Dive With Great White Sharks
Ticked off in August 2017
Pull yourself under the surface as the crew yells down, and watch a great white glide past the bars.
The adventure
Boats leave Kleinbaai harbour early and anchor near Shark Alley, the channel between Dyer Island and Geyser Rock, where tens of thousands of Cape fur seals live. The crew ladles chum into the water, throws out a bait line and everyone stares at the slick, waiting for a fin.
When the shout of "down, down" comes, you take a breath and pull yourself under. Out of the green gloom a torpedo shape takes form: grey back, white belly and a black eye that rolls back as it turns to pass the cage. It moves with almost no effort, then it's gone, and you surface to find everyone on deck yelling. It's thrilling and humbling, and nothing like the shark of the films; up close, a great white looks curious, careful and completely in charge of its world.
Why it’s epic
- Great whites are the largest predatory fish in the sea, and big females can exceed 5 metres.
- Shark Alley's seal colony is what drew great whites to Gansbaai in such numbers for decades.
- Surface cages need no qualification; you just hold your breath and duck under.
- South Australia's Neptune Islands, off Port Lincoln, offer surface and ocean-floor cage dives.
What it is
Cage diving lets you see great white sharks up close in their natural habitat.
How to do it
Operators in Gansbaai near Cape Town, Neptune Islands in Australia and Guadalupe Island in Mexico run cage-diving trips.
Top tip
No diving qualification is needed for surface cages.
Need to know
- Since around 2017, orcas have driven great whites away from Gansbaai for long periods, so check recent sighting logs or consider Mossel Bay or Port Lincoln.
- South African trips run all year, but May to September is usually the strongest season.
- Seas can be rough, so take seasickness tablets the night before and again in the morning.
Plan this trip
- Rough cost
- £750 to £2,000 per person, including flights from the UK
- Time needed
- 1 day
- Best time to go
- May to September
- Fly into
- CPT airport
A cage dive costs about the same as a good day trip; the flights to South Africa or Australia are the bigger spend.
Do it yourself
- Tours and ticketsGetYourGuide
- FlightsKiwi.com
- Adventure travel insuranceWorld NomadsWe receive a fee when you get a quote from World Nomads using this link. We do not represent World Nomads. This is not a recommendation to buy travel insurance.
Some of these are affiliate links: if you book through them I may earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you. More about this.
My experience
Ticked off, but the full story is still to be written up.
Over to you
Is “Dive With Great White Sharks” on your bucket list, or have you already done it? Tell me in the comments, and if you've got a question about it, ask away and I'll answer.