Sodwana – Page 10 – Learn to Dive Today Blog

Dive sites (Sodwana): Pinnacles

The fourth dive we did (second dive on our second full day in Sodwana) was to Pinnacles, a beautiful site also on Two Mile Reef. The sea was quite rough and kitting up on the boat was not much fun, but dropping down onto the myriad gullies and rocky outcrops covered with coral was a wonderful relief.

The site was full of overhangs and sandy gullies for exploring, and Tony had a blast with his video camera. Several times he almost disappeared into cracks in the rocks in search of elusive sea life.

Tony exploring a sand gully at Pinnacles

The sand did make still photography a bit tricky, and although I did see some lovely fish – including a clown triggerfish, of which I am very fond – I did not get many decent fish photos.

Unicorn fish — A unicorn fish goes about his business at Pinnacles

I did manage to capture some coral polyps retreating into their hard structure after being disturbed (at right in the photo). Compare it to the same kind of coral behind and to the left of it in this photo:

During the dive we passed by a feature called the Anvil – aptly named, as you can see below!

This was a short dive and long wait on the boat for me as I surfaced with Tami when she got low on air, and then was too much of a porridge-head to think to go back down and explore some more (I still had 120 bar in my cylinder), even though I could see the other divers below us. The dive site was gorgeous, but it was the second dive on quite a surgy day and thus both my stomach and my energy levels were giving up the ghost!

Dive date: 9 October 2010

Air temperature: 24 degrees

Water temperature: 22 degrees

Maximum depth: 10.9 metres

Visibility: 20 metres

Dive duration: 34 minutes

Dive sites (Sodwana): Caves & Overhangs

We were feeling a little beaten up after our first dive in Sodwana, what with the rough surface conditions that had had more than one of us (no names mentioned) leaning over the side of the boat feeding the fish before AND after the dive! The focus was on getting into the water as soon as possible, because once we were below the surface everything else melted away.

Caves & Overhangs on Two Mile Reef, Sodwana

The second dive we did was to Caves & Overhangs on Two Mile Reef. The beauty of diving Two Mile Reef is that the longest boat ride you will have to endure is about 10 minutes, and we often spent more time kitting up on the boat than actually locating the dive site!

Justin identifying fish - our underwater naturalist

Justin, Gerard and Tami were doing their Fish Identification dive for their Advanced course, which was a darn good thing because I couldn’t name a single thing I’d seen so far and planned to piggyback off their knowledge! The three of them swanned about with their slates, drawing the things they were seeing. The end results were somewhat hilarious… Compare Justin and Gerard’s slates below (with apologies to both the budding artists for revealing their work in such early stages, and for the water drops – the pictures were taken before I’d removed my camera from its housing):

I was beside myself with excitement – yelled into my regulator – when I spotted a gorgeous moray eel, with his head sticking out of his cave, opening and closing his mouth to breathe. He was a medium-sized guy, and I tried to stick around for as long as possible watching him, before the surge took me away.

Guinea fowl moray eel on Caves & Overhangs

My photos from this dive are uniformly terrible – I took several of my eel, and only the one above was vaguely clear. The one shining light however was this picture of what Tony calls the Colgate nudibranch – Chromodoris hamiltoni – who was an obligingly stationary photographic subject. As I recall, I also managed to find something inanimate to hold onto while I took the picture.

This dive was far easier and more relaxed for me than the first one. I was wearing a dorky little swimcap (thanks Tami!) which made the rest of the group want to disown me, but which controlled the free flowing hair that had made the first dive tricky, and I was more willing to let the surge move me around.

I hadn’t quite got the knack of pressing the camera shutter button in between surges, but even if I didn’t manage to get pretty pictures of everything, I saw some wonderful parrotfish, unicorn fish, goldies, more than one nudibranch, colourful little wrasses, and an anemone fish rubbing himself all over the largest anemone I have EVER seen. I also saw a host of different kinds of butterflyfish and angelfish, a nice little yellow puffer fish, Moorish idols (wow!), and a tiny little domino who I stalked until he emerged for a photo.

Brain coral — I love love love brain coral!

