Doug Hudson meets the Great White Shark, South Africa

World Trip >> Africa >> Garden Route >> Great White Shark

Doug lowers his feet into the cage. The water soaks through the wetsuit to his skin. He feels the cool touch between his toes sliding up his ankles. As he eases himself down, the languid liquid laps his thighs and then curls up around his chest without a splash, like it’s just too much effort. It cools him down. He gives a little shiver. Maybe it’s the water’s chill; maybe it’s the anticipation.

It is a hot day, with barely a cloud in sight and only the slightest breeze. The boat, Predator II, is anchored in a narrow channel between two tiny islands four kilometres off the southern tip of Africa. To the north lies Dyer Island, home to a colony of African penguins and twenty-two other species of sea bird. To the south lies Geyser Island, home to a colony of seals. The breeze carries a faint reek of fish and guano. An occasional lazy swell rocks the moored boat, making it heave and sway sickeningly. An acrid whiff of diesel emanates from the cabin, fuelling only the rising nausea everyone feels. Among them is Doug’s brother James, who is flat on his back struggling to resist the seasickness welling up in him.

Testing his mask, Doug submerges. The Atlantic Ocean washes over him, enfolding him in its watery embrace and tousling his hair as if warmly welcoming the return of its son. In that instant, Doug arrives in a new world. Bubbles shush him; the noise from the boat is muffled to an irrelevant hubbub hundreds of miles away. His nausea is banished and forgotten. Blue is the only colour; shades of inky aquamarine suggest depth and distance. Doug looks down.

Beyond the metal grille of the cage’s floor, there is only deep dark blue and who knows what. A shoal of curious fish moves in close and then away, moving as one. Doug thinks, "Huh! Small fry!"

For the narrow channel where the boat is moored is known as "Shark Alley".

Doug surfaces to commotion. Captain McFarlane is barking commands to his crew. The crew is barking commands to the passengers. They lean excitedly over the railing, craning to see. The boat tips slightly and the cage dips fractionally deeper into the water. A big chunk of something that used to be fish lands with a splash into the water a few yards beyond the cage. "Get ready!" yells the Captain. Doug gets ready, although it occurs to him he doesn’t really know how.

Beyond the bait a big fin approaches. It glides effortlessly, with authority. The water slides off it and around it as if in fear.

The Captain yells, "Here it comes!"

Doug thinks, "Yes, yes, I can bloody see that!" It occurs to Doug that he is in deep water here, in more ways than one.

"Now!"

Doug takes a deep breath, plunges and … Oh my God, look at the size of that thing! Suddenly the cage of bars, buoys and metal grille does not seem anything like adequate protection. At the edge of Doug’s range of vision a massive shape looms, a shade darker than the blue around it but unmistakable nevertheless: the silhouette of a Great White Shark. It is three metres long at least. Uh oh!

The shark approaches the bait. Doug sees the power in its movement and the grace in its streamlining, and he feels awe. This animal is the pinnacle of the oceanic food chain, an evolutionarily perfect creation and the world’s most awesome predator. Doug has no doubt about who is The Boss.

On the boat, Captain McFarlane tugs the bait, drawing the shark in toward the cage. Doug sees the mouth clearly for the first time. It is terrifying to see. The mouth is quite literally full of razor-sharp teeth, all pointing inwards at a vicious angle. Something tells Doug that he could easily lose an entire arm or leg in that mouth. Out of a futile feeling of self-preservation, Doug checks to make sure that no fingers or toes are sticking out through the gaps in the cage. He notices that all the little fish have already swum away.

The shark gets closer. The bait lures the shark right to the cage. Then something quite unexpected happens...

Suddenly no longer interested in the bait, the shark launches into a frenzied assault on the cage itself. Doug comes face to face with that incredible mouth, just inches away, as it tears into the metal bar separating them. Its grace and tranquility of a moment ago a thing of the past, it is now the embodiment of ferocity and violence. The shark lunges, snaps, and gnaws, bucking and twisting, thrashing the water into an intense froth. "So this is what it is like," Doug thinks, very glad of the cage’s protection. "You just wouldn’t have a chance…." He notices the shark’s eyes, and wonders if it can see him or whether it is just following some mindless instinct to bite anything. All this time, Doug is frantically taking pictures as fast as he can. With hindsight, maybe he should be more concerned about avoiding being eaten alive.

Mercifully the metal bar withstands the onslaught, and the shark turns its attention to one of the buoys. Its jaws clamp around the buoy and its frenzy lifts it out of the water, sending sheets of spray everywhere. Doug hears people whooping with excitement and screaming with fear. The thick hard plastic proves to be no protection from those teeth, and the buoy is ripped to shreds. The cage lists slightly toward the ravaged buoy.

The shark moves away, frustrated. Doug clambers out of the cage, and the next person eagerly climbs in for their turn. Doug feels elated and in awe that he is so lucky to have experienced that. He thinks, "What an incredible creature!"

World Trip >> Africa >> Garden Route >> Great White Shark

Last updated: Sunday August 27, 2006