Sharks!

We just got back from an outing to Kleinsbaai close to Hermanus in the Western Cape. The reason for the outing was the great WHITE SHARK! The tour operator fetched us at home at 0600 this morning and we slept through the two hour drive to shark-country. When looking at the waves we started to imagine what the trip would be like and we were not wrong. Espen spent most of the trip looking pretty light green and feeding the fish. After a short boat ride the boat crew started attracting the sharks, called "chumming", by trowing out fish heads and blood in the water. After only a few minutes the first sharks appeared. They are BIG! We got into our wetsuit and jumped into the cage. The crew kept throwing out the bait and shouted "down, left/right" when the sharks appeared. Several 3-4 meter white sharks passed right by us, one even slammed into the cage. Amazing! The sea was quite rough and it was pretty intense to be put into a small cage while it slammed against the side of the boat. Even though we both got pretty sea sick it was worth the money and time (this is Anne writing, Espen might not agree:)).

Not everyone likes this business though and some has voiced that tour operators teach the sharks to associate humans with food. The guides assured us that they seldom saw the same shark for more than a couple of weeks and argued that it was not enough time for the shark to make this association.

Take a look at the pictures. There are not too many of them though, as we were both busy taking care of ourselves...