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Made In Africa: She’s Not Your Typical South African Tourist, And It Made Her Famous

Made In Africa: She’s Not Your Typical South African Tourist, And It Made Her Famous

Thrill-seeking South African centenarian Georgina Harwood went skydiving last weekend to celebrate her 100th birthday, and then for an encore, she went shark diving Monday, according to an Associated Press video.

Harwood wanted to do something special for her 100th birthday. A parachute jump was not enough, CBSNews reported.

Harwood’s birthday skydive was a tandem jump — she was in a harness with another person. The jump took place Saturday near the Melkbosstrand area north of Cape Town, and you can see from this video that she landed on her feet.

Photo: http://www.beachvilla.co.za/melkbosstrand-guest-house.php
Photo: http://www.beachvilla.co.za/melkbosstrand-guest-house.php

Fifteen family members and friends jumped in solidarity with Harwood, who wore a red jumpsuit. It was wonderful seeing all the others around her, she told AP.

This was Harwood’s third skydive, according to CBS. She did her first in 2007 when she was 92.

In shark cage dives, participant go underwater in a cage where they are circled by sharks chummed up and ready to eat more cut-up bits of fish fed to them by tour operators.

After the shark dive, Harwood told reporters it was the experience of a lifetime. “It doesn’t compare with anything else,” she said in the AP video.

The great white sharks of Gansbaai feed on Cape fur seals and African penguins living on Dyer Island, according to GansbaaiSharkDiving. An abundant food source makes the area famous for one of the densest great white shark populations on Earth. As many as 18 sharks have been spotted during one Gansbaai cage shark-diving trip.

There isn’t much research readily available on the average age of people who do shark dives, but the Shark Research Committee has collected data for the age of shark attack victims. Out of 108 cases studied on the Pacific Coast, the average age of shark attack victims was 29.

Of the victims, 18 were swimmers, 27 were surfers, 33 were divers, and 37 were kayakers. None were shark cage divers.

“Note that the average age of victims in each group reflects the average age of participants in each group,” the report said. “There are plenty of teenagers who splash about at the beach but very few 50-year-old surfers, a fact that is reflected by the data.”