South Africa: Cage Diving

I have been feeling a little overwhelmed since returning from South Africa. Life has been moving in such huge ways since returning to the states. It has made the whole trip seem so surreal and so difficult to explain. It was an adventure, luxurious, heartbreaking, unexpected, wild, and a little overwhelming. All I can say is that if you are lucky enough to know Lawson and Nick you should stop reading immediately and book your flight. They showed us South Africa in a way that very few people will get to experience. They were incredible hosts - literally every minute was planned for us! It was a truly amazing experience. That being said I am going to have to break up the trip into a few blogs posts since there is a lot to share. Here we go...



This was the sunrise on my flight over. I flew from DC to Atlanta - Atlanta to Johannesburg - Johannesburg to Capetown. I really distinctly remember taking this picture and feeling like I was on such an adventure. Traveling internationally on my own for the first time. It was over 26 hours of travel headed to a country half way around the world. There something particulalry exciting about leaving at night knowing that the airplane was barreling toward the sunrise. After 7 hours of sleeping on the plane I woke up to this view.

After a slight mishap with my plane ticket in Johannesburg (Someone bought a ticket to Capetown for the 23rd but I landed the 24th. Time changes are really hard to understand.) I made it to Capetown around 11pm local time and headed for bed.


It seemed only appropriate to start our my time in South Africa with a bang so why not get up at the crack of dawn my first day and go cage diving with great white sharks!



South Africa is know for "The Big Five" the lion, leopard, buffalo, elephant, and rhino. This summer that term was upgraded to "The Big Seven" to include whales (a few kinds) and the great white shark.


Sharks leap overhead while Andrew mentally prepares to face the great white shark! With a banana!


It is just starting to be spring in South Africa. While it is beautiful weather out, the water is cold and it is getting windy. We wet-suited up, including covers for our head and booties. As you can see Andrew is officially pumped.





There were a few holes in Lawson's wetsuit so he isn't quite as excited...yet! Note the large hole near the neck. It only sort of looks like a shark bite. Did I mention the extensive liability waiver we signed?












Once we have our wetsuits on they packed five of us into the cage. The first challenge is not letting your hands or feet float between the bars of the cage. I would be bobbing along enjoying being the water. Then it would occur to me "My foot is hanging outside of the cage. Oopsy!" Just a tasty treat dangling out in the open for a passing shark to nibble on.

(Lyndsey -far left, Lawson -right, surrounded by a CAGE)






There were sharks all around but we could only see them if they came within 4-5 meters. We didn't have any snorkel gear or any coaching on how to keep from hyperventilating when face to face with a shark. Just eye masks. The skipper would yell "Get Down!" and we would all dive under and hold our breath. Andrew got this great picture of me and Lawson as the shark came by. We saw this one close up and with its mouth WIDE open!








It might look like I am being held up in a robbery. Actually I am just really excited about cage diving with great white sharks!
















This may be my favorite picture of Andrew from the whole trip. Its a perfect mix of "I really am an old man trapped in a young mans body/why the heck am I getting into this cage with sharks/golly this water is chilly/wait -someone is taking a picture of me?/whaawhoo I am really excited!"



It wasn't the best day for diving. The weather became quite windy and choppy. You might note that I am missing pictures of Nick. Being out at sea with a tiny bit of food poisoning is a bad combo - so I wont go there.





Also the sharks became shy. While they continued circling the boat it became harder to get them to come close to the cage. However out in this very blue water we saw something almost cooler then the sharks!




AHHHH! That is right! Whales leaping up from the ocean! Surrounded by beautiful rainbows!!!


Ok. So perhaps the whales were not actually surrounded by beautiful rainbows. And maybe I didn't actually take this photograph (thank you very much animal planet). However we did see whales leaping into the air around 40-50 yards from our boat. It was absolutely breathtaking. It was also so surprising that I forgot to take pictures both times we saw it. Sometimes you just have to enjoy the moment.
























I intended for this post to be all of Capetown, but it is getting long and this is only the first 12 hours I was in South Africa. I promise that will work on my editing skills between now and the next post.


I hope you all have a lovely weekend! I am looking forward to having nothing planned but watching college football!

From the East Coast!
Lyndsey

PS: Dear JMU Alumni Office,
I will be submitting the picture above of three incredibly brave alumni showing their JMU pride after escaping certain death in a shark cage. Please put it in the monthly Alumni Magazine. Pretty pretty please. We toted the flag all over South Africa to prove our undying love for the James Madison University. GO DUKES!