SHARKS!

As my birthday present, my parents sent me off to cage dive with great white sharks.  Some would see this as a dangerous and scary experience and would hesitate to do it or let their children do it.  We saw it as a once in a lifetime experience.  I got picked up at 510am (awesome) and rode 2 hours outside of Cape Town to Shark Alley.  Along the way (apparently we were ahead of schedule... thanks for picking me up so early...) we stopped in Hermanus to look at the whales that were literally just off the coast.  Rock throwing distance.  So, we get to the shark place, wait, then the owner comes out and says, “This is the worst part of my job...  I have to cancel today.”  Awesome.  The weather was too rough and he guaranteed everyone would get seasick.  So, he took several brave souls out to show them how rough the water was, came back 45 minutes later and said, “Let's do this!” We got in the boat, drove out 15 minutes, and quickly all understood what he meant about getting sick.  But hey, priorities! I was in the first group to get in the water.  Eight of us wet-suited up and slid down into a cage floating next to our boat.  When we were told, the captain yelled, “Down! Down and left!” or what have you and we'd hold our breath and go underwater, looking through the bars of the cage.  Visibility wasn't very good (good thing or bad thing I don't know) so when we saw sharks they were RIGHT HERE!!!!  The first time one came up to the cage my face was so close to the cage and he got so close I threw myself to the back of the cage, out of shock and fear.  Apparently my neighbor happened to be filming me at that moment, so everyone got to see my reaction once back on the boat.(thanks a lot Thomas).  The sharks were amazing!!!  They would occasionally come up and hit the cage with their bodies, jump and fight for the bait the captain was holding out, and sometimes just swim by and stare at us.  From outside the water we had an even better view, watching them come by and jump out of the water.  Seriously, one of the coolest experiences.  I'm thankful yet a little sad I don't have a little battle wound or memento from the afternoon...