Dum da . . . . dum da . . . .
As I slipped on the wettie, and lowered myself into the chilly waters of Gansbaai the thought, "I could be eaten", never crossed my mind. I looked at Steve, who was grinning like a madman, and said something forgettable - to which he replied, "This is SO cool!!"
Myth number one about shark cage diving. It's scary. It's not.
It is thrilling, amazing, awesome but not scary. The sharks aren't aggressive, they don't want to kill you. They are curious.
The other element no one tells you about is that when you are told to go underwater you enter a world of silence. Not a sound. You see this huge beast swim past the cage (or ram into it, or stick its nose in and bite it - yes that happened to us too) but it is mute - quite a bizzare experience.
Then of course there was Jeff. The 15 year olf British kid who from the second he stepped off the jetty got sick. I saw him hurl overboard into the path of a circling shark. I think if I had asked Jeff, he would have been more than happy for me to tip him off the side. Poor kid.
But by ther end of the day, I was starting to feel a little queezy myself. It probably wasn't helped by the chuming. There were 2 'crewman' on board whose sole responcibility was to fill a big bucket with fish parts, fill it with sea water and then stomp in it until it became a watery soup of shark fragerance. Then they would slop it over board. For 4 hours. After a while when you went under to view the sharks you would see the fish bits float past your mask and no doubt into your nose, mouth and ears. Another hidden gem of shark diving.
(For those of you shaking your heads, apparently chuming does not lure sharks into the beach to eat people as it has been rumoured. So there.)
But, it was unreal. Thanks to Steve for making it happen. Thanks to God for making such awesome beasties. And thanks to Hayley for sending me off with a smile!
