As I mentioned earlier, due to weather our schedule was thrown off a bit. That made Sunday our day to see Great White Sharks!
It took a couple of hours to drive to the shark "hot zone." Once there, we had lunch provided while people talked about sharks, their operation, etc. Once everyone signed waivers, we went to collect our gear. A short walk to the shore and we got on the boat. The ride out was chilly. I was not looking forward to taking my outer layers off, even though I knew a wet suit would be waiting for me.
When we got to the site, we were told to get our suits and booties on. I was handed a weight belt and a face mask and told to get it. I was a little confused... I didn't think I would be in the first group! But they hurried me along and into the cage (securely attached to the boat) I went! Once in the (freezing!) water, I realized that part of our group was in the cage too. Oh, yeah, the boat had probably 30 people, so we were just half of the tour. Anyway. The crew on the boat got busy putting chum in the water and throwing decoys out. When they came close they would yell for us to get down into the water to see. Unfortunately, the water was pretty murky so you actually couldn't see much. But, at one point a great white smashed into the cage! That was pretty exciting! My group got out of the cage and were greeted with warm cocoa and towels. As fast as we could with numb fingers and a rocking boat, we changed out of our wet gear.
Ben was in the second group, so into the ocean he went! Ben's group was in the water forever. And no sharks. I felt so bad that I had gotten smashed into by a shark and Ben, who was more into this activity than me, saw nothing. Finally, they pulled the second group out and the third went in. And of course, the third group saw a shark almost right away. After the last group saw a few sharks, they offered to let the second group go back in for a second chance. If it were me, I would have stayed out of the cold water (I was still trying to warm up!), but most of the group headed back in. And thankfully, they saw sharks! It was a cool experience, but wasn't as cool as I thought it would be.
Back in Cape Town we got ready for our farewell dinner. We were picked up by classic cars! We were in a 1930's something or another. Our guy seemed upset that he had to take us to dinner, so we didn't talk much about the car or anything. Dinner was amazing. We had a chance to share our personal highlights as well as thank people in the group. It was so nice. We are truly blessed to be part of such an awesome group of people.
It took a couple of hours to drive to the shark "hot zone." Once there, we had lunch provided while people talked about sharks, their operation, etc. Once everyone signed waivers, we went to collect our gear. A short walk to the shore and we got on the boat. The ride out was chilly. I was not looking forward to taking my outer layers off, even though I knew a wet suit would be waiting for me.
When we got to the site, we were told to get our suits and booties on. I was handed a weight belt and a face mask and told to get it. I was a little confused... I didn't think I would be in the first group! But they hurried me along and into the cage (securely attached to the boat) I went! Once in the (freezing!) water, I realized that part of our group was in the cage too. Oh, yeah, the boat had probably 30 people, so we were just half of the tour. Anyway. The crew on the boat got busy putting chum in the water and throwing decoys out. When they came close they would yell for us to get down into the water to see. Unfortunately, the water was pretty murky so you actually couldn't see much. But, at one point a great white smashed into the cage! That was pretty exciting! My group got out of the cage and were greeted with warm cocoa and towels. As fast as we could with numb fingers and a rocking boat, we changed out of our wet gear.
Ben was in the second group, so into the ocean he went! Ben's group was in the water forever. And no sharks. I felt so bad that I had gotten smashed into by a shark and Ben, who was more into this activity than me, saw nothing. Finally, they pulled the second group out and the third went in. And of course, the third group saw a shark almost right away. After the last group saw a few sharks, they offered to let the second group go back in for a second chance. If it were me, I would have stayed out of the cold water (I was still trying to warm up!), but most of the group headed back in. And thankfully, they saw sharks! It was a cool experience, but wasn't as cool as I thought it would be.
Back in Cape Town we got ready for our farewell dinner. We were picked up by classic cars! We were in a 1930's something or another. Our guy seemed upset that he had to take us to dinner, so we didn't talk much about the car or anything. Dinner was amazing. We had a chance to share our personal highlights as well as thank people in the group. It was so nice. We are truly blessed to be part of such an awesome group of people.
