Advertisement
Published: November 15th 2012
This is my last entry for Africa in 2012...I spent a total of just over 2 months on the continent this year, and more is obvioulsy to come in 2013. I just spent the last two weeks working in Congo. Well, you can add to this great friends, few rounds of golf, and even some pretty astonashing industrial tourism...and few parties...
But this entry is about one of my favorite place in the world. I realized that I'm actually the only TB member to have blog about Shelly Beach, this being my fourth blog about this little quiet place. Put it simply, if you don't play golf or dive, this is really a place you would simply drive by, or consider rather boring. But for a golfer and a diver, this is simply paradise!
I landed in Durban on Sunday evening, ready for a packed 60 hours of fun. Picked-up a rental car and drive straight to my favorite little B&B at Tropical Beach in Shelly Beach. Well, I made it to Shelly Beach by 9pm, at that time, all the restaurants were closed, even the KFC, and the local petrol station had run out
of pies...for proper food, I would have to wait Monday morning! This is not a place for late nighters....
So why do I come so often here? Let put it straight, the diving, over the last few years I only come back to Koh Lipe, the Gilis next to Lombok...and here! Well, the diving is out of this world....and the people too!
Thi is clearly a place I could retire and enjoy busy days. Imagine, one or two dives in the morning...up every morning at 6am, and than, once done, you can still play 18 holes of golf before heading for some seafood or a steak for dinner...yes, busy day, but a dream day!
Not to scare any of you....if at least you read this that far. I arrived on Sunday night....from Congo....but on the same day, Roland, one of the two diving operators here....went missing.....with a total of 9 divers....for 4 hours. Yes, 9 divers....18km drift before they found them. And note this, it's not his first, he had the same issue last year in November. Whatever the reason....
So we are speaking of shark infested waters....I
love to dive with sharks, I'm not that sure I want to "snorkel" for 4 hours above them! Last may, I dive here and on one day, the sea was pretty rough...4 meters swells, or waves, whatever you call them. We did a 45 minutes dive, and drifted for....a full 4.5km....yes, it's massive. My buddy and I, that's on a total of four divers, spotted a zambezi shark, aka bull shark...we turn around, took our pics, and by the time that was done, the two others had disappeared. No worries, none of us was in his below 200 dives...we surfaced, found the boat, found the bubbles...and went back straight to 30 meters done. Easy done, when you know what you are doing....
So if you ask me...is it easy to get lost here...the answer is simple, oh yes, if you are not careful!
Than you need to know what you've got below. Sadly for me, I won't see a great white shark while diving here tomorrow....but they have around one sighting every year here....I mean diving, and obviously no cage. But let's get down to reality....November is prime season for hundreds of hammerheads....scalloped and
giants, plus guitar sharks, oceanic black tips, fresher sharks, spinner sharks....and even few zambezis....
So what happened to Roland group.....well, I dive with him 4 yers ago, and put it simply....why do all these stories have to happen only to him, and not to Kym from Aquaplanet with who I dive for the last three years. Imagine, they drifted for 4 hours, 18km....they had to send 2 helicopters, one from Durban, plus a full flotilla of charter boats to try to find them...that's a massive cost!
Next questions...what would I do if it ever happen to me. Put it simply, you go up from your dive, the boat is not anywhere to be seen, this is the South Indian Ocean...really south as next stop is Antartica....how would I react. I had to ask myself the question, and the answer was pretty simple!
My only concern is leaving my children behind. I would make it short, but say what I have to say about their future to my fellow divers...and than I would have to admit the simple truth...life has been so amazing so far that if it was to stop today,
let it be....that was a ride....the all thing would take five minutes, enough to get back to the reality...and to be ready to be spotted. Because for you guys stressed about the all situation....how dangerous is it really....well...maybe as dangerous as riding 200km on a highway....at proper speed...and without any drink. I won't say it won't happen, but hey....the risk is close to null...
With the means available, you know they'll find you...sooner or later. The water is at 22 degrees, the air aound the same....with a 5mm wetsuit,you can stay in the water for at least 24 hours safely...well....you'll be pretty solid dehydrated, but beside this, not really an issue....till you try to think...wait a minute....sharks don't do divers, they do swimmers....and by the time your dive is over, it's four hours minimum of "snorkeling"! Does it get you thinking?
Do not forget a simple point. People who dive here do it for the sharks...and they love it....which would translate simply as...we are all already a little insane to love those things. So when things turn wrong, you have a bunch of qualified people who know exactly what they are doing....you just hope
today is not their unlucky day....
So that was it for my arrival day. Next day, Monday, sun was out, but the waves too. I guess with all the press around the lost divers, the port authority, witnessing the waves were more than happy to cancel any launch...we were not going to dive.
So in Shelly Beach, there is always a plan B...and today...it was golf...
I drove first 40km south to the other side of the border of KZN, to the Wild Coast Sun Country Club. I had heard of the place. Slight problem, when you do two dives per day, there are not enough daylight hours to drive south here and play 18 holes of golf...so this was the opportunity to finally play a golf course that received so many good comments. And I can say today, Wild Coast....with Selbourne and Zimbali...is an amazing course. Wow, that was something!
Next, made my way to play my second round of the day at Port Shepstone...nice, nothing amazing...To finish the day, dinner of seafood at C-Bali....and a lovely south african wine on my terrace by the swimming pool....
So finally, second day is diving...with only two days here, would have prefered to dive two days, but one was better than nothing. So those pics are just of two dives. The visibility on the first dive was just at 15 meters, clearing a little more on the second dive. We were only two customers, the second guy, Alex, Russian....had already dove Fakarava and Rangiora...and better...he did skydive above the South Pole....love those kind of mad people!
The sea was pretty calm, we still drifted 3.5km on our first dive. Spotted a whale on our way out. First dive, it was hammerhead time. We must have encountered 4 to 5 shoals of hammerheads, each time groups of minimum 50 to 100 sharks! Our second dive was more focused on few tens of oceanic black tips and spinner sharks, and those are way more curious than the hammerheads. Hammerheads are shy, and that's not great to have great pics with 15 meters visibility...sniff....So to try to have a better view...once you see a hammerhead...you swim straight at him as fast as you can...who is chasing who???
In between the two dives, dolphins came to
play with us. I was fast in the water...snorkeling above more hammerheads...and playing with the dolphins...magic, yes it was!
It was time after that to take the road back direction Durban. Original plan was to play golf at Scottburg. But once there, the rain was pouring...and the golf didn't look that impressive....at least not impressive enough to get wet again that day. I made it to my hotel, ready to head early morning to the airport....and back to home in Buenos Aires.
Next entry about Shelly Beach, 60 more hours early March 2013....should be tiger sharks season...big guys too...than exactly same date next year, hoping to stay in Shelly Beach for 5-6 days, diving Protea Bank and Aliwal Shoal a little north from here.
Next dive...coming in less than a week...in warm water, but it will be way less impressive than Protea Bank...and less impressive than what should be coming in 10 days...the pool is open! and the best...Leslie and Tiffany are ready for their summer holidays....starting in just over 2 weeks...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.061s; Tpl: 0.018s; cc: 12; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0343s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Jo Trouble
Jo McCarthy
Love this shot!