Cage diving minus one cage

Since leaving the lions, Lesley and I have made our way towards the Wild Coast and have settled in Umkomaas for the past few days. Umkomaas is a sleepy little beach town with only a few streets dominated by dive shops. The town is famous for the Aliwal shoal, a dive spot off the coast. We decided we couldn't pass up the opportunity and booked a few reef dives.

On the morning of our dives, we woke up to howling winds and an angry ocean outside our bedroom. The dive shop planned to go as scheduled, so we geared up and drove out to the launch site. In the past, I've always dived from your standard dive boat, but in Umkomaas they do things a bit differently. There is no bay or dock in Umkomaas, so all the boats must battle the break to get out to sea. And when I say boat, I mean more like a supped up dingy. As we all loaded on the dingy and donned our life jackets, our skipper gave us his safety speech while smoking a cigarette. "Hold on tight to the ropes and brace when we hit the waves. If you see that I'm not on the boat anymore that's a bad sign, means you shouldn't be either". Check, thanks skipper. He revved up the engines and made a few loops looking for a reasonable wave to take on. After a minute or so, he put the engines in full throttle and punched it over the waves. After getting a bit more hang time in a boat than I'm used to, we came down with a thud, still in the boat. Skipper turned around to check we were all there, still smoking the same cigarette. After letting go of my death grip on the bow line, they all had a good laugh at how wide eyed Lesley and I were. Our first dive was great but when we surfaced the swells had become too big to launch again and they cut the day short.


On our second day out, the seas had calmed down and made for a less exhilarating boat ride out to sea. We did one reef dive, and then were convinced that we should join some of the others on a baited shark dive. About 30 minutes after large buckets of sardines were thrown in the water, we began to see sharks swimming around the boats only a foot or two under the surface. Watching these big long shadows torpedo around the boat was something out of a movie. While the idea of hopping in the water with them (without a cage mind you) seemed a bit ridiculous, the fact that our guides were still alive after doing so many was comforting. After donning scuba gear and rolling into the water, we immediately saw the feeding frenzy that was taking place. Best guess, 60 or so sharks were swimming around our chum bucket, taking nips at the sides of it. We stayed down for about 30 minutes watching the sharks and plethora of other fish that the bait attracted. After the initial shock of getting in the water with sharks passed, the experience was surprisingly calming. The sharks were amazing to watch and Discovery's shark week doesn't do it justice when your looking at them face to face only a couple feet away. An experience I would highly recommend to anyone who gets the opportunity.

Since leaving Umkomaas, we have settled down in Port St. Johns for a few days. But more about that later. We miss everyone at home and love hearing from you. We hope that everyone is well and keeping their distance from the fires.