the swells of turquoise waves are enormous and never ending, the water temp 12.4 degrees celsius i am told. crawling into the full wet suit proves challenging; i am already shivering and clothed in large goose bumps. the waist belt of weights somehow comforts me which makes no sense as i am not looking forward to slipping into this frigid water crawling with sharks. yet this is why i have come, to cage dive with the great white shark, perhaps the most fearsome and misunderstood sea animal. i am eased into the cage and expect to initially have, at the very least, some moments of panic, but i do not. even the icy water leaking into my suit goes pretty much unnoticed because as soon as i am in the cage i hear ‘shark to your left, dive down.’ and that i do. and what a scene i see – this beautiful, massive beast gliding by my cage with the greatest of grace and ease, simply swimming, ignoring for the moment the large chunks of tuna that dangle in front of my face. i pop up breathless, completely exhilarated and in wonder – this creature whom i have most feared since childhood is simply glorious. shark after shark comes to visit me and i begin to recognize them. it surprises me that each of them has their own characteristic markings and personalities. some are ferocious, some gentle, some seemingly just curious, some hungry. two stood out to me the most: one who swam directly toward me from a distance to come face to face with me for mere seconds yet enough time to look directly into his eyes; i could have tilted my head forward just a little and been skin to skin with him but i seemed paralyzed in awe, not in fear, which seemed so strange to me. my second favorite was the last shark i saw, who also swam directly toward me at first but appeared to goad me by coming close then veering off. he came by a couple of times then at last swam closer to the cage where he then opened his colossal jaws, grabbed onto the edge of the cage, and thrashed back and forth with the cage still in his mouth. and then he was off. i jumped out of that water screaming with glee. never in my wildest dreams would i have ever thought i would be bobbing under africa’s atlantic ocean with magnificent great whites mere inches from me. brilliant.
the boat ride home took us by a beautiful island with a single residence which then gave way to the dwelling of thousands of seals. i have always marveled at the playfulness of seals when i have observed them at zoos or water parks but this…just wondrous. they seemed to be the happiest of creatures and would swim and jump around our boat with such delight and curiosity. many hung out on the rocks basking in the sun, barking away at each other. this picture of community left me breathless. what an end to a remarkable day of taking in the glories of God’s creation. His imagination astounds me, and leaves me smiling and my heart content.
