Diving 2009

Photoalbum Island Rock  & Aliwal Shoal

Photoalbum South Africa Swaziland

     

Diving

 

Thursday October 22, 2009: Dive-day 1: Pineapple and aerial reef

We sleep very well in the king-size bed, but we wake up due to the hard rain on the roof. And that happens the night before we need to dive: we already feel wetness, literally and figuratively. Timo is down; he fears that this will be like Costa Rica. He sleeps for a few hours and then waits outside until the weather will get better, but it does not look good. We go to check if we’re diving or not and we’ll see then. We arrive a bit too early and Clive the skipper is there and boils water for the coffee. We are diving today with two Germans, 1 Frenchman and one guy from Namibia and then there are the two instructors: Michelle and Ondyne. We try our wetsuits, BCD and they are already putting the tanks in the boat and pulling it away with the tractor and only we need to go there and race to the beach to go diving.

It all takes a bit longer, because the tractor is having problems, but we don’t mind: we just wait till everything is OK. The sun has not yet been able to break through the thick clouds, but it already stopped raining. Eventually they manage to get to boat to us. We need to enter here, because on other places along the coast the waves are too high. Here is a little bit of protection thanks to some rocks about 100 meters in the sea. With a delay of 20 minutes we enter the boat. Clive checks the waves to estimate the right moment to cross them. The sand changes places regularly here, so he needs to watch out for banks. In less than 5 minutes we’re through. Everyone gets ready and then on the One … Two … Three … GO we’re in the water.

We immediately look for the buoy line and follow that to go down, Michelle is already at the bottom, but we do it slowly, go down without forcing. That way we’ll get there too. We really see plenty of stuff during this dive. Not the coral gardens like in Egypt, but there is a big variety in the number if species of fish. We see a loggerhead turtle on the Pineapple-reef, see some nudibranches, but because of the surge down here it’s not easy to take good pictures. Boris, the potato-bass is also here today, together with a female that is accompanied by pilot fish. In total we see three different species of slugs, an anemone crab and many anemone fish with eggs. If you look good you can see the small dots in the eggs; they say these are the eyes of the little ones. We have fun, because there is a lot to see, some leaf fish, a special species of scorpion fish, a moray eel and a very big jellyfish. We enjoy the dive, even though we need to adapt, because we’re getting swept from left to right. When you want to look at something closely you need to grab something very firmly, preferably a rock and no poisonous or stinging things and then you can stay put. When the surge is too much, you need to let go anyway.

We dive until all other are already up and we really enjoy it. We see an electric ray and a few emperor fish. This is really a great dive and after 50 minutes we do our safety stop and come out of the water after 56 minutes, nice diving, because the other were already up: we were the last ones in the water with Michelle and a French guy. From the water we climb into the boat, then we have to wear the safety jackets again and then through the surf to the beach. The boat is anchored in a shallow bit and they bring us back to the dive base, Mokarran Dive Charters is the name. We have a light breakfast on the base itself. Normally they do this on the beach, but rain has started again and the wind blows and we’re getting cold. Eef is very cold, but we still decide to have the next dive, looking for more beautiful stuff.

We’re the only two divers for the second dive, se we leave with Clive and Ondyne. Again the same story, all out of the boat at the same time and then descend following the buoy line. The instructor is pulling the buoy constantly after her. Sometimes the cord is not stretched and it is a bit annoying, but it is easy to follow. Now we do two small reefs: aerial consists out of two little pieces. On the one we mainly spot fish: emperor fish, parrotfish, lionfish, no groupers this time, but a nice dive too. It is a bit more relaxed, because there are only the three of us. Eef spots some nudibranches and a big school of humpback snappers is swimming towards us. A very big boxfish is hiding below a cave, but we do spot it. We see a few kauris and some more parrotfish and a school of bannerfish, which is very nice.

When Timo reaches 50 bar, he signals to the instructor and then we quickly pass by the skeleton of a baby humpback whale. It looks a bit sad, because the animal was alive and kicking a few weeks before and now the skeleton is there for the scavengers. Although this was only a baby the bones are very big. We slowly ascend, have the safety stop and head for the surface. When everyone is on board, Clive asks if we want to see some humpback. Of course we do. We approach them to about 10 meters and we see a baby and a mother whale surface with the flipper, once also with the head and a few times just the dorsal fin. This is the best end of a dive you can imagine. Pictures are impossible, because the weather does not permit this and we can’t take the camera out of the housing. Eef did not bring her camera, because there was a small leakage. Timo has filled up his memory card, so we need to stop now anyway. So we do that and Clive beaches the boat: he uses the fastest speed that the boat is about ten meters out of the sea.

