Hermanus is a busy little coastal town just over an hours drive from Cape Town. It's a very pretty place which surrounds Walker Bay on high cliffs. In the winter months (May to December) thousands of tourists flock here to watch the Southern Right Whales which loll about in the bay close to the shore to breed. As you probably noticed we timed that pretty badly! So what else was there to do in Hermanus we asked? The answer was Great White Shark gage diving !!!!!!
Before our encounter with Jaws we took a day to relax and have a nice walk along the cliffs to some nice beaches. It was a lovely walk and we saw lots of wild life such as seals and Dassies ( known as a Rock Hydrax whose closest relative is the elephant!). We found a lovely beach and went for a swim in the sea. It was a big shock to the system, the water at Hermanus is very cold as we are nearly in the Atlantic now. After a quick dip we retreated to a local restaurant for Fish and Chips !
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| Gillian at Hermanus. |
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| Looking over Walker Bay. |
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| Seals sunbathing on the rocks.
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| Fish |
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| n'chips !!! |
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| A Dassie or Rock Hydrax |
The next day we were up bright and early to the nearly town of Gansbaii for our trip so see the Great Whites. I was really excited about this I've always been fascinated by sharks as a boy and I have always wanted to see a Great White. I just wasn't sure I wanted to share the water with one.!!
There is much controversy about Shark Cage diving. Those against it, in particular surfers, say it encourages sharks to attack humans. As a result diving is now heavily regulated in South Africa and there only 8 licenced operators. The day started off with a very interesting lecture about Great White Sharks, their habitat and why they favour this area.
Off the coast is a large seal colony on Dyer Island. This is the sharks main food and the area around the island is known as "shark alley". At this time of year the pups are too young to swim far, so the sharks have moved away and closer to shore, looking for smaller sharks to eat. The Cage diving boats put "chum" into the water to attract the sharks - they put a line out into the water with bait on it (dead tuna heads, no live bait allowed). The sharks know this is dead fish and the older ones don't even bother with it, its the younger more inquisitive sharks that come up for a look.
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| Are we gonna need a bigger boat ? |
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| Bait : Tuna heands. |
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| Bait : Gillian !! |
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| The main course ? |
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| First shark shows up.
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| First bite !! |
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| Almost filled my wetsuit !!
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| We're gonna need a bigger boat.
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| Jaws |
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| Jaws II |
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| Jaws III !!! |
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| A much more friendlier animal a Southern Right Whale |
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| The friendliest animal of them all Jock the hostel dog !!!!! |
It was a really amazing morning, we had about 4 sharks the longest about 4 metres. It wasn't really too scary, you were just in total awe of these fish. They really didn't seem interested in us, more just playing with the bait.
After all that excitement we needed a stiff drink, Stellenbosch in the South African wine lands is the place for that !!!
