Shark Diving & Safari
 

I want to go to Cape Town to do the Great White Shark diving and was wondering if anyone knew the best time and any experiences of places to stay etc. I then want to go on a Safari any suggestions on where to go?

The shark diving companies say that best time for shark diving in South Africa is August and September. However, the weather pattern this year has resulted in very poor sightings. We tried to do a shark dive last week and, despite the 96% likeliehood of seeing sharks, we didn't see a single one. We endured five hours of sea sickness for nothing. Unless you have a lot of free time in South Africa, I would not waste a day on shark diving given the poor record of sightings over the past few months.

I went shark diving with White Shark Ecoventures (they have a website that you can find on yahoo) in August, and it was very successful. We saw 5 sharks from the boat and the 4 of us who went in the cage (out of 10 on the boat) also saw at least one shark while in the water. The guide, Robert, was enthusiastic (he excitedly also took pictures of sharks) and well informed. I would definitely recommend them, and they also include breakfast and lunch and roundtrip van shuttle from Cape Town.

Just to prove how unpredictable nature can be .... A great white took a bite out of a local's kayak over the weekend!

For the great white, you need to drive just north of Hermanus, which is about 2 hours from Capetown. You'll see that numerous companies take you out and you can go down in the cages to see the sharks - yuk!