About to go cage diving with friends I made on the trip. Joe, myself, John and Sam.

To wrap up my four part series on ‘Adventures in Africa,’ I wanted to share my last day spent in Cape Town where I went cage diving with sharks. What better way to conclude an action-packed vacation than by braving one of the world’s most feared creatures of the sea?

The morning of our excursion, I didn’t have much of an appetite at breakfast as I was filled with excitement and fear while contemplating how close I would be coming to possibly losing any limbs by lunch time. I had never been on a boat in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean or had the opportunity to even dip my feet in, and in a few short hours I’d be submerging my entire body into a metal cage floating in the ocean for the opportunity to get up close and personal with a great white. What had I gotten myself into?

Once our shuttle arrived, we rode for 2 hours along the coast to Gansbaai, a fishing town on the Western Cape of South Africa. Upon arrival, we were greeted by our guide and marine biologist who would be taking us on our adventure. We picked out our wetsuits which we would later have the joy of putting on once we were out to sea, and then watched a brief video on how to prepare for the dive. Once outside, we put on life vests and bright orange rain coats to wear for the boat ride. We all felt like fisherman and clearly looked the part; the only thing left was to now live it.

Once aboard the boat, I climbed to the top with my friends and sat on one of the benches facing out. As we started to take off, a flock of seagulls came out of nowhere flying fast enough to keep up with our haul. I’m used to seeing them roaming the beach or parking lot looking for a spare French fry, but to see so many this close flying beside us was incredible. They must look forward to these dives knowing the chum in the water will be their free lunch for the day. Much better than a French fry, but a little bit more dangerous to obtain, I’m guessing.

It didn’t take long before we were anchored and asked to take off our life vests and put on our ever-so-flattering wetsuits. The motion sickness started to kick in a bit and now I had to maneuver slapping on a spandex leotard over my entire body while standing on top of a rocking boat in the middle of the ocean. What could go wrong? Once I stopped falling into the person next to me and sucked in my entire body enough to zip the suit up to my chin, I then had to stand and wait for the sharks to appear.

Once the crew started to chum the waters, it didn’t take long before the excitement began and the group shouted in amazement. “Look, look, a great white!”

The size of these creatures is overwhelming and to see them up close and not on a screen in a major motion picture or on your TV during shark week is out of this world. We had one great white who had to have been at least 15 feet long and kept making her way around the boat, smacking her enormous tale into the cage. It wasn’t long before she was accompanied by half a dozen copper sharks circling the waters. When it was my turn to get into the cage, the adrenaline kicked in immediately. The cage remains afloat and about one foot of it is above the water at all times. The cage is also solidly attached to the boat while it lies at least 6 feet below the surface. As I lowered myself down the ladder, the chill of the ocean took over my entire body. I moved over to make room for the rest of the group. They allowed six of us in the cage at one time and I was placed in the middle. We had weights around our shoulders to help keep us from floating up and a face mask to see down below.

With one hand holding my GoPro camera and the other gripping the bar, I dipped myself down and was able to see through a space in the cage that was larger than I was expecting. “Are they sure those beasts can’t take a bite out of my hands through here for a taste?” I thought. The water was a bit murky that day, but it didn’t take long before I saw a dark figure making its way towards us. First, it looked like a shadow and then its massive 10-foot body came into view and its razor sharp teeth jetted by just inches away. As I came up for air, I saw a dorsal fin about 20 feet in the distance at water level. The ‘Jaws’ theme instantly played in my head and my excitement took over. I dipped myself back down and waited for the copper shark to make its grand entrance. I swear one of them looked right at me with their black ominous eyes. This went on for about 30 minutes. A few times we even had a few sharks shake our cage or get close enough to even bite the corners obviously mistaking us for food; but don’t worry they were fed plenty of fish by the crew and kept coming back for more.

Once my time in the cage was complete and I made my way onto the boat, the motion sickness went into full force and I had to sit at the front of the bow by myself until we made it back to shore. I kid you not, as I sat there with my barf bag and mints at the front of the vessel trying to stare at the horizon, a shark breached out of the water and did a back flip like a private viewing just for me. No one believes me to this day, but baby Jaws and I know what happened in that moment and I appreciate him making my embarrassing moment a little less miserable and well worth the nausea.

I’m not saying anyone has to go risk her life to feel alive, but I encourage you to step out of your comfort zone every once in a while to truly experience this life we’re given.

“If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.” – Jim Rohn