They bring us back, we clean our gear and then we have a shower. A hot rain shower is really great now, especially after a cold morning like today. We can immediately go for lunch, have a hamburger and drink a beer. Then we fill out our logbooks, the travel report is done too and we hope the weather will change, but that does not look that good today. The weather stays bad, so we just go for a rest and relaxation in our tent, because in the end it is a tent. We have a bit more luxury than an ordinary tent, because the tent fabric is supported with several poles from the gum trees. We rest till about six and then walk to the bar. We want to drink something else than a Castle so we order a red wine: Noble Hill: a tasty Merlot. We talk to Ondyne, the instructor and pay here a drink as we promised. We talk about diving and about Rocktail Bay and other stuff.

At about eight two waitresses start to roll the drum and that means dinnertime for everyone. We first get mussels with a good creamy sauce, and then we serve ourselves some vegetables and some pork. It’s very good, but we don’t eat so much, because the hamburgers were still taking up too much place. As dessert we have chocolate-pancakes and even that is good. We drink some more wine in the seats of the bar and then head to bed. We light our candles and then go to sleep.

 

 

 

Friday October 23, 2009: Dive day 2: Yellowfin Drop

Everything is happening a bit later than yesterday. We have our breakfast and then we go to the base, only 50 meters away from the Back camp. We need to take the tides into account, because they use jeeps and tractors, which create racks in the sand. That disturbs the turtles, so we need and want to take that into account. It is prohibit anyway being on the beach with low tide, so there are not so many options. We get our gear again: fins, our masks are clean and we get our suits too. We think it’s cool and want to do another dive. We drive with the jeep to the place where Clive is waiting with the boat and the tractor. We will only have one dive today, because they need to drive to Richard’s Bay for a part of the tractor. The tractor was having engine-trouble, they could repair the second one, but he gives in today too. Bad luck this is.

The zodiac is ready in the water when we arrive and it already made water, so we must hurry. Into the boat, the cameras, fins, masks and then back out, because we’re stuck and need to push. First the women enter, a French girl and Eef, then the men and then the instructor: Clive was already in the boat and another black guy was also helping out. Then we can go, jackets on, keep an eye on the waves and then away over the high waves. We’re already having an adventure, even before we reach the dive sites. We see a few more humpback whales, so that makes it again very special. Another lodge is on the reef we were aiming for, so we move a bit further, not Gogo’s, but Yellowfin Drop will be our site: the most favorite dive site of Ondyne. When we get there, we quickly get everything ready, quick buddy-check from a distance and then one, two, three, GO and everyone is in the water.

Damn! Shit, hell! Eef has fallen in the water and another person has fallen on her with the consequence that her mask and snorkel are leaving to the depth. Timo has jumped of the boat from the other side and when he reaches Eef and understands what is going one, the mask is already gone for a distance. Timo sees something red descend and dives towards it. The tip of the snorkel is visible from far away and when he swims deeper he clearly sees the mask too. At 9.4 meters he grabs it and then slowly ascends again: in fact he already should to a safety stop, but he does not. He gives the mask to Eef and now our dive can start too. Descend slowly, because Timo needs to recover a bit. No worries, when we reach 6 meters, the French girl is still equalizing and we’re not that far behind the group.

The view is great, not too deep and now the sun appears from time to time, which was also the case the whole morning. The corals are more abundant here: different species of coral, small table coral and many, many fish: groupers, snappers, hawkfish, Moorish idol; this is what we see here. The al of a sudden a big loggerhead turtle swims away and right next to it a large octopus too. Timo hunts the octopus and takes a few good shots. Timo thinks he saw a blade fish, but is not sure. Butterfly fish are present too and we see different species and then suddenly Ondyne indicates there is a huge lobster. If you think you’ve seen in Grevelingen or Oosterschelde, eat this then. This one has antennas of about one meter: probably a bit less, because under water everything seems larger, but it is huge.

