JAWS

Yes, I went great white shark cage diving! Molly and I were picked up at 5 am yesterday morning and a group of 8 drove to Gansbaai on the coast. We had a quick breakfast and then jumped aboard a massive Catamaran. The crew took us about an hour out to sea to Dyer Island. This island is home to over 60,000 cape fur seals and cape comrade birds. The smell was overwhelming disgusting...however, once we rounded the island the wind blew the other way, thank goodness. We dropped anchor and the dive master gave us a quick run down on safety rules: keep all limbs in the cage, get in the cage when he says so, get out of the cage when he says so. Pretty simple rules for not getting eaten! Of course Molly and I volunteered to go in the first group of six, we wanted to get into dry wetsuits. We were ready to go, cage was in, and bait was set. Then we waited a very long time. Finally the sound of Shark! (usually terrifying words in most contexts) was heaven to the ears. We quickly got in the cage and waited for the shark to come back up. They were surprisingly shy creatures. One swam right in front of our cage and another was about 10 meters behind us. It was thrilling! The water froze us all half to death and we came out with white knuckles and toes. After warming up we watched the next group go and got a great view of a shark at the surface from atop the catamaran. They are massive and impressive. We boated back to Gansbaai with the sun on our faces, finally warm. The two hour drive home wasn't bad. Molly and I talked to our parents on Skype a bit and then walked to the V&A Waterfront for some more delicious Indian food and ice cream for dessert. Definitely an amazing day!