Wow! What a lekker place!

We popped over there for a few days to swim with the Dolphins, Whalesharks, dive with zambezi sharks and do a bit of kiting. Well I got to do ALL of those things!

The water was 26 degrees. At 39.1meters with the Zambezi it was 24degress – awesome! We dived with The Whaler and did some swimming with Dolphins with Dolphin Encounters

We had some stunning prawns at the one restaurant on the hill, although rather pricey. Everything is still in rands because nearly all goods come from South Africa. It was amazing to see how 1st world SA is, we got to the border post on a nice tar road and then went through the post into super sandy tracks, NO tar.

I was rather bummed by the annoying jetskiers from joburg who would drive fast right up next to people, some of which you could see boozing on the beach from 8am. A lady drowned whilst we were there and the local guys said that drownings had become a regular issue. Some of the local divers and dolphin encounters ran a lifeguard service (for free) and were shut down by the Mozam government – go figure.

Anyway, it was a super trip, flew to Durbs and then hired car, stayed in St Lucia for the night and then parked the car at the border post, walked through and was fetched by Dolphin Encounters – we had a lekker stay and allround it was a brilliant break.

Yeap, well its was a misty day in Cape Town. However Hout Bay was great, no mist!

Water temp got down to a nice 11degress at 21 meters. It was an awesome dive, launch from Hout Bay harbour with Dive Exchange. Went past seal Island about 500m and we dropped down there. Dive time was 31min for those of us that lasted the cold!

Honestly, i dont think i have ever seen the sea in Cape Town so flat. It was like oil. NO WAVES, NO SWELL!

After attempting to dive in False Bay and failing miserably because of the ridiculous red tide. The water was so red and there was a foul smell! The red tide extended all the way through false bay.

However, we managed to squeeze a dive in sunday afternoon at Justin’s Caves. Water was 13deg, no swell to speak of, 6-8m vis.

Gas Flame Nudibranch – we only saw one, but apparently there are plenty around.

Well, day two and its our first long boat trip. 35mins in the boat. We were looking for dolphins and whale sharks – we saw none.

Matt made friends with the Potato Bass – it was hilarious. It followed him around the reef. Lots of new nudibranch’s we havent seen before.

The Green Tree is a large coral outcrop with mainly green coral on it. Loads of fish live in and around it.

Have a look here: Sodwana Photos

Well, after a nice early start from Salt Rock (we landed the night before in Durban) we arrived at Coral Divers at Sodwana Bay at 10:30am – there was a mad rush to get onto the tractor for our first dive – tractor leaves at 10:45am. So there was a mad scramble.

I got much underwater camera housing for my Sony T30 the day before (it arrived 5mins before I had to leave!)

First dive was WICKED. Its like diving in a fishbowl / aquarium! Saw a pineapple triggerfish. Moorish Idols. Lots of wrasses, triggerfish, goldies and more.

Well, another boat trip, another 2 dives on Sunday.

The weather was great. The sea was like a pond, compared to two weeks ago, it wasnt even the same sea! Slight north westerly from saturday seems to have cleared the water up and flattened the water out. (In fact, it was so flat that even I couldn’t get sick, much to the relief of everyone sitting around me!)

First dive was the Pietermaritzburg wreck – about 300m from the launch in 20m of water. A nice wreck dive with quite a lot of marine life. Found several octopi, who weren’t thrilled with us peering at them.

Second dive was at Photographers reef. Water at 9m got really chilly to around 14-15deg with an intense thermocline. Max depth was 14m. It was stunning! I saw 4 different types of Nudibranch – really awesome.

This last weekend, Kevin (our instructor), Matt, Japie, Amie, Susan, Janet and myself did Scuba courses.

ClanStewart - old shipwreck between Simonstown and Glencairn. Saturday 1pm dive.

Transvaal Wreck dive - 33m down – my first ‘deep dive’ – part of my Advanced course. What fun with 2m viz. I also had a nice bit of sea sick in the 6m+ swell off Smits Winkel Bay. Oh how i hate being nauseous on a boat in massive seas. Matt saw a Nudibranch, I saw some nice soft corals! Kevin and I (my buddy for the dive) managed to not see anybody else on the whole dive – there were 13 divers in total. Well they could have been 5m from us and we wouldnt have had a clue!

Ark Rock – Simonstown