Head South: shark diving and the tsitsikamma national park with jon, mike, and jim (jennifer was with the sharks too!)

These pictures of sharks top the charts on excitement during our vacation. All four of us--Jon, Mike, Jennifer, and Jim had a blast in the shark tank. At one time Jennifer pinned herself against the back of the cage as a big great white shark came within 6 inches of the front of the cage--moving straight towards us! Jon and Mike were allowed to go back in the cage for a second dive, but said most of the excitement was when we were all in the cage together. There is one picture in particular, of a sham about to attack the bait from straight below that stuns me every time I look at it. These creatures were amazing to watch and we were so thankful to have a bit of good steel between us and them!

The second set of pictures covers our hike along the coastline in the Tsitsikamma National Park. We hiked over many boulder fields, through dens jungle with vines all around, and past huge caves that once housed some of the first homo sapiens over 70,000 years ago. We ended the hike at a 150 foot cascading waterfall that dumped it's brown, tannin-stained water into the ocean. The mist, jumping schools of dolphins, rock pools to swim in, and the inescapable feeling of being a pirate about to bury treasure made the hike a great adventure.

The next step of the journey took us to the mighty South African bush that is conserved as Addo Elephant National Park.

This was one of the smaller sharks if you can imagine that.

That white belly gives them their name--the Great White Shark!

This was not one of the smaller ones...

You an see that the wood is scarred from battle--there were a few sharks that dragged this fake seal under. The bait guy would have to let the shark take the line until they realized they were eating wood. I wanted to check the wood for teeth, but apparently they don't get stuck too often.

This is the picture that I couldn't believe. The shark is perfectly positioned to attack from below.

Just missed!

These guys were gulping down the chum used to lure in the sharks.

This was a cool fish that mainly attaches to large marine mammals--usually whales--and is often found in tropical waters. This is a cool thing because we were in cold, non-tropical waters, observing a big fish--not a whale. So, this shark is likely to have traveled a long distance recently down the South African Coast, from the Indian Ocean. A pretty cool idea when you consider the range of these sharks. They have been found to cross whole oceans in less than a year.

Disconcerting to be climbing a ladder in choppy seas with this guy swimming past the cage next to you :)

Jon and Mike in the water for round 2!

Jon, Jim, and Mike arrive in the Tsitsikamma and begin their pirate/ancestral homo sapien walk down to the big waterfall.

The gentlemen preparing for a grueling hike :). We all had 3 liters of water for the 2 hour walk so I think we were well prepared, ha ha. Notice the stylish shorts--mine are short and Jon's are from Columbia. Both have minimal drying times.