Advice wanted on South Africa

[Cussy]

Work are sending me to South Africa for a couple of weeks in June, so I'm planning to stay on for some diving. I've decided to stay on the SE coast as I've been told the vis is pretty poor for a Great White experience and I want more than 1 dive.

So my question is this: Aliwal Shoal or Sodwana Bay?

I'd planned on Sodwana, but it seems a pain to get there. With Aliwal close to Durban it's a lot easier. Closest I've been to a decent reef is Malta, so they are both going to offer me a lot I've never seen.

So anyone out there been to both?

Rob

[desperation99]

hi rob,

i have just got back from a trip to sodwana a few weeks ago and the diving is superb there. i have dived both sodwana and aliwall shoal.

both are a great dive spots, i found there were more sharks out in aliwall and protea banks ( a bit further south of aliwall) but being in sodwana was a great experience of both diving and the actual place. be aware though at midday the snad is so hot it will burn your feet!

whichever you choose either sodwana or aliwall it will be a better choice than i have to make this weekend, either stoney or dosthill

have a great trip, if you need any contacts for diving out there let me know as the guys who run TDI south africa are close personal friends of mine

cheers

matt

www.mrdiving.co.uk

[Spike Jackson]

Hi Cussy

Where exactly will you be? SE coast is a fairly big area.

You will be there in the Southern hemisphere winter which is Ragged tooth shark season! They are best seen at Aliwal and slightly further south at Protea Banks. You can be in the water with literally hundreds of fairly large sharks - they are generally very docile though so it is an awesome and beautiful rather than scary experience. Be warned that the water temp may be cooler than you expect - probably 20-22 degrees celsius.

Sodwana is a great coral diving destination. They also do see "Raggies" at Quarter Mile reef fairly often. It is a long drive north from Aliwal though.

If you dive Protea I would recommend African Oddyssea, Trevor Krull's dive spot. Not only are they highly experienced and great guys but they are heavily involved in shark conservation within the area and deserve support.

If you need any more specific info post or pm me.

Oh and enjoy!

[Mr T.]

Hi Rob,

Fiona and I went a couple of years ago and did Sodwana Bay (top for reefs, Whale Sharks, sealife in general and sponges of all hues in particular), Aliwal Shoal (superb for 'Raggie' Sharks - check out 'The Cathedral' and 'Raggie Cave' for the nursery areas where these wonderful beasts bread and congregate in large numbers, also two top wrecks, 'The Nebo' and 'The Produce', both in about 25 to 34 metres and superb dives) and Protea Banks (we saw about 250 to 300 sharks on ONE dive alone!! - Raggies, a school of Hammerheads, an Oceanic White Tip, Bronze Whalers, and two Zambezi (Bull) Sharks, plus a family of Ribbon-tail Rays (which we'd never seen before), just an amazing place.

Yes Sodwana Bay is a bit of trek (took us about 4/5 hours in an air-con minibus to get there from Protea Banks, but the drive there was very much worth it), and both Aliwal Shoal and Protea Banks are only between 40 mins to an hour and 20 mins away from Durban, so if time's a factor, then you might consider doing just the latter two and save Sodwana for next time! But if you can do all three, then you'll be a very happy man!

I can not recommend these diving destinations highly enough as they are completely different to anything you'll see in the Red Sea or other Indian Ocean dive sites.

The Pound (£) against the Rand will see you a rich man over there (currently about 12/13 to the £) and the food, wine and generla living expenses are dirt cheap.

We'll be going back. I suggest you speak to Spike Jackson on here, along with BigB - native South Africans both.

Good luck, enjoy and safe diving.

[BigB]

Rob....I live here....
Stop talking about exchange rates....Aliwal shoal good in June, july for Raggies, low viz and current though, good idea to rent a car ( R 200.00 per day- 150 km free) and drive up to Sods or Mozambique- about 4 -5 hours to get there, if y're clever stop 1 night at Hluluwe game reserve on the way up, nice stopover !!!! You can easily drive to soddies/Mozambique on a friday and dive Sat, sun and drive back on Sunday.
We do bookings for people/divers up and down SA coast, even GW diving is easy, plane tickets cheap if you book early, fly to CT, get driven to GW divesite, dive, come back next day and be back at work on Monday!!!!
Skype or mail me and I can give you prices, options, book flights, whatever !!!'s what I do for a living....
cya!
BigB

[BigB]

Rob..
Don't forget that sods is coral Reef and Aliwal not, normally 3 dives at Aliwal is more than enough, had a group of poms here in Jan for 10 days, they did Mozambique for 6 days then sods for 1, game reserve sleep over and then aliwal for 3 days ( only did 3 dives due to bad weather) then flew to C Town for GW experience, they loved Moz and the GW thing !!! get me dates and I can get you prices quickly...
cya!
BigB

[resting rifleman]

another good experience via yd! just what more could you want.

[Cussy]

Cheers all for the replies. Its going to be a hard decision between what seems like three very different sites. I should be going back out to Mozambique later in the year, and I've done a bit of the animal big 5 safari stuff before on business trips to Joburg and Botswana.

My reservation with Sodwana is the drive really, and I'll be travelling on my own. I'm limited to 3 days for diving as I have to be back at work in UK for 2 days, then off to Plymouth for some cooler diving!! Well that's the plan at the moment. My options seem to be drive to Sodwana or fly to Durban, the latter sounds easier to me. But an email I recieved suggested Aliwal is a one dive a day location, so I'd get more diving for my Rand in Sodwana.

Decisions, decisions. Oh well back to reality, Guildenburgh Sunday and Stoney Monday - I must be mad!!