We give new solutions and almost solutions of the Gauss equation of the Riemannian symmetric spaces SU (3)/SO (3) and its non-compact dual in codimensions 4 and 5,which improve the previously known estimates on the codimension. We also give experimental estimates on the infimum of the norm ∥γ_r (α) ±R∥ for each codimension r, where R is the curvature of SU (3)/SO (3), and α runs all over the space of second fundamental forms.