Beach slamming

29/07/10

As well as enjoying a few days of doing nothing at the Ku-Boboyi Lodge, we have also managed to get off our butts and do a few more interesting things. We went diving twice and took a horse ride through a nature reserve where we rode past zebras and wildebeest. As for the diving, I was pretty unsure as to whether I'd actually go through with it. It is so far from my comfort zone, and I'm a wuss. The ocean is 10 degrees colder than I'm used to, the currents are ripping, and the seas are usually rough. All in all it's far more challenging diving than I'm used to. It was only the lifting of the head cold and relative calm of the ocean for a day or so that made me try. The first place we went to was Protea Banks. This is a sight that many locals won't dive due the dangerous currents. We were lucky and had very little. The shallowest part of the site is 34 metres. You go down, stay about 15 minutes, then take about 30 minutes coming up slowly and hanging around in the blue. The water was shockingly cold and when I rolled in I hyperventilated so much I couldn't get under the water. I was left bobbing around on the surface alone for a few minutes trying to catch my breath. It took me about 10 minutes once underwater to calm down enough to look around. We had about 10 ragged tooth sharks swimming around us and were then joined by 4 Zambezi bull sharks. These supposedly aggressive sharks were actually quite shy. It was the raggys and their spikey teeth bursting out of their mouths swimming head on at us before swerving away at the last minutes, that caused us a little more worry.

It was a short dive and after 20 minutes of hanging around in the blue and rising up and down in the swell, I was more than ready to get back on the boat. It took all my concentration not to throw up all the speedy but rough ride in. We were given life vests just before we reached the surf break, the owner of the dive shop then took over driving the boat and told us to hold on as he wasn't going to stop until he hit the beach. I didn't take him to mean this literally, and was convinced right up until the last minute that he would ease off the gas slightly, instead he slammed us full throttle into the sand. It was the most violent stopping of a boat I've ever felt or witnessed.

Our next dive was at Aliwel Shoal, one of the best dive sites in the world. I'd already decided I was going to skip this one as I'd been making myself queezy just at the thought of the boat ride. On the day we woke up and it was as flat as it gets in South Africa so I had no excuse. Sadly it was just as cold. You know it's cold when you get a collective curse when everyone surfaces from the back roll entry. The dive still didn't provide the wow factor we've been waiting for, but it did have more inquisitive raggy tooth sharks, and 2-3 black tip reef shark circling us while we ascended. We finished the dive trip with what I've come to assume is the standard South African way to stop the boat, by slamming full pelt into the beach.