"Shark bait ooh ha ha!"

I have officially been in South Africa for five days and so far it has been awesome. I am here with the Oceans Campus for a film internship.

Oceans Campus is a newer program that started running several internships just last year for hands-on experience in things like wildlife photography, wildlife documentary film making, travel writing, shark tagging, and so much more while raising awareness for the amazing wildlife here in South Africa and promoting sustainability.

Coming right at the cage

One of the amazing things about being here is that the staff know that we have such a desire to learn about these things which is why we have traveled all of this way, but at the same time crave some extra adventure. Because of this fact they run several extra trips on weekends outside of the experiences we get in them.

Today I cage dived with great white sharks. We took a boat out in Mossell Bay and parked ourselves next to Seal Island, boy were they noisy. I have never seen so many seals in one place and they were roaring, crying, and fighting. It was such a sight to see.

 The cage was long, tall, and skinny and fit six people across. There was a small area above the water to come up for breath before going back under and watch the sharks swim past. The shark I saw was probably about three meters or so and he was amazing. The guides would dangle fish out in the water near the cage so  it would come straight at us, sometimes hitting, knocking, and biting the cage.

These beasts are truly amazing and have nothing but raw power. This was my first time seeing great whites in the wild, and I am very excited and thankful to have ceased this opportunity.

Unfortunately, I ended up getting seasick because the waves were so enormous making the boat rock a lot. Lucky for me, I did not throw up until after I got to cage dive.

Many more adventure stories to come!

"Adventure is out there." Go find it!

The One and Only,
Carly K.

Photos courtesy of Leslie Cory