (!), so based on that early timing I presumed that I was the first person on the list and other people would be picked up afterwards. Therefore, I was quite surprised to find a bunch of sleep-deprived people blearily looking on while I took the single remaining empty seat in the bus, as it turns out I was actually the final person to be picked up in Cape Town. Personal lack of sleep precluded any real sense of satisfaction at this observation, and I was soon trying to catch up on some lost sleep.
The bus took us east from Cape Town to Gansbaai. Gansbaai is famous for its dense population of great white sharks, which are attracted to the colony of Cape fur seals inhabiting a nearby island, with an adjacent sea channel fittingly called Shark Alley. The great white shark is the largest known predatory fish and is responsible for the majority of shark attacks on humans, and as a result it has repeatedly been given a starring role in recent pop culture.
We arrived in Gansbaai at 6:00 and got served some light breakfast. While we were eating the crew of the shark cage diving company explained the safety rules. They threw in a few quips and jokes to try to lighten the mood, but these largely fell on deaf ears as most people were just staring into space and were clearly still trying to wake up fully. An hour later, at around 7:00, the boat was launched, and we were ready to embark for a three-hour boat trip looking for sharks.
To lure the sharks to the boat the crew would chum the water. This means that they threw out bait, consisting mostly of fish fat and blood, to form a trail behind the boat. This is done so sharks in a wide area can pick up the scent of the bait and follow the trail back to the boat. However, this time the chumming failed to attract any sharks. Of course these sharks are wild animals, and it is unpredictable when and where they will show up. We had been fruitlessly waiting for over an hour and looking in vain for a shark, when we heard excited cries coming from another boat in the distance. They were clearly having more luck! As still no shark had shown up after waiting for another half an hour, the skipper decided to move closer to the other boat so we could check out the sharks that were swimming in that spot.
After having moved and thrown out the bait, we soon had a few sharks circling our boat (there were at least two, distinguishable from each other by the absence/presence of a chip in their tail fin), so we got ready to rotate in the shark diving cage. The shark diving cage was a big metal cage attached to the side of the boat that could house five divers at a time. First the crew would let a large fish head on a string bob a few meters in front of the cage to attract the sharks to that spot. Then, as the bait was pulled away when a shark approached, the onrushing shark would swerve to the side, so the people in the cage would have a close view of the shark swimming by. Actually, although it is called shark cage diving, the diving part while in the cage was rather limited, no scuba gear or something like that was required. Instead, we would float in the cage with our heads above the water, only briefly submerging while holding our breath when a shark passed by.
Didn't your momma shark teach you to chew with your mouth closed?
From the cage we could get a breathtaking look at these powerful animals as they swam by. By comparing the size of the cage to the shape of the sharks we could deduce that these sharks measured at least three to four meters. Despite being within touching distance of a shark with mouth agape poised to attack, from the safety of the cage I never felt scared. Instead, I was overawed by how the sharks would put on a sudden burst of speed when going on the attack and by how gracefully they would maneuver through the water. And another time while I was on deck we spectacularly saw a shark breach the ocean surface, coming up out of the water for at least a meter. This really was an amazing experience!
Because this was an optional activity and not part of the standard Cape 2 Addo tour program, after returning to shore I had to meet up with the tour group in Hermanus. Hermanus is called the whale capital of the world because it provides some excellent whale watching opportunities. And this proved true: during the scenic drive along the coast from Gansbaai to Hermanus the driver suddenly pointed out some whales swimming a short distance from shore. We pulled over and watched a mother whale playing with her calf, where the calf would mimic the mother’s behavior. It was endearing to watch the large whale and the small(er) whale synchronously swim on their back and seemingly wave their flipper at the onlookers on the shore.
In Hermanus I had a quick lunch (seafood was really the only viable option after the morning’s adventures!) along with two other guys joining the Cape 2 Addo tour that had also participated in the shark cage diving. After this lunch we met up with our tour group and drove over to the Birkenhead Brewery, where we were able to get to know each other a little bit while doing some beer tasting.
After having enjoyed the afternoon’s sunshine at Birkenhead Brewery we continued on to Struisbaai, where we were staying in a colorful hostel. We quickly dropped off our bags and changed into our swimming clothes to go for a walk on the nearby ‘Die Plaat’ beach, which is the longest unobstructed white sand beach in the Southern hemisphere. It was a bit chilly, so only me and one other person braved the crashing waves and went in the ocean for a swim. The evening was concluded by a savory braai, and I went to sleep after a very enjoyable and memorable day.