I visited Gansbaai, South Africa a
few years ago to dive with Great White Sharks and needless to say it was
fabulous trip. South Africa is a gorgeous country and the drive south to
Gansbaai was awesome! I headed down the coast about six hours through the
winding roads with marvelous views of the ocean and the occasional baboon to a small fishing village
know for one thing by the whole world-GREAT WHITES. Gansbaai is a
super great place with awesome people!! It was a nice little neighborhood
that drank a lot of beer and enjoyed a nice brie (barbeque). The first time
I drove into
Gansbaai and saw all those small metal cages, it made me start to rethink my plans;-)
Well here I was and there was no turning back, it was time to boat out
to sea and face the sharks. The trip out was an experience in itself,
cruising out to sea (actually shark alley) by timing the large swells in a "small"
20 to 30 foot boat. Once we arrived to shark alley; basically a channel
between two islands of seals and birds (food:-), it was time to start looking
for sharks. I was fortunate in the week I was there to see lots and
lots of very very large sharks. Even if you didn't dive just seeing
the sharks from the boat was unreal, I was like a kid in a candy shop (bring
twenty or so rolls of film;-) Once I started to dive, it was so
mesmerizing
to be that close to an animal that size (they seem to dwarf the boat and
certainly dwarfed me). They were so poetic, fluid and quick-TV does
them no justice!! It was unreal to see them come from nowhere, mostly
attacking from the bottom.. Rarely did their dorsal fins break the surface
until they were right on top of the bait or you! Well after some serious close encounters,
a few rounds of golf on a
course that is the farthest south in the world and a trip to see the Jackass penguins
at Cape Agulhas (the farthest point south in the continent) it was back to Cape
Town for a day before my 24 hour flight home!
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