Timo focuses on a small slug, because the pictures from yesterday are not that good, now we hope they are. Then there is another lobster and many small bass and damselfish. We find them very pretty. This is a very nice diving spot, no wonder this is the favorite place of Ondyne. We see more than five anemones with the colorful fish, a lionfish under a rock and right below that two pepper moray eels. Emperor fish, groupers, boxfish, everything is swimming by us. We see a scorpion fish on a rock and then swim to a hole where a big moray is sheltering: a honeycomb moral eel, an animal that measures two meters, unbelievable. Timo of course spots the chromodoris that is sitting next to the eel, because they want their picture taken: small and big, everything is beautiful under water.

We do our safety stop, the other three are already up; Timo has used a lot of air with the mask-thing, so we stop three minutes and then we ascend slowly. Hand in camera, mask and snorkel, then the led, the BCD and then climb on the boat. It almost looks like we’re catching whales. We receive a lollypop and sail back to the beach and again beach the boat, because as mentioned earlier, there is no second dive today. We get back to the base of Mokarran Dive Charters, take our wetsuits off and take a shower. The warm water does us good; we also arrange that the cameras are OK, write the report and look at the first pictures. Eef has the bad luck that the housing was damped and her pictures are not all that good. When we’re back we might consider taking this to the shop for maintenance. We have a beer at the bar and see a green snake in the tree nearby: a ‘boowemslang” in Afrikaans. The sun has appeared to the full force now, the sky is blue and we enjoy the sun, it’s a pity we don’t have a second dive today. The circumstances look very nice. At 13:30 it’s time for our lunch.

We take some vegetables, a wrap with meat and some calamari the South-African way. It tastes good with a beer and some water. Then it’s time for a siesta and we love the sun. It’s hot, even in the shadow, but that’s fun! Especially after the colder days without sun and many clouds. We read, fill out the logbooks and then swim in the pool. Now quietness has returned, but a few moments ago there were a couple of families with 7 children, so no peace, but now everyone is gone and it’s calm. Let’s enjoy! After about two hours we’ve had it at the pool and we go for a short hike. We follow the trails but don’t see many birds; we do see mongoose (15 animals), a couple of crested guineafowl and about three red duikers – the small antelopes that hide in the bushes. We walk back to the beach and that is still marvelous. A couple sunbirds are sitting in the sun in the palm tree next to the swimming pool.

There is hard wind and it’s getting colder, because the sun is setting and time is about five thirty. We have a beer and some red wine at the bar and confirm the two dives for tomorrow. Then they’ll be diving twice again. At 19:30 we hear drumbeats again for dinner: first red cabbage with a spinach snack, then we have fish, dorado they say, but we can doubt it. After the dinner we need to make sure we will have something to do for about two hours. We play cards; drink some coffee, because we go for turtle-watch. At 22:00 we leave with Simba, the same guy who picked us up and we drive to the beach and from here we go to the actual Rocktail Bay and to Mabibi a couple of miles north and south of the camp. We’re looking for loggerheads and leatherbacks coming to shore to lay their eggs.

We love the ride in the dark under a clear starry sky; we see flying fish in the lights of the jeep, many jellyfish are on the beach and very big ones too. The small crabs are hiding and running for their lives, when the big jeep-monster arrives, but unfortunately we don’t spot nay turtles. On our trip we see two men on foot too and the second time we see them they again say they did not spot any turtles either. It still is early on the season and there have no sightings yet, so that was a wild guess. After about one hour and a half we’re back and we return to our room six and go to bed. Tomorrow our last dives, so we need to be quite awake and ready to dive. We fall asleep directly after a long and tiring day.

 

Saturday October 24, 2009: Our last two dives at Rocktail Bay

We get up late. Timo is awake at 07:30 and sits down on the balcony to write and correct the travel reports, while Eef sleeps for another half hour. He needs to chase away a snake here first, because he does not feel comfortable with the snake on the porch. At about eight we go and have breakfast, eat something light, because we should never eat too much before a dive, so we don’t. Timo is not really feeling well today, but that will get better later on. We are at the dive center a bit too early, but we have fun checking out the books there. Ondyne is taking the lead of the dive again today; Clive is the skipper as always. A French couple comes with a guy from Botswana and us. When everyone is there, we receive our gear and everything is OK to leave, so they take us to the boat. It is a trip through the sandy beach and through the heavy winds, not really pleasant.

