South Africa: Under the ocean/ over the clouds

Well, yesterday was probably one of the best days of my life.

We'd booked to go great white shark diving in the morning, and stupidly I left my jacket in the hostel in Jeffreys Bay so the day began with an 8am wait outside the nearest clothes shop to try and find something to keep me warm when the boat is out on the sea. This being African summer, obviously they had summer dresses and flip flops but nothing resembling a warm jacket so I sacked that off and decided to go northern and not take one.

We got to the sharkey offices and had a billion year 'safety briefing' where the guy went on and on about how we probably wouldn't see any sharks as they hadn't seen any all week and how we wouldnt get a refund if we didnt see anything because nature is all unpredictable and stuff. By the time he finished most of us were looking round at each other and thinking about grabbing our cash back and making a run for it. But what a good job that we didn't...!

We had a 30 minute ride further up the bay and stopped SO CLOSE to the beach, honestly there were people swimming really close by! As we approached we could already see fins sticking out of the water around a research boat which was also nearby, scary!!

The crew lowered the cage and when the captain asked for the first 6 people to go in, Karina and I leapt up and 'jumped' into our wetsuits (by god that thing is hard to get into...) and they chucked us in and shut the lid... We had goggles but no breathing apparatus so whenever they reckoned a good shot was about to happen the crew yelled 'Go down!' and we had to take a big breath and bob down to the bottom of the cage. The water was pretty murky down there (maybe all the fish guts and vomit from the seasick Kiwi girls didn't help with that), but luckily the sharks came REALLY close to the cage loads of times. And the money shot happened when I was above the surface taking a breath and saw thing massive shark head swimming right at us (not just a head, there was a body behind it but I could only see the head), so I ducked and this thing came open mouthed at the cage directly in front of me, looked me RIGHT in the eye and then grabbed the cage in its mouth! And THEN it just started gnawing at the bars RIGHT NEXT TO MY HAND! I stupidly kept my hand there for far longer than a normal (intelligent) person would, but thankfully managed to avoid having it bitten off. I heard a lof of commotion from above and thought hang on, this is far too dangerious, it's straight out of a horror movie this cant be right, maybe they want to get us out?! But no, they were just egging it on and making wooping noises so I ducked back down and Jaws Jr was still chewing away at the bars, honestly I thought he was going to get through!

Anyways, obviously he didn't, and I had to get out shortly after that to throw up over the side of the boat (it was the rocking that did it you understand, not the near death experience, honest...), and not long after our time was up so we sailed back to the port.

We went back to the hotel (more on that later) to have a shower and a lie down, and then in the afternoon we headed up to Mosselbaai airfield, 'cos we fancied hurling ourselves out of a plane again - it's addictive you know! This plane was EVEN SMALLER than the last - and I didn't even know that was possible! I got the short straw to jump first, so my tandem guy and I were sat right in the doorway as the plane set off, although can it be called a doorway if there is no door...??

The flight up (teetering on the edge of the floor!) was FREEZING, I was glad they made us wear jumpsuits (thankfully they had one to fit over my chunky thighs), but the view was utterly spectacular, the mountains on one side, the green countryside below and the Indian Ocean to the other side, stunning! It was a perfectly sunny day too, nothing to spoil the view. On the way up I was even more scared than last time, because I knew what was coming! I had to get one leg out and let that one dangle out of the plane whilst I hiked the other one over my head and round the doorframe (note to self: consider a career in gymnastics), and the guy didn't even tease me like the last one did, he just hurled us out so fast I didn't even have time for any last words. But they came out as we began the freefall and I'm fairly certain they were unbroadcastable. This time I managed to fully enjoy the freefall, last time I think I was just in shock all the way down and couldn't even crack a smile. It's so strange how the speed you fall at feels incredible (and it is, my tandem instructor and I reached 236kph which is faster than average - that's the chunky thighs speeding us up!), but as you look at the ground it doesnt seem to be getting any closer. We fell for 31 seconds and covered just over 6000 feet, and it was even more exhillarating than the last time - I even managed a smile or two! He let me take charge of the parachute and we did some crazy spinning which really felt strange and amazing and massively gave me the giggles, and then both of us whooped and hollered our way down to 100 feet when we had a massive gust of wind and had to do a bum landing instead of a feet one, but it was still really soft! I like to think it was dignified but with a boiler suit, goggles, pigtails and a red face from cold and laughing I very much doubt it. I have DVDs of both skydives, but the first one is so terrible only a lucky few will be permitted a view...! 

Without a doubt, yesterday was a pretty great day :D