Cape Town - Cage Dive

For as long as I can remember I have been interested in Sharks, particularly the Great White, this started with reading a book entitled "Shadows in the Sea" when I was about 10. So when I celebrated my 50th birthday, my wife had arranged for me to fly to Cape Town, source a dive company of my choice, and get into the water to view one of these sharks close up.

We flew Emirates via Dubai, only problem being the 8.5 hour layover in Dubai, thankfully Emirates supply a room for waits of over 8 hours on certain flights, it’s worth checking. With no jet lag we arrived in Cape Town, late afternoon on February 14th.

We stayed at the three star Ritz Hotel which has the only revolving restaurant in Cape Town on the 21st floor, giving a great view of the harbour, and the new football stadium.

After a couple of days I was supposed to go out to Gansbaai, where most of the Shark Dive companies leave port, but we had a late phone call postponing it as the weather wasn't great for diving. Instead we took a day trip over to Robben Island which was a fascinating tour. On the way out of the hotel we happened to bump into the driver of an Explore tour we had taken the year before, and I swear he walks up to me and says "Hi Graham, how's Newcastle doing?". I was gobsmacked that he could remember me after a 12 month gap. Later that day we got the phone call confirming that the dive would take place the next day.

We were picked up early from the hotel and after a few more stops we drove the 3 hours or so to the small port at Gansbaai. The group consisted of the two of us, a lad from Oz and two families from the U.A.E.and a couple of Argentinians. We had some lunch on arrival, and then we were lectured on some safety features, like don’t stick your arms and legs out of the cage (as if!).

At this point the families were asking when they would see the penguins, dolphins and whales, somewhere along the way they mistakenly had the impression they were going on a whale watching trip, were they in for a surprise. The dive master knew that along with the Ozzie, the three of us were all divers and said he'd make sure we'd get maximum time in the cage.

After a very choppy ride out we arrived about half a mile from the north shore of the bay, the crew used a little chum to hopefully stir up some interest.

We were all playing at being spotters, we waited, and waited, and we were starting to think that we'd come all that way just to leave seeing nothing. Then a shadow appeared under the boat and an eight foot Great White appeared from nowhere, like they do.

Now at this point there was no-one in the cage, my wife hadn't decided if she would do a dive, but at this point wasn't given an option, the dive master said "go on I’ll give you a hand", and before she knew where she was she was in the cage , the shark on the other side. Michael the Ozzie and I quickly joined her and we were treated to some amazing swim bys, from the beautiful shark. After about 20 minutes another 2 sharks had appeared , we then got out, and gave the others a turn in the cage.

I went to the front of the boat to do some more shark spotting, then a larger shadow appeared from beneath the boat, I really wanted to say "you're going to need a bigger boat" but as I had been threatened with getting thrown overboard, decided against it.

This shark was about 15 feet long, and seemed to intimidate the smaller ones as they swam away, we got back in the cage to watch this thing swim right up to the cage and look in at us, watching it, watching us. It stuck around for about another 15 minutes, and when it realised it wasn't going to get any food, sank into the depths, and swam away.

It really isn't necessary to have diving experience, if you get the chance to do something like this, take it. It’s an experience I will never forget.