Climbing in the boat is not easy either, but that works. We put on our safety jackets and then through the waves of the Indian Ocean. The sea is never flat here, there are always waves and wind and it’s always a bumpy ride to the dive site. We go to Elusive and descend rather easily. Timo is always a bit slower, but always fine. It was about time we were in the water, because we all were getting sick on the boat. The weather was not very good to get out. We find it good they always go out for diving. On the bottom there is immediately waiting a ribbontail ray for us and two turtles also, really cool. An immense school snappers hangs above the reef. They are used to divers and you can swim through it even without the school being disturbed. That is a great feeling. The dive site has an oval shape and in the middle there is another ray waiting for us.

All pictures will need to come from Eef this time, because when Timo jumped in the water the clip of the memory card has fallen open. Timo can’t take 1 single picture. He more enjoys the sight then. And believe me, that’s beautiful. The site is full of jellyfish, bigger than a football, it almost seems that you’re on another planet. We see a few nudibranches, a lionfish, three morays, emperor angelfish and more things like it. This really is a beautiful dive spot, not a lot of coral, but many fish. Two big scorpion fish are hidden on the rocks and are difficult to spot. Parrotfish are here too and we see them every time, and then of course the small reef fish, barbells that feel with their feelers over the sand seeking food and their way around the reef. Moorish idol, butterfly fish, very colorful, as we don’t see every day.

We reach 50 bar the last, so also ascend the last; the others are already on the boat. Ondyne has lost here buoy a long time ago. Clive the skipper has detached it, because it became way too difficult for her. So we do the safety stop without reference, after a honeycomb ray says goodbye to us as the last fish on the dive. When we’re on the surface we really intend to doing a second dive, but once we’re on the beach and have had something to eat, they tell us we will have the choice between the same dive sites as the first day and the visibility will be bad. So we want to stop here with this beautiful last dive in Island Rock: a good way of stopping here.

They take us back to the dive centre; we leave our things there and have a shower. With this rain shower this is always nice and we’re surprised how fast you have hot water here. After that we sit at the bar, eat something small, because otherwise it will be tough to wait for 20:00 this evening. We have a wrap that we create ourselves. Then we write some more on the laptop, in the logbooks and we rest. Especially these last moments we need to take it easy, because Timo is still not feeling that well. We’ll see what this afternoon will be like.

We are lying on the sun beds in the shadow and rest some more; traveling is tiring. We discuss where we will go tomorrow, because our plans said neighborhood of Hluhluwe. When we consider everything, we think we can better go to Saint Lucia. There we’re close to a national park en we can also check on the local and traditional things, because close to Saint Lucia there are the Zulu-villages. Saint Lucia it will be: let’s see what that will be like, but that’s only for tomorrow. Now we rest and enjoy the sun. It’s getting dark, we start the aperitif with a mojito and we play Scrabble. In the lounge there are some games that everyone can play. We discover some new words, because we had made the rules for ourselves that we can have loads if imagination.

We walk to the dive centre and see Michelle there. We arrange the rent of the extra three times for the chicken vest for 150 Rand, buy two T-shirts of Mokarran dive centre, talk to Clive and Michelle and then have something to eat. With a bottle of Noble Hill we enjoy the dinner and don’t go to bed too late. Immediately afterwards we return to our ten, light the candles, talk about Rocktail and then go to sleep. Tomorrow we pack for Saint Lucia.

 

Wednesday October 28, 2009: Diving on Aliwal Shoal

The alarm calls us at 06:00, but we’re already awake and prepare everything to go diving. The waves are gone this morning and then surf at the beach is less too, even a lot less than on Island Rock. It all looks very promising. We have breakfast close to the pool: a beautiful table with three kinds of cornflakes and stuff, a whole bowl of fresh fruit, some small (already expired for ten days) yoghurts, coffee, a croissant and a muffin. It is very good and not too heavy, so we will be able to dive later today. At 06:45 we leave to the dive center Blue Vision a bit down the road from where we stay. It’s not far, so very nice.

We arrive and we introduce ourselves, we say that we had arranged diving for tomorrow, but for them this is no problem. We are the only divers today with a divemaster (a young guy) and an assistant-instructor (a girl a bit older); they’re a couple. We receive little information about what we’re going to do. When we ask for it, we get the answers, but we need to ask things in order to know more. This is completely different than the Mokarran Dive Charters in Rocktail beach Camp; they gave enough information. We get our suits: the wetsuit for Timo is old and was torn; the kneepads were torn, so there will be little of isolation. Eef has a better one, but that is also overstretched in a lot of places. Timo also has two different colors of fins, bright pink and green; he needs to exceed the upper-gay from Lesvos, Jurgen in one way or another. We drive to the mouth of the Umkomaas. That is nice; they can prepare the boat, load all the equipment, then pick up the divers and depart from an easy accessible spot. That is very nice. We put our vests on and then go ten minutes to our first dive spot.

Stop! Put your fins and masks on! Be ready! We just listen without knowing what is going on. The assistant instructor, who is just diving with us without a reason, says they have spotted a whale shark. A bit further we see a tail and dorsal fin above the surface and can see it’s a big fish of about 6 meters, not very big for a whale shark. They drop us into the water, just in front of the sharks nose and Timo sees him swimming right o him, can only just take a picture, but then more enjoys the sight of the animal itself. The fish swims next to us; we can hardly see him, because the water is green and full of particles. You need to swim fast to follow him and he has no trouble at all of the waves, but we do. This is a great moment; he turns a little bit and then comes back towards us, but then he has enough and swims away. As a normal mortal person you need to swim hard and have a good endurance to follow a whale shark for a while, but the experience is just magnificent. We’ve been waiting for this already a long time.

After about ten minutes everyone climbs back on the boat and then we stop again for a group of dolphins, also beautiful, but now don’t snorkel with them. Now we go straight to the dive spot and we prepare to get out a big zodiac; they call it a duck-something. We get our vests, put them on, put our masks on, then the fins and then we’re ready. We’re not really OK yet when we jump, so tae it easy. Timo has problems with the inflator that was not connected well anymore. We have checked it before we left and then everything was OK. We think it’s strange that then suddenly the connection is not good anymore. Timo is OK, but Eef is not feeling well; she has trouble to be calm and at ease. We surface again. In the meantime we’ve drifted a bit and the skipper with his stupid head wanted to drag us there. That does not work, of course not, we could have guessed that.

So we get back on the boat and wait a bit for the other two; they should ascend quickly now, but it takes about fifteen minute before they are there. That is good leadership and guidance under water, ironically of course. He did not even see we were staying up. We need to stay calm en then going to try again at Raggies Cave. It’s a small cave with on both sides grooves, entrances sort of speak and we stay right in front of it there and watch the raggies. This time everything works out fine, we get down rather easily, don’t feel comfortable because of the surge, but it going OK now. We both of us are being hit against the rocks, but the best thing is to just let you float with the surge and the current. We spot the raggies fast and there are about five or six animals inside the cave, magnificent animals. They don’t really mind the divers and they just pass us by. Eef gets out of the way and then one of them is swimming right at Timo, but no problem, he stays calm and leaves the animals be. Even though this one was a big one, of about 4 meters, that’s an unbelievable experience. We dive some more over the reef without corals, but with many rocks.

A lot of other things grow here, many anemones, they hang to the rock and a long piece that can be moved is wiggling in the surge; this looks different and is beautiful. The rocks are covered very beautifully in several places and three or four nudibranches live here. In the current it is not easy to keep in control over things and on some narrow passages there is quite some current. From time to time a raggie swims by and we also see some schools of snappers. A little boxfish and angelfish. The visibility is not really good, the water is a bit green and that depends on the direction of the wind apparently. It’s also cold: Eef feels chilly after 15 minutes; Timo feels the cold only the last couple of minutes. The temperature is only 18°.

After 40 minutes the divemaster Glenn is starting to ascend and we do our safety stop. Everything is OK after 3 minutes and then we go calmly to the surface. Hand in lead, camera, mask, BCD and then climb on board. On the boat we decide to not have a second dive, because it’s too cold. Timo can go diving with the divemaster alone, but he does not want that. The skipper says he saw a big manta ray, but he can’t relocate it, not even after a search of a few minutes. So we head home. We get out at the beach and then get into the pickup and they bring us back to the dive centre. Again we have to ask everything to them and they don’t ask anything about the dive. They are clearly not interested in their divers, but that was the general impression we have. They were not interested whether we were diving or not and whether we thought it was good or not, a general lack of service. We had a good dive and that’s the most important.

We walk back to our B&B, take a shower, drink a beer and then have another one at Sabastians. We also eat a small snack there: pasta with cream, bacon, paprika and onions (Timo), a toastie with tomato and cheese, fries and salad, all with a half liter Castle. We ask the way to Rocky Bay, because we want to visit the dive centre Blue Wilderness that we will be joining for a dive on Friday. We first want to have a chat with the guys. We find our way around very quickly; it’s about 20 minutes driving and we talk to the two guys there. One is giving a lot of information, shows some pictures of dives and animals. They even gave the fish a name. That’s cool! Wee feel a bit more comfortable now and drive back, park the car behind the fence at Agulhas House and then go to an Internet café. The only person who replied to the previous mail was Jurgen, so we write something back to him.

Then it’s almost five and time for a beer. We’re close to Sabastians, so we drink something there, about two each and then decide that we will stay here and have dinner too. We have line fish with a few shrimps (Timo) and a piece of fish hake with fresh calamari-steak (Eef). Timo has had it with the beer and has a Bacardi cola and in the end we get a bill of 350 ZAR, about 32 Euro. At 19:30 a guy comes here to sing and play the guitar, we stay then for one more drink and then head to bed. We’ve experienced a lot of thins today and are pretty tired. At eight thirty we already are in bed and sleep immediately.

 

Friday October 30, 2009: Shark Dive in Rocky Bay

We both have restless night and awake at a bit before five in the morning; that is a bit early because we only need to be in Rocky Bay at 07:30. We sleep a little longer and sometimes are awake and in the end it’s 06:30 when we start packing all our gear and are ready for breakfast. Just a light breakfast; a croissant, a bit of fruit and some coffee and a yogurt (dates are already two weeks expired). We put everything in the car and leave on time to Blue Wilderness, where we went also the day before yesterday. We already know the road very well and arrive on time. We arrive first after our divemaster James of course, but apparently there is someone else joining, a Swedish guy, Fred. They picked him up at Umkomaas and arrive a bit after us. This guy has a big camera and housing and sells pictures to magazines and websites. We need to get a lot better before we can do that.

We try our wetsuit and vests and within 30 minutes we’re ready to leave, but we take everything slowly and we drink another cup of coffee and have a biscuit. Then we go to the boat; all our gear is there already and we can go. We think that at least. It takes more than ten minutes before the skipper can break over the waves, because it’s low tide and he does not want to get stuck on a sandbank. Wave one is OK, wave two is OK, but then we see a wave coming to us and think: not OK. And indeed not OK, the wave comes to us and breaks completely in the boat. The wave even takes the anchor out of the boat. What should we do now, because we really need an anchor. We turn back and James enters the water and tries to retrieve the anchor from the current when he’s snorkeling. It is really stupid what he’s doing, because we see that he’s being hit against the rocks. Fifteen minutes later he comes back on board without the anchor, so we’ll have to improvise.

We have just left the surf and see a group of bottlenose dolphins pass y; they don’t seem to mind the surf or the waves. It’s difficult to take pictures, so we leave them and go to our first dives pot: Cathedral, the one we were not able to do last time. First they leave the washing drum with bait for the blacktips and the tiger sharks with an improvised anchor. They put some lead to a rope of 30 meters and then lower it down with a buoy and the drum with fish waste to a depth of about 6 meters. Then for the real first dive. Now everything is OK, no problem to descend and already at four meters depth we see a blacktip and then go to the bottom at 27. We see a big arch where the raggies swim in and out. We ensure negative buoyancy and lower ourselves to the rock on the bottom and watch the raggies. In total there are twelve raggies at Cathedral, a potato bass that we just miss and a school of small fish. Also seaweeds grow here and they are pretty how they move with the current, which is not really strong here. We can just lie still. There is nothing more to it and after 20 minutes James ends the dive. We’re close to our limit; another two minutes at 27 meters, so we ascend and stop the dive.

We knew upfront that the first dive would not be a long one, so no problem. Otherwise it would be too late when we were back at the dive center. We have our safety stop and go on board. The same blacktip says goodbye now and after half an hour our first dive of the day has ended. And we thought it was really nice: those raggies look frightening, but they leave the divers alone. Then we set sail to the ‘bait’. On our way there we see dolphins again: a group of about thirty animals. A bit further a turtle surfaces to breathe for a few minutes; that is also always a pretty sight. After ten minutes we arrive to where the buoy is and we prepare for our second dive of the day. We are out of the water for about forty minutes, so that’s perfect for the second dive.

