Cage Diving with the Great White Sharks

Whilst on holiday to Cape Town, South Africa, we took the opportunity to go cage diving with Great White Sharks – something which we hadn’t had the opportunity to do on any of our previous visits to this beautiful country.

Seeing the Great Whites up close and personal had always been on my husband’s bucket list, so once he realised that from Cape Town you could do this activity in a straightforward day trip, there was no stopping him! I have to admit; I was rather nervous about the whole experience!

Nevertheless, we booked our excursion with the hotel, who arranged our transfer down to Gansbaai, the coastal town in the Western Cape which is the centre for shark tours and diving (and one of the few places in the world where you can see Great Whites).

The company which we went out to sea with, Marine Dynamics, is considered to be the leading shark tour operator and has excellent environmental tourism credentials. On board our ship, a marine conservationist briefed us on what we were going to see, and the best way to go about getting the most out of our trip.

We were very lucky to see both Great Whites and Bronzer Sharks, which circled our boat for over two hours, the largest of the four Great Whites being 4.5 metres in length. And although I suffered from sea sickness and wasn’t overly enthralled about being submerged in the Atlantic Ocean in a cage, the experience of being less than a foot away from these magnificent creatures will live with me forever.