White Shark Africa

Cabo San Lucas

You know, I could be perfectly content to vacation on a beach somewhere hot and tropical with a beer or an umbrella adorned cocktail in one hand and a book in the other. A little shopping, a spa treatment or two and all my meals expertly prepared by somebody (anybody) else. But I had two sons. And every time I would suggest such a vacation, they would stare at me open-eyed and inquire, "yeah, but what are we going to do there?" So what we did or rather what they wanted us to do became the driving force behind our family vacations.

Crkey! It's a long way down into the glacier!

Zip-lining in the Costa Rican canopy, underground snorkeling in cenotes and cave rivers in the Yucatan, heli-skiing in British Columbia, ice-climbing on glaciers in Alaska and fly-fishing alongside bears catching salmon in the Brooks River.

with the bears of Katmai

And if that last one does not sound adventurous to you, let me tell you it most certainly is. As soon as the seaplane lands on the Katmai shore, you are greeted by a National Park Ranger at the waters' edge who instructs you on the way to behave when you encounter a bear on the lodge grounds, in the river when you're fly-fishing or on the hike from the lodge through the woods over to the observation platform.

Don't run!

Not if, but when. (Clap and make a lot of noise with your bear bells, slowly back up, and whatever you do, do not turn and run.)

And that is how I found myself on a boat speeding out of Mossel Bay towards shark-infested waters in order to climb into a steel cage and encounter great white sharks face to face. Yes I could have stayed back at the resort, had that cocktail and read that book but I never would have heard the end of it from my son and husband if I did.

And like most things I have done as a result of indulging my sons and husband, they end up being a ton of fun. It was a beautiful morning, the water was super warm and the shark sightings had been very good in the preceding days. We were in for some fun.

White Shark Africa came highly recommended by my friends at Kariega, all of whom survived their encounters with their limbs intact. And everyone who was on the boat with us that morning looked sane to me and non-suicidal. Ok, let's do it!

As soon as we dropped anchor and lowered the shark cage into the water, the crew started chumming. It didn't take long before several silhouettes started appearing in the water. Once some sharks were committed to the dance, the diving began. I climbed into the cage with only a snorkel mask on. The crew threw a large chum bait float on a rope into the water in front of us to attract the sharks and lure them over towards the cage.

The spotter yells either "down ahead" or "down left" or "down right" depending on where you should look and down you go under the water looking through your mask in that direction.

If you're lucky, you watch the shark swim at close range by the cage. If you're really lucky - or really unlucky depending on your level of nervousness - he crashes into the cage right at your face. Yes I was really lucky and let me tell you, it scared the freakin' crap out of me.

See?

I survived! And yet ...

Not without a little post-traumatic-shark-syndrome.

I cannot really describe the chilling feeling you get when you see the shark grab the bait and do his death roll right in front of your face.   

His crooked teeth inches from your nose.

His cold steely eyes looking right at you while he does it.

I was so happy to be behind bars!