THE three giant Nile crocodiles were basking on rocks in the bright sunlight as I was lowered into their pool.
Encased in a rattling steel cage on the end of a small crane, I was submerged into the murky depths as some of nature's most ferocious killers gazed at me hungrily.
With razor-sharp teeth bared and unblinking, watery eyes fixed on me, I recalled my earlier conversation with a game park guide.
Sometimes the beasts go for weeks without raw flesh - and when they eventually come across some prey, they are ravenous.
The chilly water rose above my ankles, then slowly over my midriff, then my chin as the reinforced 6ft 6in tubular cage descended.
Then there was a splash, followed by another... and another, as the three massive crocs slithered slowly towards me.
The first to reach me was 20st Ma Baker - a 26-year-old 12ft brute with 68 fangs up to an inch long and jaws strong enough to snap bones into splinters.
She gnawed the bars just inches from where my white knuckles were gripping the metal handles inside the cage. I recoiled with terror, trying desperately to keep away from the holes in the cage's mesh as my heart pounded like a drum.
Waves of stomach-churning fear pulsed through me.
Guides at the Cango Wildlife Ranch in Oudtshoorn, around 250miles east of Cape Town, had warned me that crocodiles kill using the "death roll".
They grip their prey in their iron jaws, drag it to the bottom of the river and toss it around vigorously until it is dead.
If any part of my body protruded from the cage, the croc would yank me under and keep me there until my lungs emptied of oxygen. That's if it didn't rip that body part off in the process.
The cage lurched up and moved sideways before being lowered in a different section of the pond.
Now Ma Baker was joined by the 13ft, 47st aquatic monster Hannibal and 12ft 40-year-old Sweet Sue. As they circled me menacingly, one of the guides threw a slab of bloody, raw meat just outside my cage. Hannibal snapped at it and, with a rasping gulp, swallowed the serving, the size of a bag of sugar, in one.
I had read earlier how crocs can get a taste for human flesh.
In 2002 two Brits were killed by them within a month of each other. In March, gap year student Amy Nicholls, 18, of Barnet, Herts, was drowned in a lake near Mount Kilimanjaro in Kenya. In April, musician Richard Shadwell, 35, was savaged and dragged underwater as he swam behind a boat in the Sekonyer River in Borneo.
In the central African nation of Burundi, a killer croc nicknamed Gustave is said to have eaten an estimated 300 people on the banks of the Rusizi River.
Believed to be about 60 years old, 18ft in length and weighing around a ton, the maneater is said to be Africa's largest croc.
As my mind swirled with thoughts of Gustave's human menu, the metal cage suddenly twisted and shuddered.
I turned to see Ma Baker stuffing her toothy snout through the 4in viewing gap between the bars. Now I was eyeball to beady eyeball with one of nature's most vicious hunter killers.
Sun photographer Arthur Edwards, in a Perspex tank built into the pool's banks, captured the moment. Tourists on a suspension bridge flashed away madly on their cameras and laughed at my yelps of horror.
The cage's wrought metal had stopped Ma Baker in her tracks. Staring at her soft yellowy underbelly, it was difficult to not feel awed by her effortless power.
Finally the hydraulic crane plucked me from the water and deposited me back on to the welcome safety of dry land.
It was time for student Michaela Wilson, from Oudtshoorn, to take the plunge. In a two-piece black swimsuit, she was evidently a more inviting meal for the crocs.
Led by Hannibal, the crocs leapt into the water and rattled the cage with their jagged-toothed snouts as they snapped at the 18-year-old.
Dark-haired Michaela, who wants to study drama and dance, let out a high-pitched shriek, then squealed: "This is such an adrenaline rush. I can't believe I'm swimming with crocodiles."
Ranch worker Amanda van der Merwe explained that the Cango Croc Cage Diving Experience is hugely popular with British tourists looking for the latest thrill.
Profits are ploughed back into crocodile conservation.
Laura Iannotta, 28, on holiday from her call centre job in Lincoln, was among the tourists to brave the beasts. She said: "It was the chance of a lifetime. This makes bungee jumping look tame."
