Planning your own trip to South Africa? Read more about my Garden Route itinerary here.
No, I’m not talking about the shoes. I’m talking about 10-foot long mini dinosaurs amphibians with scaly skin and gnarly teeth.
Last week I wrote about my visit to Cango Wildlife Ranch in Oudtshoorn, South Africa. But I left out the best part — they offer lots of animal encounters, and I went cage diving with crocodiles. Before I share my own experience, here’s a few photos I snap of other guests who go in after me. First they climb into a cage attached to a crane. Then the crane moves them into the water… closer and closer to the crocs…
The cage moves within inches of the tail. It’s an up-close-and-personal experience.
This encounter includes photography; afterwards guests may pick out their favorite photo to be printed as a souvenir.
Due to weather, this activity is only offered certain months of the year — crocs are cold-blooded so in the cooler temps they lay around all day, which would make cage diving way less thrilling. But during the warmer months they are more active, swimming around the cage and even snapping their jaws. I happen to be here on the first day of the season where this activity is offered (October 1st) so the crocs are just barely out of their cold weather comas. Luckily they do move around a bit.
My turn! I’ve been pumped to try this ever since my friend Robin went cage diving with crocs at Victoria Falls on the Zimbabwe side.
I spot two crocs on one side…
… and one on the other side.
Aww, these two crocs are nuzzled up together.
That’s the photographer in the booth below — they’ve designed this space to get photos from various angles.
Next the cage lifts up to get closer:
I must’ve gotten too close because one of the crocs snaps to life and swims to the other side. It makes for a great photo op:
Those teeth!
Hey, I’ve got my own teeth too, buddy!
Here’s a shot by the photographer in the underwater booth, snapped right as the croc swims past me:
Sorry for all the selfies. Whenever I have a GoPro on my wrist I make lots of funny faces.
The crane pivots my cage to the other side. Too bad for that croc who thought he could swim away from me.
Aww, now he’s nuzzling up with the other croc. I wonder what sort of love triangle they have going on here. It’s a relatively small tank…
A few more underwater shots…
Man, that was fun! The whole thing lasted about 15 minutes which was plenty of time to soak up the experience. Afterwards, there’s a place to take a hot shower and change.
Of course I shot video footage of my croc cage dive, too:
Cango Wildlife Ranch offers a variety of animal encounters (all of which sound cool) but I’m grateful my trip lined up with the start of croc cage diving season. If you go when it’s a little warmer, the crocs should be more active.
Many thanks to Cango Wildlife Ranch for hosting my visit. All opinions are my own.
