Task #18 - Swim with a Great White Shark

Well... this experience was simply unreal!!!! Four of my girlfriends and I travelled to Cape Town and while we were there we went shark cage diving in False Bay! We woke up at 5:30am and made our way to Simon's Town where we met the crew of African Shark Eco Charters. This company is awesome! We headed straight out to Seal Island to see if any sharks were breaching, but unfortunately no luck. Then as soon as we put the cage in the water, one MASSIVE shark turned up! That was the first great white I had ever seen and it definitely made my heart beat a little faster.

Myself and two of my friends; Annette & Signe got in the cage first. The water was surprisingly warm and the first shark we saw was breath taking. We were less than a meter away from a 5m great white shark! It is a moment I will never forget. Then as we were waiting with our heads above the water for another shark to swim around, one jumped onto the cage! Needless to say, we all screamed! But it was awesome!

I was lucky enough to go in again with my other two friends, Fjola & Lotte. This time we actually saw one open its mouth to grab the bait, so that was kind of cool! It was a phenomenal morning and I would happily do it again with the same company. All the crew members were helpful and super knowledgable about sharks! We also were able to breath through scuba lines, so we could sink to the bottom of the cage and watch the sharks. In total we saw eight different great whites of which they were all between four and five meters in length! Awesome Morning!

Annette & I before the dive!

Signe, Annette, & I in the cage!

That's a shark!

Our underwater camera managed to get a few photos before the battery died!

Great day that gave us all the best experience and memory of our lives!

Thank you African Shark Eco Charters!

Task #10 - Swim With Sharks

This task, I thought, was never going to get accomplished because my mother would never allow me to dive with a predator around. However, this time she willingly allowed me to do so as it was in a controlled environment :)

So, on a recent trip down to Cape Town I went diving in the Aquarium with five ragged-tooth sharks, also known as gray nurse sharks. There has never been any fatal attacks on humans from these sharks, but there have been attacks.... I went into the tank with only the dive master and got to spend 30 minutes with the sharks, as well as stingrays, turtles, and a whole bunch of fish! It was awesome!

The dive master allowed the sharks to come super close to me, I think at one point, one shark was only 15cm away from my head. It was a little bit nerve-wracking but it was such an amazing experience......

I'm so excited I managed to get this one checked off my bucket list, and so far it has been my favourite experience..... <3