March
29.3. 2014
This is diving with tiger sharks. Blue water, warm 26C and tigers around us all the time. This dive started with 4 tigers. The first disappeared after a short while, the second tiger swam away after about 7 mins, the third stayed 25 mins and the last one stayed over 80 minutes wirth the divers.
Beautiful.
27.3. 2014
Finally after three days of blow out we are back on Protea Banks. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday !!! Unbelievable. We could not get through the surf and we are not scared of the water….
So today we managed to dive all day. Still slight reverse current, vis around 15m but we saw a tiger quickly and 3 bulls plus 2 black tips on the baited dive. The bulls came right up to the baitball and were in a playful mood. Amazing dives.
Weather will be good again from tomorrow as well. All set for a great weekend
25.3. 2014 Last Call for Bali
We want to do a trip to Bali at the end of August, beginning of September. My friend Roger Winter of Roger Tours will organise the trip and me and Beulah will be there to enjoy it. Roger is the best organiser i have ever known, while i am the best enjoyer i know. So together we make the perfect team !!!
The price is ridiculous and what you get is enormous.
Give me a shout soon now if anyone is keen so we can discuss details.
Don’t miss out on this amazing tripo to dive with mola-molas and mantas as well as see Bali with the eyes of a local…..
23.3. 2014
Right, so this day started pretty hopeless. We had North Easterly winds pounding our coast for two days now. Our launch was terrible. Our visibility was expected pretty gloomy. We did not even know if we were able to launch at all today. My dive briefing was more doom and gloom, expecting the worst.
We put the boats into the water and held our breath through really difficult surf. But we made it safely. Only a few hundred meters behind the surf zone the water turned blue. Real blue !!! This was so unexpected . I did not believe it possible until we arrived at Protea banks. Expecting the water to go green at any stage on the way. But we were lucky ….and good things were set to come to us.
We started our baiting process and before long we saw a tiger on the bait ball. Immediately we started the kit up process and dropped onto the water. …..
25m vis, 26 C watertemp, reverse current..these were our sea conditions.
In the water we saw FOUR tiger sharks, three bull sharks and three black tip sharks.
FOUR tigers…this is almost unheard of. Absolutely unbelievable !!!
A day we expected the least from turned into the best diving day of the year 2014 so far !!!!! Four tigers in the beginning, three for about 10 minutes, two for 25 minutes and the last one stayed for the entire dive entertaining all divers who were lucky to be in the right place at the right time…..
Almost forgot to mention 3 bulls and 3 black tips……
22.3. 2014
Although i tried hard to do a report on an almost daily basis, time just runs through my fingers . I have so much to do that i rather don’t touch anything in order not to bugger everything up !!!
Honestly, we are busy like hell this month. It seems like half Germany is here. We are having much fun , laughter and excellent diving. Until recently we had a 2 week super run with visibilities of 25m – 35m every single day. The amount of sharks and big animal species was unsurpassed. Everyone could open his own wish list and tick it off.
Tigers are showing daily although still on the shy side. So far the best tiger dive was with one tiger for 23 minutes. Then she was gone and replaced by bulls and black tips.
Great Hammerheads are also regular visitors to Protea Banks. We had Giant Guitar Sharks, Manta, Marlin, Eagle Rays, Barracudas, Groupers….amazing.
Then the last few days the current stopped and conditions are deteriorating slowly. Wind is blowing hard from the NE direction which is not the good one but it keeps the sun shining with a coastal High Pressure System.
We are loosing a couple of dives to the strong wind which is not typical for this time of the year. But if we take the quality of the dives over the past 2-3 weeks into account, it is clear that there met be a price to pay……
News at African Dive Adventures
At the beginning of March Kyle Robertson hast started working for us as DM and `skipper. He is a lovely young man, full of enthusiasm and fits 100%b into our team. He still needs to learn a couple of tricks but this is what we are busy teaching him.
Gregg and i will have a bit of relief now that Kyle is here. Diving twice a day for weeks on end takes its toll on us old folks !!!! J.
We have also been training Karen Bauchop for the last three months in the position of top-lady. This means she must watch the boat while we are under water and make sure she knows at all times where every single diver is. This requires skills which Karen has mastered very well. Unfortunately she has recently broken her foot and will be out of action for the next couple of weeks. ..Poor Karen is devastated.
On a sad note, those who knew Patrick who was helping all round in our business for many years will be sad to hear that he passed away….i went to his funeral this morning at his home town.
8.3. 2014
Protea Banks is absolute tops again. This whole week we dived Protea Banks Northern Pinnacle, Protea Banks Southern Pinnacle, Protea Banks Playground and our famous Baited Tiger Dives. Our visibility never dropped below 25m and even reached up to 35m. Water was a glorious 27C and our current just over a knot and a half. Stunning conditions and we saw almost everything there is. Tigers on every Baited Dive, Bulls all over the place, Black Tips don’t even need to be mentioned. But we also saw Guitarsharks, Manta ( yes !! ) Marlin ( yesyes !! ) schooling Barracudas and even the elusive Great Hammerhead.
We had two boats going out on all days this week and a lot of divers who really got what they bargained for when they came to us at Shelly Beach. Every single diver is over the moon about diving on Protea Banks. This is how we like it and how we know it…..
4.3. 2014
Yesterday we were left high and dry due to a strong SW wind. 20 divers had to be sent home and ‘millions’ were lost to me once again…. J.
But the good thing was that the strong SW wind will bring excellent diving conditions to Protea Banks. The weather today was a disaster. Rain and more rain. At some stage it rained so badly that we could hardly see where we were driving the boat. But as the Protea Banks rule goes : bad weather good diving
And this is was for sure today !!! We had 40+ hammerheads, 20+ dolphins, 4 zambezis, 2 black tips, 6 guitar sharks, large school of barracudas and more.
All this in deep blue water with 35m visibility. Temperature was 26C and the current slowed slightly to a 1knot drift.
The sea was real rough and some stomachs keeled over, but the diving was memorable. So much that we went out a second time….
2.3. 2014
First dive back on Protea Banks was amazing. The first shark we saw today was a tiger shark. Followed by 4 bull sharks and 6 black tips. Visibility 20m, current 2kn and water temp 25C
No complaints from my side !!!
1.3. 2014
We are back from one hell of a great holiday. kapalai was absolutely amazing. We relaxed, ate well played well, dived well and felt good being in the middle of nowhere. It was a mission to get there and back from the bottom end of the world, but nothing is impossible. And once you are on the road a lot of fun happens in the most unexpected ways. Like a painful waiting time at an airport can suddenly turn into a party at 5am. Stuff like that.
On our way back we got an upgrade from Emirates to Business Class , Dubai to Durban. I can only say, this is the way to travel !!! For those of us who have never experienced the comfort and pleasure of Business Class – it sure is an unforgettable experience. We appreciated it so much, we even applauded the over one hour delay at Dubai as it gave us an extra hour in Business.
We had free access to the Business Class Lounge where the privileged can go for a shower, a meal and a drink in style. Of course i was the odd one out in my floral shorts and bright blue polo….
Once home we drove straight into a thunderstorm of piled up work. Thank god we were properly recharged so we can handle it.
What amazing wonders a proper holiday can work…..