New Trip Reports Going Up! [Archive] - BSAC Scuba Diving Forums

Paul Morris

27-04-2006, 11:32

Hi All,
Back from my Easter Hols and beginning to post up trip reports received in the last few weeks - so keep checking the section

http://www.bsactravelclub.co.uk/reports/index.html

Leading off with my own, less than stellar experience, diving with Great Whites in South Africa.....

Keep em coming in.

Allie
Allie,

Glad you enjoyed Cape Town, it is a truly beautiful place. I'm not surprised by your conclusions on the Shark Diving experience. I looked into it while over there in 2004. I looked at three operators, but wasn't happy with their procedures or itenaries. I concluded I would rather not participate in such activites due to the purely commercial way in which the sharks were being 'wrangled' for tourist enjoyment. I don't normally get all righteous about ecology issues, but it didn't seem right to use the sharks (and fleece the tourists) in such a blatent manner. They're not that popular with the locals either (for winding the sharks up, and bringing them close to shore), I believe one operator got his boat torched whilst I was there (I have an alabi :D ).

There was one operator which looked pretty good, marketed themselves as a 'shark research' exped, however I think they only offered a 7 or 14 day itenary.

I spent the bulk of the holiday up around Durban. I dived Protea Banks with Trevor Krull, and boy was that a shark experience. Bull sharks, hammerheads, tiger sharks all in open water, no cage. Challenging diving on deep reefs in stonking currents, but an amazing adrenalin hit. Every emotion from terror of imminent death to euphoria (at not being dead), and amazement at the sheer beauty of the sharks all in a matter of milliseconds. Did my life flash before my eyes, yes again and again. It took 2 dives to get over the initial shock/amazement such that my reg didn't keep falling out when my jaw dropped each time.

This was a totally different experience, a thorough briefing on shark behaviour, signs, and appropriate diver behaviour around the sharks, and an unforgettable experience. Briefing included species information on the sharks we might see, how they might react to us, how to get close to them (or how not to), and the a if we're lucky we might see a great white (saw one open water 3 weeks ago, alledgedly). Er, no thanks I don't have a rental suit. :eek:

I won't claim to be brave though, on my closest brush with two 3-4m Bull sharks about 1.5m away, all I could do was hold the camera housing between me and them as defence - I froze and didn't hit the shutter :D In my head, that was the ultimate shot of course :p

The image may not have made it onto solid state memory, but its etched in mine forever! :cool:

Cheers,
Paul

P.S. Also dived Sodwana Bay in the far north near Mozambique. That was "ok", but very "sausage machine" like with very organised dive operators running waves of boats and ferrying divers to and from their boats on tourist train type contraptions. Cracking remote beaches that feel like noone has been there before, diving was coral based, though there were also (friendly) ragged tooth sharks around. Unfortunately, the scale and effiency of the dive operations their spoilt it for me a bit. And if you think British divers are hairy @rsed, wait till you see a bunch of rowdy South Africans! :D