Thursday March 24:

I was driving from Cape Town to Gansbaai. I was hoping to experience the Great White Shark in his natural habitat for the second time.

I was there last year, and I did get to see a Great White Shark, but it was very far away, about 20 meters and I only saw a shark tail splashing. Then when I went underwater, I saw one shark shape but visibility was terrible. I guess the shark was 5 meters away. It was one split second that I saw it. I was in the water no more than 15-20 minutes.

Now I had better contacts and my hopes were high and my heart was beating faster than ever.

8:00 am: I meet for the first time the Rutzen "Clan", the coolest people I met in a long time: Michael, Morné and Franky. They run the best Cage Dive Operation in South Africa, "Shark Diving Unlimited" and they are the ones who made my adventure possible.

Upon my arrival they had an unexpected surprise for me.... arranging a trip with scientist Michael C. Scholl on board his boat "Lamnidae". I had the fortune of being for one day with M.C.Scholl on one of his shark identification trips. This day, we identified about 12 different sharks and we even saw a shark "breaching". Unfortunately I missed the breach because I was on the opposite side of the boat when It happened. One split second and the shark was airborne!

On March 29 and 30th I boarded "Stan", Michael Rutzen´s boat to an unforgettable journey that I will never forget. I guess I was in the right place, with the right people at the right moment. Everything went much better than I had ever expected and I must thank Michael, Morné and Franky for trying their best and making the most of those two days. We had more than 10 different sharks everyday. We had them so close that I could touch them several times!! What can I say, shark activity was just crazy.

Once in the cage, I experienced the most incredible moments face to face with Carcharodon carcharias. I touched them in different occasions and in different situations. I had up to 3 sharks around the cage from the left, from the right and in front of my face. My words and the pictures you will see can not describe the real nature of the encounter or the adrenaline floating in the air. In any case here are some of the pictures I took with my Nikon 65 camera.

I must thank my good friend Alex "The Sharkman" for getting me in contact and organizing my trip with the Rutzen's and for putting these pages up- for me..