I came to the conclusion a long time ago that the best way to deal with a phobia is to tackle it head-on in the most extreme way possible. I countered my fear of heights by completing the world’s highest bungee jump and of snakes by trying to hunt down a mamba in Zambia. I’ve cage-dived with crocodiles, but this time, it was my shark phobia that I wanted to defeat.
The centre of great white shark activity, I discovered, was the town of Gansbaai a couple of hours drive up the Eastern Cape from Cape Town. Gansbaai is a quiet, windswept place. There’s a couple of small restaurants, a few guesthouses and a couple of smart B&Bs mainly catering to whale-watchers who like to observe the migration of the southern right whale away from the hustle and bustle of the holiday town of Hermanus.
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