South Africa is, among other things, known for its wild coast, cold water and Great White sharks. Not really a place to go diving, you might say, but the coastline of South Africa offers a wide variety of marine environments and the northern parts of the east coast contain the southernmost coral reefs in the world. It is here, just below the Mozambique border, where the St. Lucia Marine Reserve is located.
After driving through the bustling little town of Mbazwana (last chance to get cash from an ATM, if you need some) into the heart of the Greater St Lucia Wetlands Area (a World Heritage Site!) and passing the few buildings that represent the small community of Sodwana Bay, we arrived at the gates of Sodwana Bay National park. This part of the reserve stretches from 1 mile inland to 5 miles offshore and is the home of the world renowned 2, 5, 7 and 9 mile reefs. It's also the home of Coral Divers, who are one of the two only dive operators to have a concession to operate from within the marine park. We were not really sure know what to expect, so when we arrived we were surprised by the scale of the operation. Coral Divers offers all the facilities to go diving, but also offers four types of accommodation, ranging from tents to stilted huts with en-suite bathrooms (open air, nice touch! Especially the Vervet monkeys seem to like the easy access to your toilet bag!). If you expect a small divecenter with a few bungalows, which on hindsight we probably did, then walking up here can be a bit unsettling. Coral Divers can cater to up to 170 guests and even more divers in the high season when people are staying elsewhere but want to go diving with them. This has its effect on the operation, in the sense that it can seem a bit impersonal at first. This is due to the fact that everything needs to be very well organized and highly efficient, which it is, to make sure all runs smooth with so many guests. So there are procedures that you get acquainted with when you arrive, for the transport to the beach, the rental of the equipment, the house rules and the planning/booking of the dives. Especially that last part is important to quickly get familiar with because dive boats are filled on a first-come-first-serve basis. But no worries, because there is good information in print available on the divesites at the different reefs that you can read on when you arrive. Furthermore at the daily booking session at 19.00 pm, the dive masters are there to help you make your choice, based on your experience and wishes. If you know on beforehand where it is you want to go, you can make preliminary bookings during the day, to avoid the rush at 7 pm.
When hiring gear, you are responsible for the things you hire and you keep your stuff in your cabin during your stay. This way you are diving with the same equipment for every dive. The beach is a short driving distance from the resort and Coral Divers provide a shuttle service to and from the beach. So each morning you load your gear on the shuttle, on which you should be at least 45 minutes prior to your dives, to go to the beach. In case of early dives, one can get a small breakfast from the nice breakfast buffet. In between the first and second dive you can come back for a bigger breakfast, depending on your surface interval. The buffet is open to people who have a catered package. When arriving at the beach, you are welcomed by locals who are willing to help you set up your gear and carry your stuff for the sum of 10 rand per dive per person. This is very convenient and these "beach assistants" are well trained by Coral Divers to handle and setup gear so one needn't worry about a thing. I myself prefer to kit-up up myself, but my girlfriend was very happy!
Coral Divers have a fixed shade setup on the beach from where the launches are initiated. It's also here that you can clearly see that this operation has been in business for a long time and has plenty of experience with diving at this area. The beach is a busy place with boats launching and arriving, tractors running the gear around and pushing boats in the water and pulling them out. Cylinders are constantly transported back and forth to the compressors. In peak season during summertime, they sometimes have up to 30 launches (!) in the morning. Due to the surf, all boats are (un-)loaded on the beach. Therefore the tractors have to push them into the surf before you take off. They have to make sure they do not get stuck themselves when a sudden swell comes up, so the boat has to be pushed by hand for the last bit until the engines can be started. Due to the strong surf, the use of life jackets for the first couple of hundred meters is obligatory. The launches through the surf are bumpy and spectacular and an official skipper license is required to be allowed to run boats in this area, since it is not without danger. Once past the surf, the life jackets are taken off and the pedal goes to the metal and you speed your way to the reefs. These Rubberducks with 2x60 horsepower engines are very fast and even going to the farthest 9 mile reef should takes no longer than 30 minutes (weather depending). When lucky you might encounter dolphins on your way to the farthest reefs and if they are playful, you get a chance to snorkel with them. We encountered dolphins but unfortunately they were hunting and not very interested in sticking around.
The diving is, simply said, superb! There is a very good chance of seeing some big stuff, but even if you would not be so lucky to see sharks, dolphins, mantas or whale sharks (check www.divestart.com for the presence of these critters!) the diving is very very nice. Our skipper went back to try and get the dolphins to follow him to our divesite and came across a 3.5 meter basking Tiger shark on the surface! The corals are in excellent condition and very colorful. I've also been to Ningaloo reef, the Mergui Archipelago and the Maldives and I can say that these reefs are definitively as nice as those places. The corals were in much better condition than for instance the ones I've seen in Thailand (both sides). There is a lot of fish around, as well as lots of turtles, blue spotted stingrays, lots of different moray eels (big honeycomb morays) huge honeycomb whip rays, octopi... the works! And another thing: the water is warm! 26/28 degrees Celsius. The worst visibility that we had was good according to my standards although our DM's considered 15 meters poor viz for this place. Good enough for me! Fortunately 20 meters or more is no exception.
