Since I crept down the stairs at my Great Uncle's home one morning and pressed my parents' recording of Jaws 2 into the VCR, I have loved sharks. I draw the line at Jaws 3 of course, but I digress.
I met my first shark while snorkelling in 2003, and several more a few weeks later, but it was another 5 years before I learned to dive in Cyprus. I spent several weeks later that year diving in Dahab and Ras Mohammed National Park, hoping to encounter some sharks, but to no avail.
There are a few places around the world which are legendary amongst the diving community, and one such place is Protea Banks. Famous for its electrifying encounters will large Tiger and Bull Sharks, I knew this was where I needed to go to get some face-time. I managed to rope my best mate 'S' into it too.
I didn't particularly trust the reputation of South Africa: I'd read plenty of stories about tourists becoming victims of crime and started planning my visit with trepidation. I looked online for some local dive operators and happened across African Dive Adventures. I e-mailed them to explain what I was looking for, which included just about everything but flights, and Roland set us up. S and I flew out in March 2010, only a few months before the World Cup was held in South Africa. To be honest, I half expected our entire arrangement to be some kind of scam, but as promised, Roland met us just outside Margate and escorted us the rest of the way. I had a diving knife large enough to give Crocodile Dundee nightmares stashed in my door storage, but I was pleasantly surprised to find Roland was indeed a very nice bloke. He put us up in an apartment in a secure compound and loaned us what equipment we didn't have from his storage at Shelly Beach, so all we had to worry about was food and trying not to get murdered. Actually, Roland told us that as long as S and I stayed off the beach at night, we were unlikely to find trouble. I can't remember if he advised me not to stop, but to roll up to traffic lights in our hired Nissan Micra, or whether I'd picked it up on a defensive driving course, but I adopted that policy throughout our 3 weeks.
Throughout those weeks, I found Roland and Beulah, to be some of the kindest people I'd ever met. One thing which has stayed with me since I visited, was how prevalent AIDS was in South Africa: motorways were lined with billboards promoting safe sex, featuring mind-boggling statistics. Roland had a small team working with his operation, and he told me that one of them had quite recently become seriously ill, and that he had paid for the man's medical treatment. In a country where public racist remarks hardly even seemed taboo, Roland just saw people as people. I recall how we'd land at the beach after diving, and Beulah would be under a gazebo, probably playing Bob Marley on the speaker, waiting for us to sit down and record our activity. The chemistry between Roland and Beulah was so legitimate, and it was obvious they adored each other completely.
I loved diving with Roland. He was completely at home under the water, and as comfortable as one could be in the company of sharks without falling into complacency. We dived from a boat, just a couple of miles from Shelly Beach. I remember suffering with agonising motion sickness. S and I had it so bad that we began eating water melon for breakfast every morning, so that it was soothing on its inevitable way back up. After 10 minutes rolling with the waves, we couldn't wait to roll backwards overboard. Some dives were 'exploratory' dives along the sea bed and into small cave systems. If we had arrived a few weeks earlier, those caves would have been full of Sand Tiger Sharks. In their absence, I enjoyed collecting their discarded teeth from the sea bed. Roland also led baited dives, during which he would tie a washing machine drum to the boat on a few metres of rope, and drop it overboard. The drum would be full of sardines and sponges saturated in fish oil. Tied to the drum would be several tuna carcasses. Only once or twice did such a dive fail to attract a shark. Often, Bull Sharks would be first on the scene and would circle several metres underneath the drum, waiting for the dive leader to open the drum, tear up some sardines and drop them. The rest of us (that might have been 2 of us, or 8 of us) would maintain buoyancy a safe enough distance from the drum so as not to threaten (or appear to challenge) the sharks, just enjoying the company of these magnificent creatures which would never allow you close enough to reach out and touch them. Quite regularly, we'd have the company of a Bull Shark, only to have it disappear on us. Moments later, we'd be joined by a larger Tiger Shark, which would eat the tuna carcasses and then chew on the drum. On one occasion, once the tunas had been eaten, Roland surfaced and then re-entered the water with more tuna carcasses. The very moment those tunas hit the water, the Tiger Shark turned and arrowed for them, while they were still in Roland's hands. It was equally hilarious and terrifying watching him descend while trying to keep a slender length of rope between him and a 5m Tiger Shark. After Roland had tied them off, he snapped the beautifully expressive photograph of the female Tiger Shark which you can see above.
The 3 weeks I spent with Roland, Beulah and African Dive Adventures included some of the best diving I ever experienced, as well as excursions to Riverbend Crocodile Farm, Pure Venom Reptile Park and the Wild 5 Adventures Safari Park. Roland and Beulah made a lifelong impression on me, and their smiles are etched into my personality 13 years later. I remember joking with Roland about leaving the RAF and going to work with him. He told me he'd employ me in a heartbeat, which was kind, though I never took him up on it.
After I left South Africa, I probably messaged Roland and Beulah a few times over social media, but I never saw them again.
In February 2024 I decided to reach out to them, to see how they were doing. I typed 'Roland Mauz' into Google, and saw his obituary. He had died only a few months previously, with Beulah having passed just 2 years earlier.
Honestly, I'm struggling to deal with the guilt. I wish I had been able to remind them how much they had meant to me.
Cam.
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