28.2. 2015
Diving on Protea Banks has been amazing. Obviously seeing the Great White was impressive and never stopped being the main topic. Especially the fact that my camera packed up !!! Rub, rub.
On the following days we had amazing sightings of bull sharks. The one with the damaged pectoral fin was particularly curious. A constant NE’ly wind has changed the warm and pleasant ocean into antarctic conditions. From one day to the next we had gone from 26C to barely 18C. This was quite a shock to the system…
It has improved in the meantime and the divers saw Marlin two days in a row. This in 25m visibility…happy days.
Mozambique Trip 2015
In the meantime all preparations for Mozambique are running on full steam. I had to go to Durban this week to get my visa and do a bit of shopping for the trip. Didn’t really need too much but in the end Beulah’s Beetle was full and my credid card blown.
Today is the day. We will meet pur guests at the airport in Durban around 17:00
We will take them straight to one of the lovely airport restaurants and let them taste good food and wine !!! Hopefully they will all be in the mood for it.
During this we give them a detailed briefing for the road trip to Barra Lodge.
Each vehicle will get a radio so we can be in contact all the time. As we are travelling on a sunday, we hope the traffic is relatively calm especially around Maputo.
First stop tomorrow will be Blue Anchor Inn, 50km north of Maputo.
It is definitely not an easy trip but no doubt an interesting one.
After all, Scott and Amundsen also didn’t go on holiday to the South Pole …..
22.2. 2015
Today we had a Great dive. Nobody was keen to go this morning at 7h00. Cloudy skies, angry seas, it looked terrible. And who needs this on a sunday when the sharks are scarce anyway ?? So we did meet at the new shop and needed a lot of effort to persuade everybody, especially the Colonel to go and brave the seas.
When we got out there we could see that the water was clean and warm.
We jumped into heaven. 26C water temp and 30m vis. Amazing.
As we got comfortable i suddenly saw a huge hark approaching. At first i thought it is one of those large Zams. But before long i realised this was the big one. Yes, a 5m Great White !!! It came slowly towards us and stopped about 10m short of us. Every battlescar was clearly visible. He looked curiously at us outlandish looking beings and took his time doing so. Afterwards another slow turn around the dive group and off he went. Of course my camera didn’t work. Battery problem…. on the one day in my diving life where i really could have got the most amazon footage. Damn.
Alain did film with his GoPro but he saw the shark much later and missed the perfect opportunity.
This was the fourth Great White i have seen on Protea Banks in 18 years. What an experience !!!
Afterwards we saw 2 Great Hammerheads.
so what a Great day we had !!!!!
16.2. 2015
Blown out today. Since we ar back from Germany we struggled with the heat and humidity here. Our fan in the bedroom was so damn noisy, we dreamt of helicopters all the time. So on saturday i went on a mission and bought and installed a new fan in the bedroom. Since then it is freezing cold here.
Yes, true. Saturday afternoon we had some rain and the temperatures plumeted. Today the sun is out in a cloudless sky but it is freezing cold. In fact, I can’t sit outside the shop without a jacket. …
Yesterday’s diving on Protea Bank was great. We had 20m vis and saw 6 Zams, 10 Hammers and a school of Barracudas.
On our Baited Dive afterwards we got 3 Zams and 3 Black Tips. Sea was pretty rough.
12.2. 2015
We were supposed to be off for the first week so we could catch all our ducks again. But here comes Andreas from Austria who drove all night in order to be here in time for diving. Unfortunately we were all too late and did not know, but the following day, Tuesday i had to honour the effort he made and we all went diving.
Baited Dive.
Lovely water, 26C , 25m visibility and screaming current. We had 6 Zambezis, 2 Black Tips and 1 Hammerhead. After 55 minutes only me and Andreas were left in the water. I thought i will give him another ten mins and then call it a day. As i turn around i almost swallowed my dv. This huge, but huge Tiger Shark was barely. Meter away from me. I cannot describe the excitement raging through body and mind. This magnificent animal stayed over 30 mins with us and gave us the show of the year so far.
Gentle and ever so slow it swam around us and towards us , coming closer and closer. Not a bad stripe on this beauty, she was nothing but completely curious.
I forgot my camera in the shop and can have a heart attack just thinking about that !!!!!!
Yesterday we did a normal reef dive on Protea Banks. Visibility was still good with 25m on top and 18m on the bottom. The clean water was lovely warm at 26C while the deeper water only had 21C.
We saw 6 Zambezies, 25 Hammerheads, 2 Great Hammerheads, 2 Black Tips and a school of Barracuda. Amazing dive.
9.2. 2015
We had a two day stop over in Dubai and got a good deal at the Sheraton Hotel. What a place to stay !!! It is a brand new hotel in the main street in Dubai. We walked miles into downtown and awed at each and every faerytale building we only ever know from pictures and TV. Unbelievable.
The only problem was that we really wanted to sit and chill with a beer and a cocktail. But Dubai……no such thing. Wish someone would open a pub !!!
Then we flew back to Durban. We are silver status flyers at the moment which means Emirates allows us each a further 12kg luggage over and above the standard 30kg. Magic. Now we can pack like mules and not worry about overweight. Way to travel.
When we got to Durban airport we headed straight fpr the Steakhouse. Oh yes !!!
We couldn’t wait to eat proper quality meat , drink beer and pay a decent price.
This South Africa is truly paradise and most people don’t even know it…….
2.2. 2015
We are in Oberstdorf in the very south of Germany right on the foot of the Alps. It is snowing like crazy here. Last night alone we had over 25cm of new snow. All day it falls and falls and covers the lovely land into a mystical blanket of white innocence. ( i am going to stop diving and start poetry… )
There is nothing better than sitting in a warm lounge and watching the snow come down. It was my dream for this time here and i was full on lucky.
Father and i go ski in the afternoons. All day is too much for us oldies… But we are doing well. Father is 84 and skies better than most people on the slopes. True story !!! Today we give the mountain a break before we hammer it again for the last time tomorrow.