OK, fine – it wasn’t as dramatic as it sounds.

We were driving along the Garden Route, a popular, 800 km drive from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth. One of the stops we made was Mossel Bay, at around the halfway point – the perfect place to break the long drive, not just for the seafood and great views, but also to go cage-diving with Great Whites. Yup, people do these things for fun. There are other spots throughout South Africa to do this but Mossel Bay boasts one of the highest probability of seeing these magnificent ocean predators (http://www.whitesharkafrica.com/).

The whole thing took about half a day. It starts with a briefing at their office where we learnt how misunderstood Great Whites are, no thanks to Hollywood. We’re more likely to be killed by a falling vending machine or a coconut than being attacked by a Great White. They are however still very wild and very unpredictable, so no diving with them outside the cage. In fact, there was a pretty scary incident while we were out at sea which I will get to in a moment.

Following the briefing, we were herded (there were 17 in our group) to the boat. We assumed that we’ll be going far out to sea to see the sharks but barely 10 minutes later, the boat stopped. We had arrived. Less than a kilometer from shore. You couldn’t have come up with a more “perfect” setting for the next instalment of Jaws.

After another quick safety briefing about how the cage works on-board, we were quickly suiting up. The waters in this part of the world at this time of the year (autumn, approaching winter) is below 20 C, significantly colder than the waters we’re used to diving in back home. We were given 5 mm-thick wetsuits to protect ourselves but even then, the icy water hit us like a punch in the gut when we first submerged ourselves. But what’s uncomfortable for us, were the perfect conditions for the sharks. And true to form, within minutes of the crew chumming the waters (the act of throwing mashed up fish into the water to attract the sharks’ keen sense of smell), we saw the first shark. It wasn’t the largest we would see that day but relative to the sharks we’ve dived / swam with (the largest being the Galapagos sharks), it was monstrous. Before long, we saw over 10 individual Great Whites circling our boat. Our cage that could fit 6 people at any one time measured 3.2 meters (roughly 1 storey if put on its side) – some of these guys were longer than that!

Apart from the chum, the crew also threw huge chunks of tuna heads connected to a long line into the water near the cage to further tempt the sharks. Most of the time, the crew would be able to see a shark approaching and would shout for the divers in the cage to go underwater to view them. Once in a while tho, the sharks would approach the tuna head from directly underneath and swiftly grab it off the line before anyone could react. The speed of which these animals move in the water, coupled with the slightly murky visability due to the chum, made for a number of heart-stopping moments when the sharks would appear out of no where right next to the cage. There were also a couple of moments when the sharks got too close and actually rammed the cage while we were in it. Most of the time, they swam close enough for us to actually touch them – not that we were crazy enough to stick our hands outside the protective enclosure of our cage.

Now about that incident. So the crew were working on both sides of the boat – on one side is the cage and the tuna heads while on the other side, they were chumming the waters. Naturally, most of us would have our attention on the side with the cage. We were out of the cage (we took turns to go into the cage given there were 17 of us) when it happened. While we were paying close attention to the sharks in front of the cage, for no apparent reason, one of the sharks made a full breach (jumping completely out of the water) behind us and nearly landed INSIDE our boat. One of the crew saw this and started shouting and pointing. I saw a flash of shark in the air. It all happened in a split second so there was no time to take photos / videos. One of the crew later told me that he’s never seen anything like it. There was however one occasion a few years ago where a Great White actually did land inside a boat at Mossel Bay (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbkOP96i1iU). We were sure to keep a safe distance from the edge of the boat until we left the sharks.

Great Whites are the most apex of all ocean predators. Simply magnificent animals. If you find yourself in Mossel Bay, South Africa, do dive with them – you’ll never forget the experience. Just don’t watch Jaws or any other shark movies before that.