The Sardine Run Fancy your chances? Editor of SCUBA magazine, Simon Rogerson, travelled with us on an extraordinary trip to South Africa with a quest to witness the famous annual ‘Sardine Run’.
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t was my third day out on the inflatable. We’d been covering up to 50 miles a day, scouring South Africa’s wild coast for the elusive baitballs that attract a parade of predators in midJuly. There was no shortage of action – bottlenose and common dolphins, several humpbacks and one southern right whale – but the famous schools were proving hard to pin down. There had been a few tantalising moments when we got close – on day one, a Bryde’s whale burst though the swell and devoured a school in a single gulp. The baitball was, briefly, an awesome thing to see.
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So there I was, feeling sweaty in my 7mm wetsuit … and then everything changed. John, the driver, received a tip-off and all of a sudden we were on the move. Whatever had been spotted was a) out of the ordinary and b) not likely to hang around. The unmistakable sight of black and white shapes breaking the surface meant only one thing – a pod of orcas. The skipper sized up their behaviour and said: ‘We’re going to motor ahead of them and drop you in the water.’ It was too good an opportunity to pass up. Behind my mask I felt unnaturally calm, almost as if I was somewhere else watching it
happen. I finned away from the wash of the boat’s engines and looked down at shafts of sunlight cutting through the water. A dark shape broke the surface, maybe 15 metres away. Where before I was sunburned and sluggish, I was now coursing with adrenaline and completely in the moment. I lifted the camera to my eyes and somehow the autofocus managed to lock on to this astonishing, perfect animal as she swam towards me. There was no fear. I remember thinking: ‘Oh! She’s just a big dolphin’, as the orca approached and dived, looking up at me
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