Dive date: 8 October 2010

Air temperature: 23 degrees

Water temperature: 22 degrees

Maximum depth: 15.3 metres

Visibility: 12 metres

Dive duration: 58 minutes

Dive sites (Sodwana): Two Buoy & Arches

Our last dive in Sodwana was at 0630 on the Sunday morning. It had to be early, and not too deep, to accommodate those who were flying home later in the day. By this stage of the weekend the sea had flattened out beautifully – we had had a couple of windless days and the swell had dropped. Duncan, our regular skipper, was not to be found on the beach (I think he overslept!) so we were taken through the waves by Joe to yet another site close to the launch site (what a pleasure for those of us who don’t particularly love long boat rides!). Joe dropped us at Two Buoy, and we drifted down Two Mile Reef ending up at Arches.

View of Two Buoy on Two Mile Reef, Sodwana

Two Buoy is the location at which we did our first dive in Sodwana, and the conditions were in marked contrast to that dive. It was far less surgy – there was a bit of current and slight surge, but we were able to swim around with ease. The surface conditions were also a thousand times better, so we didn’t have as much discomfort with equalising. On our earlier dive, the size of the swell meant that the water pressure above us was changing dramatically with each passing swell, and Sophie in particular was struggling with the pressure changes on her ears.

A hawkfish hides in the coral. If you look carefully, there are several other little stripy legs and shelled creatures in there too.

There was an astonishing proliferation of fish life as we moved away from Two Buoy, and I spent quite a lot of time at a cleaning station watching the cleaner wrasses darting in and out of the mouth of a barred rubberlips. That’s trust! There was so much activity that I didn’t know where to look.

Barred sweetlips — A barred rubberlips hangs about at a cleaning station on Two Mile Reef – aren’t those lips sweet and rubbery indeed!

We also saw a guinea fowl puffer fish and a male ember parrotfish sleeping (I guess… what do fish do?) under overhangs in the coral. The temptation to touch was almost overwhelming but I resisted! There were crowds of Moorish idols (Tony’s favourite fish), tobys, sea goldies and a multitude of parrot fish milling around, many taking shelter under the rock formations after which Arches is named.

Giant clam mantle — I love love love the giant clams!

The visibility on this dive was the best we’d seen on the Sodwana trip, and, for many of us Cape divers, the best we’ve EVER seen anywhere. While I hung at the safety stop, I could see the reef spread out below me, and the bright strobe on Tony’s video camera as he explored further, determined to suck his cylinder dry before finishing his last dive here.

Dive on Two Mile Reef in Sodwana — Tami, the Silver Fox and Borrels in a row on the sand at Two Mile Reef… Look at that visibility!

Dive date: 10 October 2010

Air temperature: 24 degrees

Water temperature: 22 degrees

Maximum depth: 15.9 metres

Visibility: 20 metres

Dive duration: 47 minutes

Bookshelf: Dive Atlas of the World

Dive Atlas of the World: An Illustrated Reference to the Best Sites – Jack Jackson (editor)

Tony gave me this gorgeous coffee table book that will have you desperate to get on a plane and fly over to the Bahamas or Truk Lagoon in Micronesia. It features articles on the best diving around the world, including one by our own Chris Fallowsabout shark diving in Cape Town.

Even though it covers some of the most popular and well-known diving destinations, it did reveal some others to me. I had only read about Scapa Flow in the history books, but apparently there is amazing (and terrifying, and freezing cold) diving in amongst the wrecks there. Malta sounds gorgeous, and some of the nicest dives there are shore entries which scores big points in my book.

There are also articles on diving the East coast of South Africa – Sodwana, Aliwal Shoal and Protea Banks. Ponta do Ouro also features – a spot very familiar to Tony, who worked there for six months last year. It’s exciting that these local (and nearly local) destinations are ranked among the best diving in the world.

This book isn’t useful as such – in fact, it was the opposite of useful to me, because it’s just made me desperate to pack my bag for twenty exotic diving destinations! That said, it’s gorgeously put together, and excellent for some armchair dive travel if the budget doesn’t permit a trip straight away!

It’s available here if you’re South African, otherwise click here.

