Oooh, I forgot JAWS !

Queue the jaws music....

That's right - I swam with the big fishes. Josie (wisely) skipped the trip not wanting to spend all day throwing up. A lot of locals are not happy with shark diving and that this will associate people with dinner - but I figured well, the Sth Africans will need to deal with that. On the boat I heard that they tracked a shark from Sth Africa to Western Australia - it made the journey there and back in something like a week !! Whoops - there went my theory. But I just could not let the opportunity be missed.

At any rate, it was incredible. We must have seen about 10 different white sharks - yes there are that many ! And we were out in that place from the tv, Shark Alley. The sharks were incredibly scared of the boat and people, considering they are the no 1 predator. But hell, are they scary - just heart stopping...For their size, their sheer speed and motion was amazing. I was in the boat and nearly shat myself when a big (well 3.5m) shark went for the bait !! Apparently, they regularly see them up to 6m !

Seeing that black eye underwater, when you are behind a flimsy cage is also a real thrill! We had terrible weather, but the sharkies came to the party. We went for one of the cheaper options - which meant we were just given a mask and had to hold our breath while we watched them. This was made harder by the number of people in the cage and the rough weather....the wind must have been blowing at about 60-80kph ! With the smell of chum (rotten fish and oil) and the motion of the ocean - a few people were adding to the burly.

I actually preferred watching the sharks from the boat - you got to see a bit more and really got an idea of the their size. In the water, you are bobing in the water and listening constantly listening for "down on the bait" from the spotter - you then duck down to see the shark swimming in to investigate the bait about 4 m from the cage. The spotter then pulls the bait in, never actually letting the shark get hold of it, to bring the shark right to the cage. One Saffer tourist on the boat (their equiv of a chav or westy, who kept saying "look et det big snapper") nearly got on the toothy end, as he wasn't paying attention in the cage and was propped out playing with his camera when a big beast of a shark took a last bite at the bait right near the cage! Shared the shite out of him.

There is no way I would surf anywhere in Sth Africa after seeing the sharks...they are just too big !