(read on in the next reply)
After driving through the bustling little town of Mbazwana (last chance to get cash from an ATM, if you need some) into the heart of the Greater St Lucia Wetlands Area (a World Heritage Site!) and passing the few buildings that represent the small community of Sodwana Bay, we arrived at the gates of Sodwana Bay National park. This part of the reserve stretches from 1 mile inland to 5 miles offshore and is the home of the world renowned 2, 5, 7 and 9 mile reefs. It's also the home of Coral Divers, who are one of the two only dive operators to have a concession to operate from within the marine park. We were not really sure know what to expect, so when we arrived we were surprised by the scale of the operation. Coral Divers offers all the facilities to go diving, but also offers four types of accommodation, ranging from tents to stilted huts with en-suite bathrooms (open air, nice touch! Especially the Vervet monkeys seem to like the easy access to your toilet bag!). If you expect a small divecenter with a few bungalows, which on hindsight we probably did, then walking up here can be a bit unsettling. Coral Divers can cater to up to 170 guests and even more divers in the high season when people are staying elsewhere but want to go diving with them. This has its effect on the operation, in the sense that it can seem a bit impersonal at first. This is due to the fact that everything needs to be very well organized and highly efficient, which it is, to make sure all runs smooth with so many guests. So there are procedures that you get acquainted with when you arrive, for the transport to the beach, the rental of the equipment, the house rules and the planning/booking of the dives. Especially that last part is important to quickly get familiar with because dive boats are filled on a first-come-first-serve basis. But no worries, because there is good information in print available on the divesites at the different reefs that you can read on when you arrive. Furthermore at the daily booking session at 19.00 pm, the dive masters are there to help you make your choice, based on your experience and wishes. If you know on beforehand where it is you want to go, you can make preliminary bookings during the day, to avoid the rush at 7 pm.
When hiring gear, you are responsible for the things you hire and you keep your stuff in your cabin during your stay. This way you are diving with the same equipment for every dive. The beach is a short driving distance from the resort and Coral Divers provide a shuttle service to and from the beach. So each morning you load your gear on the shuttle, on which you should be at least 45 minutes prior to your dives, to go to the beach. In case of early dives, one can get a small breakfast from the nice breakfast buffet. In between the first and second dive you can come back for a bigger breakfast, depending on your surface interval. The buffet is open to people who have a catered package. When arriving at the beach, you are welcomed by locals who are willing to help you set up your gear and carry your stuff for the sum of 10 rand per dive per person. This is very convenient and these "beach assistants" are well trained by Coral Divers to handle and setup gear so one needn't worry about a thing. I myself prefer to kit-up up myself, but my girlfriend was very happy!
Coral Divers have a fixed shade setup on the beach from where the launches are initiated. It's also here that you can clearly see that this operation has been in business for a long time and has plenty of experience with diving at this area. The beach is a busy place with boats launching and arriving, tractors running the gear around and pushing boats in the water and pulling them out. Cylinders are constantly transported back and forth to the compressors. In peak season during summertime, they sometimes have up to 30 launches (!) in the morning. Due to the surf, all boats are (un-)loaded on the beach. Therefore the tractors have to push them into the surf before you take off. They have to make sure they do not get stuck themselves when a sudden swell comes up, so the boat has to be pushed by hand for the last bit until the engines can be started. Due to the strong surf, the use of life jackets for the first couple of hundred meters is obligatory. The launches through the surf are bumpy and spectacular and an official skipper license is required to be allowed to run boats in this area, since it is not without danger. Once past the surf, the life jackets are taken off and the pedal goes to the metal and you speed your way to the reefs. These Rubberducks with 2x60 horsepower engines are very fast and even going to the farthest 9 mile reef should takes no longer than 30 minutes (weather depending). When lucky you might encounter dolphins on your way to the farthest reefs and if they are playful, you get a chance to snorkel with them. We encountered dolphins but unfortunately they were hunting and not very interested in sticking around.
The diving is, simply said, superb! There is a very good chance of seeing some big stuff, but even if you would not be so lucky to see sharks, dolphins, mantas or whale sharks (check www.divestart.com for the presence of these critters!) the diving is very very nice. Our skipper went back to try and get the dolphins to follow him to our divesite and came across a 3.5 meter basking Tiger shark on the surface! The corals are in excellent condition and very colorful. I've also been to Ningaloo reef, the Mergui Archipelago and the Maldives and I can say that these reefs are definitively as nice as those places. The corals were in much better condition than for instance the ones I've seen in Thailand (both sides). There is a lot of fish around, as well as lots of turtles, blue spotted stingrays, lots of different moray eels (big honeycomb morays) huge honeycomb whip rays, octopi... the works! And another thing: the water is warm! 26/28 degrees Celsius. The worst visibility that we had was good according to my standards although our DM's considered 15 meters poor viz for this place. Good enough for me! Fortunately 20 meters or more is no exception.
(read on in the next reply)