South Africa: Cape Town and Gansbaai aka Shark Alley

We got into port early in the morning around 0800. There was no face-to-face immigration to deal with so we wouldn’t need to be called by sea to get our passports. Also, we wouldn’t be carrying our passports around with us even those of us traveling by plane. What a relief. I hate traveling with my passport. It would be stressful enough traveling with it without worrying about losing all my visas and having to board the ship in time before it leaves port. That just puts more pressure on you. The girl that lost hers in Hawai’i wasn’t allowed off in some of the countries because she didn’t have the visas to get off the ship. Since we have to mailing address we can’t apply for them to be sent, nor do we have the time in port to get an emergency one. It’s very stressful. Holding onto my passport is one of the scariest things I have to do.

I went up to breakfast and grabbed some cereal and got showered and dressed and collected Becca. Off the port side was a spectacular view of Cape Town and Table Mountain. Absolutely gorgeous.

We were going to the 0830 speaker in the Union. Mrs. Biehl was talking about South Africa and her experiences since her daughter Amy Biehl was killed while abroad in South Africa. You’ve probably heard the case, back in the 1990’s about people being killed in cars and all that stuff. Google it. She was really interesting to hear speak about her volunteer organization. One or two of the guys who killed her daughter now work for her there. This is insane. She told us how it had nothing to do with her daughter, but with the politics and issues in South Africa during her time there. It was really sad, but she was fascinating.

After her talk the ship was cleared. I went back to my cabin to make sure I had everything packed up. I was supposed to be meeting Gavin, my shark cage diving leader, at 1015 outside the ship. At 0945 I got in line to get off thinking it might take awhile. It didn’t. I was off in a matter of minutes. I left the port itself and saw a really buff, blonde guy with an Extreme Scene tank top on. I introduced myself and it was Gavin. He checked my name off and told me to chill there while we waited for everyone else to show up. I had signed up with a kid I didn’t know, but I knew a few other people were in the same group with us. Michael came along. We were so excited and couldn’t believe we were actually about to do this. Shannon and the two Pats were also in our group along with Tyler, McKenzie, and Kaylin, my sister. I had given her Gavin’s number the night before and she had joined up with our group since a bunch of the dives later in the week were supposed to get cancelled for bad weather.

In fact, Gavin had emailed us all the night before to assure us that our dives weren’t going to be cancelled and the weather would be fine. He said he wasn’t sure where that rumor had started. It wasn’t a rumor, a bunch of the groups were advised not to go. But I was thrilled that ours was still on.

We split up into a few vans and were driven off into the mountains. It was a two and a half hour drive. It felt like a long drive, but it was absolutely gorgeous the entire way. We first drove through the city then out past the townships. We drove up through the mountains and got a spectacular view of Table Mountain and city along the coast. We kept seeing crazy mountains then rolling hills and desert-like fields. We drove by a few vineyards as well. We started seeing little signs along the road to Gansbaai. This was actually happening!

Around 1300 we arrived in a small town along the way. It looked like a small Cape Cod town on the water with little houses. These little houses were all shark cage diving companies. There were 35 or so of us total in this group. They fed us some lunch and had us sign our lives away.

Then they asked 11 people to leave to get ready. I walked out; I had no particular attachment to who I went with. A few others followed including Tyler and Shannon. No one realized that the group was being split into a group of 11 and then the other 24 or so would be on another boat. It was way better to be in the smaller group. Less people, more time in the water and more chances to get in the water. We were led to another small two-story house. Our guy took us upstairs to run down our plans for the day and have us sign another release form with all our information. Then we were off to get onto the boat for our dives.

We walked down to the water. It was pretty windy out, and a little bit chilly. I had already put my sweatshirt on top of my bathing suit, tank top, and long sleeved shirt. The water was going to feel quite cold. Along the sidewalk down to the water was a dead shark. We were later told it was a sand shark or shy shark. I have no idea what type of shark it actually was. There are a bunch of species that fall under the category of “sand sharks.” I’ll have to ask Abel so I can use it for credit.

Our boat was the White Shark, it was about 2 weeks old. It was probably about a 40-50 foot boat, which really isn’t that big going out on the ocean in these big swells. It was pulled up on a trailer out of the water. We all climbed up onto it with all our stuff. Then they backed it down the ramp into the water and we were off. A few of us got up on top and road out up there. It was really rough and we got slammed around up there. The swells were between 5 and 10 feet. They were intense and at first I was a little worried by how much we were getting tossed around. I was curious if they’d let us out in these waves and winds.

