SHARK CAGE DIVING IN GANSBAAI – WESTERN CAPE PROVINCE
Gansbaai at De Kelders has one of the oldest associations with man in the world. At the time when Neanderthal-man was still the dominant species of "homo" in Europe, a group of modern people (homo sapiens sapiens) had already made Klipgat Cave their home. Remains have been excavated showing modern man living here more than 70,000 years ago. Klipgat Cave is located in the Walker Bay Nature Reserve, next to De Kelders, the residential shore area of Gansbaai. As one of only three places in South Africa where such old remains have been excavated, Klipgat Cave is one of the most important historical sites in the Western Cape. The reserve and the cave are open to the public.
Gansbaai is considered the Great White Shark capital of the world, drawing National Geographic Society film crews and researchers from around the globe to study the wildlife. It has also become a popular whale-watching spot for the Southern Right Whale.
The Southern right whale can be seen in large numbers, especially from the rocky shores of De Kelders on Walker Bay. This is also the site of the old whaling station. The look-out platform and the steps leading to it are still standing. Today whales are protected in South Africa and the descendants of the whalers are now the skippers on the boats that take tourists out for boat-based whale watching.
The original name of Dyer Island was Ilha da Fera (Island of wild creatures), so named by Portuguese seafarers in the 15th century.
Dyer Island is the largest of a group of islands about five miles offshore from Gansbaai and less than that from Danger Point Peninsula. It is named after Samson Dyer, an emigrant from the USA to the Cape Colony in 1806, who lived on the island collecting guano, which he sold to mainlanders as fertilizer. The island is home to thousands of African Penguins.
Geyser Rock is a smaller island nearby, and is home to tens of thousands of Cape Fur Seals.
The shallow channel between the two islands is popularly known as "Shark Alley".
Dyer Island is a nature reserve and cannot be accessed by the general public but boat-tours leave from Kleinbaai on Danger Point Peninsula to watch whales, stop at a shark-diving-boat, to cross Shark-alley and to go around Dyer Island.
Gansbaai and Kleinbaai are situated approximately 180km South East of Cape Town (driving time about 2 hours).