Bacon and Legs: Day 3: The Circle of Life

Ok, so just so quell your fears, we both have all our limbs and digits. We actually had a great day, athough it started out early.

The sharks were very active in the morning. We started out boating to Seal Island, which has thousands of seals, and various birds, including some type of penguins. The guides didn't even have to chum for the sharks, as they were being especially predacious this morning. The guides said that the sharks are generally are more active early in the morning than in the afternoon, which we soon realized. For this portion (the active predation), we observed the natural predation of the sharks upon their winter diet, the seals. It was really fascinating, although I have to admit that is wasn't as shocking as the media portrays it. There were several hits on the seals, and we saw two or three complete out of water breaches. Pretty cool!

After they settled down a bit, we sent some vacationers out in the cage. Unfortunately, they were much less active this time of day than earlier. Even trailing a tuna head and a seal-shaped carpet, the sharks were few. S, Dr. G, and E all took a chance in the cage, but I opted out, since it was pretty cold out in False Bay and I felt it wasn't worth being wet and cold if I wasn't going to see a shark up close. E ended up seeing one a bit of a distance off, but it wasn't quite the view he was hoping for. The others didn't really get to see one under the water.

Now, believe me: This was a pretty incredible experience. I've never seen Great Whites up close before, and I think I can speak for E, too. (he's asleep, or I'd ask). We got several great views with them swimming up alongside the boat, and breaching while attacking the carpet "seal", so all in all, we couldn't have experienced it anywhere else. I must admit though, that while I didn't want to be scared senseless, I was a wee bit disapointed that I wasn't scared senseless, you know?

On the trip back to harbor, we had the welcomed pleasure to observe a pod of Common Dolphins. It was so much fun to see them all swimming along with our boat! There were so many, that I couldn't/didn't even count, but they were beautiful, and a great end to a great day.