Diving with Sharks!

Ben, Harmony and I decided to spend New Year's Eve in South Africa. We left on Friday morning and spent the last four days in Umkomaas, just south of Durban. Why Umkomaas? It's one of 2 places in the world where you can SCUBA dive with Tiger Sharks -- Ben and I spent the last 3 days diving on Aliwal Shoal. The first 2 days, we did shark dives where we baited for sharks. Unfortunately, we did not see any Tiger Sharks, but we saw more than 100 Black Tip sharks and some Dusky's (I even have the DVD to prove it). The visibility was not that great, but seeing sharks feeding really gets the adrenaline pumping. We also saw a Whale shark (on the boat ride back). This morning, we did 2 reef dives. The first dive was a deep water dive to a place called "Cathedral." It was cold and not that impressive because of the visibility. In between the 2 dives, we saw 6 dolphins swimming directly toward the boat. The second dive started at North Sands and was a very nice dive. Almost immediately, we saw a Sand shark. We saw dozens of Stingray, both bluespotted and bull (the type that killed the Crocodile hunter). Near the end of the dive, we saw a ragged tooth shark. It was small, about 4-5 feet long (I love the way they look) and a couple of dolphins in the distance. I'll try to post some pictures when I get a chance. This afternoon, we drove to Durban where we will spend New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

Have a Happy New Year!

Ben took the following photos: