2026 Cape Town, South Africa, Part 1: Three Words – Shark ࢈ Cage ࢈ Diving

July 11 - July 12: Getting There.

We Left Omaha at 8:00pm, one of the latest flights we've ever taken out of the airport.  This was the start of a combined sixteen to seventeen hours of flight time between Omaha, Atlanta, and Cape Town, South Africa.  The two flights and the one layover went remarkably smoothly.

Once we got to Cape Town, getting to our hotel was a bit ... hazardous though that might be too harsh a word for what eventually happened.  We went through a gauntlet of taxi drivers and, it turned out, fake Uber drivers.  We, unfortunately picked the wrong guy.  He got us to our hotel in a timely fashion but he tried to charge our credit card one hundred times the actual fare.  Fortunately for me, and unfortunately for the fraudulent Uber driver, my credit card declined the charge.  I blame nobody but myself for walking into that mess.  Fortunately we didn't lose any money and, so far, our card number has not been used fraudulently.  Kudos to our credit card security folks.

July 13: A Free Day To Wander

Our first full day was a free day for us.  We filled it up with a few things.  First we walked to the District 6 museum.  Along the way we saw statues of Nelson Mandela and Bishop Tutu.  The museum was interesting telling the history of apartheid.  The museum is small but full of interesting, thought provoking  displays.

The District 6 Museum.
(Photo taken by the Wife)

After the museum we walked to the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flight into Egypt.  Unfortunately we could not go in due to restoration work that was going on ... and apparently it was a long way from being finished.  We did stop at a gift shop hoping to find a Mary figure that the Wife read about but they did not have it nor had they ever heard of it.  This would be the first time in years that the Wife would not come home with a new Mary figurine or icon.

One of the attractive walking paths in Cape Town.
(Photo taken by the Wife)

Next we went to Green Market Square to check out the market.  We would visit it several times during our stay in Cape Town.  One interesting thing is most tourist markets here are not limited to South African handicrafts but cover most of South Saharan Africa.  I presume that is because South Africa may be most travelers' one and only visit to the African continent.

From left to right: Ostrich, Kudu, and Springbok.
(Photo taken by the Wife)

In the evening we walked to Marco's African Place for dinner.  The restaurant serves different types of game animals and has live African music.  We had the Pan-African Platter which had grilled ostrich, Kudu, and Springbok.  I have to say, my meat palette really couldn't tell much difference between the three but they were all lean and good.

July 14: Shark Cage Diving!

The primary reason we selected Cape Town for our trip was shark cage diving.  We heard about it from some fellow travelers during our trip to China back in 2012.  Things have changed since 2012.  The great white sharks they were famous for are no longer there due to overfishing and unruly orcas.  Despite that, there were plenty of sharks to see.

A visitor that the crew hand fed on the way out to see the sharks.

We were picked up at our hotel and driven to Simon's Town, a township that is part of sprawling Cape Town.  We got on a small boat with twelve guests and four crew.  We stayed relatively close to shore even though you really couldn't see it.  We passed Seal island to see the seals, and the main meal for the sharks in the area.

We anchored and the cage went over the side.  The cage was lashed to the side of the boat.  We put on wetsuits.  Only ten of the twelve guests were going in (not everyone was comfortable doing this) so we got in the cage in groups of five.  We all used respirators tethered to the boat which allowed us to stay underwater indefinitely.  Now, it's winter time in South Africa and the water is cold.  The water temperature was actually higher than the air temperature but there was an initial shock when I slid into the cage.  I turned on my waterproof camera and I got an error – it couldn't read the card.  Fortunately, after a minute or two, it started to work.  I'm assuming it was a thermal shock to the camera as well.  We spent about twenty-five minutes in the water (The Wife and I were in the second group).  The first five to ten minutes were fine but I've noticed the video footage I took became more and more shaky as I stayed in the water.  By the time I got out I was shivering uncontrollably.  Here is a link to my first, unedited video which should give you an idea of what we saw.

A Bronze Whaler or Copper Shark seen from the boat.
(Photo taken by the Wife)

Despite being cold, I managed to take three videos that showed several sharks up close, lured by the chum that was tossed in the water.  The sharks are Copper or Bronze Whalers that grow up to 11 feet (3.3 m) long.  In some cases, the cage was shaken when a shark hit the cage with its tail.  The Wife and I were both very happy with our one, and most likely only, shark cage diving experience.  Highly recommended.

Note:  While I had three cameras with me, I let the Wife take most of the cell phone pictures I'll be using to document most of the trip.  I was too lazy to pull out my phone most of the time.

Photos can be seen in my 2026-07 Cape Town South Africa Google Photos album.