Dive sites (Sodwana): Two Buoy

Two Buoy is fairly central on Two Mile Reef, and like the entire reef system is only a short boat ride from the beach. That said, it was our first dive in Sodwana and the sea was ROUGH. The boat ride was vigorous but refreshing (I find surf launches quite scary). When we stopped I got quite seasick however – the swells were two metres high and the boat was rocking violently.

Boats lined up on the beach at Sodwana, ready to launch through the surf

Because of the surface conditions and the current, we didn’t want to mess around when we rolled into the water, so we descended fast. Beneath the surface it was somewhat calmer, but still very surgy. Most of us were feeling weird – Tami on her first ever boat ride (in pretty hairy conditions), Fritz without a hoodie couldn’t get used to the water in his hair, and I just felt as though everything was upside down. I was also diving without a hoodie, which made for a spectacular display for my fellow divers… I lost my hair band almost immediately, and did a mermaid impression for the rest of the dive – pretty but annoying! The surge also took a bit of getting used to, as we couldn’t really go anywhere of our own volition but were at the mercy of the water.

The contrast between Cape Town diving and the coral reefs beneath us, however, put all the irritations and discomforts out of my mind. The coral is incredible – huge plate corals that have taken decades to form, little soft ones, and spiky ones that look like Christmas trees or deer’s antlers. And in between the coral were the fish – in colours you can’t even imagine. Several times I had to remind myself that I wasn’t diving in the fishtank in the Chinese restaurant near Tony’s house… This was the open ocean.

Limespot butterflyfish and coral — The ubiquitous limespot butterfly fish passing in front of a HUGE coral formation

I was incredibly excited to see a giant clam – I immediately felt like a character in a Willard Price novel (for kids!) and took care not to get my foot stuck in it, as if that was a danger!

Coral on Two Buoy, with giant clam in right foreground

The other thing that stunned me was the clarity of the water. In False Bay, 10 metres visibility is a really good day… We could see at least 12-15 metres on this dive, and that was apparently “not so good”. It’s that feeling of being able to move in three dimensions that I love about diving, hanging in space and being able to see for ages.

Dive date: 8 October 2010

Air temperature: 23 degrees

Water temperature: 22 degrees

Maximum depth: 13.2 metres

Visibility: 12 metres

Dive duration: 47 minutes

Backward roll

On a boat dive off a rubber duck, all the divers roll backwards into the water at the same time. The skipper stops the boat, counts down, and everyone rolls backwards off the pontoon simultaneously. There are good reasons for the emphasis on doing it at the same time:

if there’s even a slight wind or current, the boat drifts
once divers hit the water, they start drifting too

Even a second’s hesitation can combine with one of the above to have you landing on top of another diver. It may not hurt you, but the diver already in the water is unlikely to be wearing a hard hat to protect them from your cylinder! If you miss the count down for whatever reason, WAIT on the boat. The skipper will bring you around and drop you again when it’s clear.

The alternative – rolling into the water on top of everyone else – will ensure that you don’t get invited back for more boat dives!

Ever wondered what it’s like to do a backward roll? Check out this video I took at the start of a dive on Bikini, Two Mile Reef, in Sodwana.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQr9t8vfFdI&w=540]

Chunderstruck: The Movie

We had some rough days on the boat in Sodwana, which prompted Gerard to adopt AC/DC’s Thunderstruck as our theme tune. Fritz filmed a launch and a beaching, and combined with my primitive movie editing skills, here is the result:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VYuOi8uhvg&w=540]

Dive sites (Sodwana): Deep Sponges

I think our dive on Deep Sponges was among my favourites of the five I did in Sodwana. It was to 30 metres, and Tami and Sophie were doing their deep skills for their Advanced course. I descended right on top of a pincushion starfish the size of a birthday cake!

Giant pincushion starfish at Deep Sponges

There was quite a strong current when we reached the bottom, and the rest of us tried to hang around in one spot while the girls filled in their slates. Once they were done, we set off – swimming into the current! This was exhausting and the water at depth feels like honey… Very hard work. Tony had a word with Divemaster Dean, and we turned around and did a fantastic drift dive in the opposite direction.