It was about a 20-minute ride out to the site. They had already done a morning dive with another group, so the cage was already out there. They take it in after the second dive for the night. We found it pretty easily. I counted six other boats out there when we got out there. They were spread out fairly well. We were all out there off of Dryer’s Island.

We found the cage with little trouble, although with the waves and wind it was a little difficult for them to pull right up to it and attach the cage to the side of the boat. After a few minutes they had us all come down and gear up to go in. As we were getting briefed a few sharks appeared by the boat and we got our first sighting of great white sharks! They were huge and beautiful. So one of the guys said screw the briefing and rushed people into the cage. They had barely even chummed the water. They gave us a little talk about chumming earlier. They only chum with tuna and other fish that are typically part of the great whites’ diets. They don’t feed them anything that they wouldn’t typically hunt on their own.

Inside of the cage were two tuna heads that they attached to a rope to attract the sharks. Off of the back one of the guys was mixing seawater in a tub with tuna guts. Then shoveling a little bit out.

The first group of 6 got into the cage. We weren’t using diving gear. We were only wearing masks and going under to view in the cage. I watched from above as I pulled on my 5 mm full wetsuit and booties. We could easily see the sharks from the side of the boat. There were a bunch of fish and birds around darting for the tuna.

When the sharks would come by and go for the tuna, one of the guys would pull the rope and make it chase it up to the cage. The tuna heads were only about 10 feet from the cage anyways.

After about 10 minutes the first group came out and we hopped into the cage. We grabbed other people’s hoods and put on masks. The waters were rough and it was a little difficult to drop down into the cage. I got in with Tyler. The water was pretty cold. It was only cold on the face and hands which were exposed. The guys on the back could easily spot the sharks and would yell for us to go down when they saw one coming. We had the best time in the cage. I think our time in was better than the group before us. The visibility was about 10-15 feet, so we could see the sharks attacking the tuna. They would come by one at a time, test it out then swim away. A few minutes might pass before it or another one came back. One of the times one started chomping on the tuna and the guy pulled the rope over to the tank. The shark slammed into the corner of the cage by Tyler and I. It was so crazy to be so close! Then the guy pulled out the tuna to throw it back in, he dropped it into the tank on me. I hate dead fish. So gross. The only time I had been nervous during this entire thing was right when we got to the cage and I saw how rough the seas were. I was more afraid of the boat capsizing. I had heard a story of the boats capsizing fairly easily in big waves. I believe it; they’re not very big.

We got to see a few sharks in our first round in the cage. Then we climbed out for the first group to go back in. It was really hard to get out, one of the guys had to grab me by the back of the wetsuit and drag me out over the side of the boat. We watched on from the side as the sharks swam around the boat.

They spent about 15 minutes in the cage before we got back in. This time was also incredible in the cage. We saw a few sharks swim by and chomp on the tuna and swim up from down below. It was eerie to see them swim out of the murky waters or disappear into them. It made you wonder how many were around that you couldn’t see. I mean, Gansbaai is known as Shark Alley. There must be tons of them in this area for it to be named that. Not to mention there were a bunch around us that we could see. This time I was by the corner again. One of the sharks came from the left corner and hit the cage. It stuck it’s snout in right where I was. Read that and think about it. The shark was partially in the cage with us. The cage was fairly sturdy, but there is a big , foot high gap to see out through. The shark stuck parts of its body in through that. There was a bar right below that to hold onto. Below that you can put your feet on another bar of the cage to grip with. The shark swam the distance of the cage along this gap. It hit me with its tail. I felt like I had just touched a celebrity. It touched me!!! It was so amazing.

We got to see sharks attack the tunas and swim close to the cage. Then we rotated through again for the next group. We watched some more from the boat and saw the shark swim along the cage and circle the boat. You could see a bunch of the sharks from the boat that you definitely couldn’t see underwater because they weren’t close enough with such little visibility.

We got in for a final time. This time we spent a long time in the cage. We were probably in there for over a half an hour. The swells were getting bigger and the winds were picking up. By now the sharks were getting a little tired of us. We had to wait longer intervals to see them swim by or eat the tuna. Each time we saw them it was incredible though. Towards the end of our time in the water one of the sharks body slammed the right side of the cage and hit the boat. I’m not really sure why, I don’t think that’s where the tuna was. It was so cool. We were starting to get tossed around in the cage. This was the only time when we were actually starting to get cold. We were leaning up against each other for warmth. It was really the only way to keep warm in there. We joked about being lost at sea in the cage and the movie Open Water. I need to see that movie when I get back. Eventually we got pulled out of the cage. They gave us 5 minute warning for us to get out. They tried to convince us that we had seen a lot of sharks and had had an incredible day. We didn’t need the convincing and we told them that. We were so excited and happy about what we had seen.