They throw some sardines in the water and we immediately see about fifteen fins out of the water, swarming with sharks by now: blacktip reef sharks, and dusky sharks. In total there are about 30 sharks here. If they start to fight for the food we think: damn, what’s this going to be, but they ensure us that it’s all safe. Yeah right, is what Eef is thinking, I’m not jumping into this, not for the money of the whole world. We put our gear on and prepare for the dive. Then suddenly Timo is pale and blue and other colors and needs to hang over the edge of the boat. A bit seasick of the waves and the surge: in the end we’re already in this boat for over three hours or in the water. James and Frederick are already in the water and don’t wait for us. The skipper lets us in and then James also helps Eef until Timo is in the water. Everyone is ready to go. We conquer our fear of sharks and now we’re between a swarm of blacktips. We descend to 5 meters and only then we see how elegant these animals are: graceful and beautiful. We go down to the level of the drum and stay there, Eef with here right arm hooked in the left arm of Timo and that way we’re watching sharks.

They really come very close, sometimes to half a meter. From that close distance you look at them completely different. We try to have control over our buoyancy, but that’s not easy, because the sharks are close to us and a person is distracted by it. Sometimes a shark even collides with us or with our fins, but after a few times you’re not surprised anymore. Eef even starts to enjoy the sharks around her after a few minutes, but a bit later it’s too much for her, especially because the number of sharks increases and it’s confusing. Before she reaches panic mode she wants to get out and maybe that’s a wise decision. James snorkels with us and guides Eef to the boat and then watches over the safety of Timo and Frederick. All OK? Yes, perfect. Timo only needs a few words and then goes towards the dark adventure all by himself. It is very courageous that Eef went in, because she dreamt of it the last two days and never thought she would jump. She said of herself that she was stupid when she jumped in… But yet again we’ve pushed some limits.

At five meters Timo hangs next to the drum and Frederick is nearby and also James comes to check if all is OK. The guiding is very good and not like we earlier experienced with Blue Vision, that divemaster only asked once if everything was OK and James already did this at the first dive and now again a few times. Timo loves the sharks and the dive on itself and tries to stay at 5-6 meters and takes some picture of the sharks surrounding him. A marvelous feeling, between these fierce animals and in the end they don’t do anything. A few times a shark with a fishhook in the side of his mouth closes down on Timo and that is not nice. That shark’s mouth is really distorted by the hook and you can see the teeth constantly and the visibility is not really good. So after half an hour Timo has seen enough, but we’ve gained an unbelievable experience.

Back on the boat we wait until the other to come up and then we’re ready to sail home. Within half an hour we’re there and now it’s easy to beach the boat, because it’s high tide. The rocks from both sides are no longer visible and we get to land without a problem. Two winches are installed and that way the boat is brought to the beach. We take our cameras with us and already can have a shower. The hot water is very good, because we saw only a few blue spots between the grey clouds, but that’s better than non. The rain has started and comes and goes. After the shower we receive a certificate of the dive center and then we drive to Umkomaas. We first need something, because Timo’s stomach is empty. A hamburger and two Castle for only 66 ZAR. Then we return to Agulhas House and write our logbooks and the travel reports and watch the first pictures. There are a lot of bad pictures there caused by the bad visibility, but also a few amazing shots. At Cathedral the visibility was ten meters and during the shark dive only about five.

We rest, sit on our terrace and enjoy just the fact of still being on holiday. That will end as of next week, so let’s enjoy. Then Eef starts to pack like crazy. Timo rests on the bed, but does not sleep. We don’t want to get to bed too late, so we have an early dinner. At about six we are not really hungry yet, but we already have an aperitif and an hour later we order our dinner: chicken schnitzel and fettuccini.  Everything almost tastes the same and after over two weeks of hotel food and restaurant food a person is yearns for something normal. We drink Bacardi cola and Gin tonic and after we have eaten we head for our bed. We watch a while some bad TV: ‘Noot vir noot’, a typical Friday evening program, then Rocky V, but we don’t watch to the end and sleep at about nine thirty after a whole day of emotions.