Another enormous starfish at Deep Sponges - this one had nice green tips on his legs

Deep Sponges is on Two Mile Reef, and characterised by (surprise!) many different sponge formations. Within minutes of starting our dive we spotted a whitetip reef shark swimming past about 20 metres away. This was my first shark sighting (apart from sevengill cowsharks, catsharks, nurse sharks, gully sharks and shysharks!) and I was thrilled. He didn’t seem to care about us at all, and I wanted to chase him so that we could spend more time together. Story of my life… hehe!

I also saw two hawksbill turtles (or the same one, passing by twice). They look so relaxed in the water, crusing along in perfect solitude. This dive site is amazing because it is both deep and a reef, so you have the gorgeous detailed reef life as well as a good chance of spotting pelagic species passing by on their journeys through the open ocean. The reef fish were far more curious and confident than those we saw on the shallower dives, possibly because they are bothered by fewer divers.

My photos from this dive aren’t very good – I think because the current was quite strong, and because I don’t have strobes to illuminate the depths. They just don’t do the experience justice. Because the visibility was so good – almost top to bottom – there was a tremendous sense of space, but also all this magnificent life begging for some macro shots. I haven’t done enough deep dives with the camera (two!) to figure out what works. But I am quite proud of the picture of the soft coral above.

Safety stop at Deep Sponges — Tony (on the right) and the Silver Fox (on the left) help Giraffe and Mariaan, who had descended unexpectedly while arranging some alternate air source breathing

I hardly finned during the dive because we were drifting with the current, which was great, and in all the dive was very relaxing. I had plenty of air – surfaced with the Divemaster and Tony, which was awesome! Felt very proud of myself and got a handshake from Tony at the safety stop. We did a nice long safety stop punctuated by one or two dramatic incidents which were nicely handled by Dean, Tony and the Silver Fox (who is also a Divemaster). Almost everyone seemed to breathe off someone’s octo at one time or another.

Breathing off octos — Tami taking Dean's octo, and Tony telling Justin, who was finishing breathing from (I think) the Silver Fox's octo behind Tami, to continue his ascent

Dive date: 9 October 2010

Air temperature: 23 degrees

Water temperature: 22 degrees

Maximum depth: 31 metres

Visibility: 20 metres

Dive duration: 37 minutes

Bookshelf: More Reef Fishes & Nudibranchs

More Reef Fishes & Nudibranchs – Dennis King & Valda Fraser

This is the sequel to Dennis King’s first book on East and South Coast sea life, Reef Fishes and Corals. It has a similar layout and is of similar length and dimensions. It’s a useful size for travelling around with, like its predecessor.

Several more reef fish are shown and described here, filling in many of the gaps of the previous volume.

This volume doesn’t cover coral at all, but includes a section on nudibranchs. I’m afraid the SURG team have spoiled me for nudibranch identification, and the nudibranch section of this book frustrated me for several reasons.

It doesn’t provide common names for the nudibranchs – so I had to tell people I’d seen a Chromodoris hamiltoni (Tony called it a Colgate nudibranch because it looked like a squeeze of toothpaste). Also, there’s only one picture of each variety, which I suppose is to be expected in a book that attempts to cover a wide variety of fish and other marine species… But given the degree of variation within one type of nudibranch, it can be tricky to make a positive identification with only one photograph to go on.

Buy it here.

Bookshelf: Reef Fishes & Corals

Reef Fishes and Corals: East Coast of Southern Africa – Dennis King

We used this book and its sequel (More Reef Fishes and Nudibranchs) extensively while we were in Sodwana. The Advanced students sat with it after their Fish ID dive, and tried to match up the drawings on their slates with the photos in the book.

It was my first time diving in warm, tropical waters, and I didn’t know the name of a single fish! It’s a slim volume with pictures and a small amount of information – habitat, behaviour – about each fish. It’s great for travelling as it’s not very thick or heavy.

The book also contains names and information about various types of coral, which is helpful because Sodwana is bursting at the seams with gorgeous coral formations, all of which were unfamiliar to me as a Cape Town diver.

Frustrations: owing to poor editing, the index doesn’t tie up with the pagination, so things aren’t always where they’re meant to be. It’s also really just selected highlights, so you won’t find all the fish you see on dives in this book. Having the sequel on hand helps, but I still need to sit at Tony’s place with a more comprehensive book and my photos, to identify some of the more mysterious specimens.

You can purchase a copy of the book here.