We ended up seeing five different sharks. I think they said that 4 were female and one was male. I definitely saw a male. It was pretty big. The biggest shark was 3.2 meters. So crazy. The guys were amazing at identifying the different sharks; they even recognized individuals.

They wanted to leave the site because it was getting rougher than they wanted. But we’d spent about 2 hours there in the water, so we were thrilled. I had had no idea how long we’d be able to go in the water and what we even be able to see. This was way better than I’d expected. Plus 2 of the girls were getting seasick. Needless to say they were complaining and wanted to go back. And needless to say none of us were too pleased by their excessive whining and girliness. Both of them were there with their boyfriends. Their poor boyfriends. They were ordered around. “Honey, take a picture of me in the cage!” “Honey, let me go first!” “Honey, I feel sick, can I have your towel?” Suck it up and quit your whining.

Tyler and I were so excited and hopped back up top once we’d taken our wetsuits off. We watched them pull up the cage onto the boat. It was actually huge when you saw it out of the water. In the waves it looked tiny, but it could hold six people at a time and I couldn’t touch the bottom of it when I was floating at the surface. I’ve got a bunch of pictures of it and the boat. I only got like two good pictures of the sharks. But I got a bunch of good ones from Becca and hopefully will get Bea’s from the day they went. Bea’s got the best camera and had some sick shots. I can’t wait to show off all these pictures.

It was about a 20 minute ride back to shore. We spent the entire time discussing how awesome it was. We couldn’t believe it. It was so much better than we ever could have imagined. We had been a little worried because we were told the waves and visibility wouldn’t be good and so many people’s shark diving was cancelled for the week. People had also told us that we probably wouldn’t see many sharks in the afternoon. They typically recommend that you leave wicked early to be out in the early to late morning. But we saw a bunch and the visibility was fairly good for this time of year. This is the time of year that you’re least likely to see the great whites.

We drove right up onto the trailer and were pulled out of the water. We gathered up all our stuff and went back to the house to dry off and get some hot chocolate and grilled cheese sandwiches. One of the guys on the boat had filmed us from above in the cage and got the sharks on tape. He filmed all of us getting in and out of the cage every time. It was pretty funny. I think we all bought it. It was ridiculously overpriced, but who knows when I’ll make it back to get in the water with the great whites again. Don’t worry, I’ll be showing off the video when I get back. I’m sure you’ll all be subjected to viewing it with me. Apologies in advance.

So we paid and I bought a tshirt then we went back to the first house we’d gone to. We waited for the other group to get back. They had even more food at this house. All sorts of breads and rolls. Obviously we ate more while they all paid and we watched their entire video. They only got to get in the water twice since there were so many of them and they didn’t get to spend as much time in there. They only had one big shark attack at the cage; we had a ton. We were pretty stoked that ours was better. Mwahaha. Sorry that was my evil laugh.

By now it was about 1700 and we got all our stuff and got into the vans to head back to the ship. It was almost 3 hours to get back. Everyone was so content and happy in the van. We all kept reliving our stories and enjoying the scenery. We got to see the sunset over Cape Town and the mountains from up in one of the mountains. It was such an incredible sight to see. The drive was even more beautiful at dusk.

When we got back Shannon, Michael, Tyler, Scott, and I decided to get changed and then head out for dinner in Cape Town. We weren’t going to party because we all had to be up really early for our safaris the next morning. I think everyone who went shark diving in our group did it on the first day because they had a safari the next day.

We grabbed a taxi and headed to Long Street. We wanted to eat at Mamma Africa, with authentic African food and live African music. The wait for a table for the five of us was an hour and a half. We were pretty exhausted and wanted to get to bed early, so we decided to find another place. Our taxi driver knew of another place called Marco’s. The building was covered in African graffiti. There was no wait. Our taxi driver told us he’d be back in an hour and a half for us.

The bar and restaurant was packed. We were led upstairs to table off to the side right above the African band and singers below. The music was awesome. I ordered a chocolate milkshake, pumpkin soup, and a pasta dish. The pasta was pretty much raviolis with a cheesy red sauce. Everything was so good. We had been starving and ecstatic for real food. At the end ordered another round of drinks, so I got another chocolate milkshake. So good. We paid and found our taxi driver talking with some friends down in the bar.

By the time we got back to the ship it was around 2300. I went back to my room and finished up packing. There were actually a ton of people on the ship since so many people were going on safari the next day. Tania was out so I had the room to myself. Becca had just come back from her dinner and night out and came to tell me about her day. I didn’t end up getting to sleep til almost 0100. Too bad I had be up by 0330 to be in the union at 0400.