Neptune Islands Great White Cage Encounter

Neptune Islands, Spencer Gulf, South Australia · Australia

Moderate4 daysOceania~£1,650 est.

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Overview

The Neptune Islands off South Australia are the only place in the country where you can cage-dive with great white sharks, and home to the only ocean-floor cage anywhere: winched to the seabed around 20 metres down, it puts you at eye level as a four-and-a-half-metre shark banks past in gin-grey Southern Ocean water. Surface cages need no certification at all; the bottom cage requires a scuba ticket and rewards it with the calmest, closest viewing in the sport. Winter, May to October, brings the biggest females in to hunt the long-nosed fur seal colonies. Sightings are wild-animal odds — day trips can blank — which is why the multi-day liveaboard stacks the deck so heavily: more anchorages, more hours with lines in the water, plus a night anchored under seabird cliffs. Boats run from Port Lincoln, a tuna town 45 minutes' flight from Adelaide. A three-night liveaboard runs about £1,650; day trips from £280. Bring seasickness tablets and a thick hood — the Southern Ocean means business even inside a cage.