The day started really early - Diresh and I were picked up from our hotel at 2:45am. After a long bus trip down to Gansbaai, we entered Great White House with 30 other intrepid (or crazy) people ready for a shark encounter.
We both decided to skip breakfast (which would later turn out to be a very good decision).
After getting some bright orange jackets and bright red life vests, we boarded the boat and headed out to sea. The ride out wasn't bad, probably because we were travelling so fast. Once we set the anchor down, the main guide managed to convince Diresh to put on a wetsuit, which wasn't her original plan.
The first group of 8 people got into the cage off the side of the boat and were almost instantly greeted by several sharks. We were in the second group - we also saw 3 sharks come right up to the cage. We also saw a stingray and literally thousands of fish.
The biggest shark of the day measured 3.8 metres in length - it was HUGE!
After we got out of the cage the day took a turn for the worse. The wind picked up and the waves and swell were really bad. Almost everyone on the boat got quite seasick, but at least we felt well looked after by the crew. We made it back to shore and recovered with bread and soup.
It was a totally amazing experience and I'm really proud of Diresh for having the courage to go through with it. I'll post more photos when they become available (pics of the sharks themselves are provided by the company via their own blog).
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