There was that time I went cage diving with great white sharks in South Africa. I had flewn into Cape Town, and then left for the little town of Gaansbai approximately two hours from the city. I had come to South Africa for the sole purpose of getting up close with these majestic animals (I admit it, I am a bit of a shark fanatic), so I had booked three full days in the water with them. Unfortunately it turned out I have a sensitive stomach, so with waves a few metres hight, I spent most of the first day hanging over the side of the boat, desperately trying to ensure that whatever left my body would only hit the water. The problem had been solved by the next day when I was introduced to the concept of sea sick pills (how did I not know about them?!).

I got in the water, noticing how I seemed to be the only person not intimidated by the tought of sharing the gallons of water around me with multiple Jaws (I reckon I had gotten over the predator scare factor while working hands on with lions in Namibia during the previous five weeks). The cage was tiny, only holding room for three people staying closely together, with about 30 cm of water between our faces and the edge of the cage. We were given strict instructions to keep our hands INSIDE the cage, holding on to the inner metal bars rather than the outside ones (no kidding?!). We kept our heads just above the water, waiting for our crew to cry "down, down, down!" whenever a shark came close to the cage, so we could take a deep breath and plunch right down to face them.

This is when the magic happened. I heard the signal to dive, took a deep breath and dove in. While underwater I looked around for about a second, searching for the shark. I remember just finishing the though "where the heck is the damn shark?!", before out off the deep, a set of wide open jaws, rows of teeth exposed, flew straight at me and collided with the cage only 30 cm from my face. This sent the cage rocking back and forth lile it had been made of plastic rather than metal (these things are safe, right?). Within a second, the shark was gone though, baite missing, and the image of the open jaws with rows of exposed teeth forever imprintet into my memories. Wow!