31.12.2015
2015 done !!! Unbelievable but true.
We finished the year with some high end dives. Yesterday we had our first Tiger on the Baited Dive. 8 Bullsharks, 3 Black Tips and 4 Hammers. Our other boat which went on a normal reef dive on the Southern Pinnacle of Protea Banks had countless Hammerheads. Happy, happy.
Today we only managed to get one dive in but what a cracker dive it was !!!
Huge Bullsharks right from the drop . 12 all together, 5 large schools of Hammerheads, 2 Black Tips and 7 Guitarsharks. The vis is still around 15m, the water temp a lovely 24C and the current is whipping. In 70 minutes we did 7.5km !!
Magic. So we finished early, closed the shop by 14h00 and are enjoying a lovely bar around the pool. Poolwater has 29C. That is decent !
I don’t think we will get very old tonight. If we see the hands go past nine o’clock i will be happy.
2015 A rich and exciting year
I am not one for newsletters and boring summaries but 2015 was certainly a memorable year. We had good business, lots of excitement, drama, heartache and adventure.
After the show in Germany we had a picture book winter holiday with my parents in the mountains of Southern Germany. As we came home we had a full trip to Mozambique with a most amazing bunch of people. In fact, they are all coming for next year’s sardine run ( oh dear…)
Then Easter came with amazing Tigershark encounters. The Sardine Run could have been better, but Beulah and her crew managed to keep 60 guests happy and sent them home with unforgettable memories. Her experience and initiative combined with a great place in Coffee Bay and all the tools to do the job properly is a sure recipe for a successful Sardine Run.
When our program on the Wild Coast finished we started with the refurbishment of our Diver Villa. We added 2 new rooms with bathrooms and one extra bathroom. It was never easy but today we are happy having it done. Our Diver Villa now sports 6 bedrooms with 6 bathrooms. Absolutely lovely.
In September we decided to close the business and spent the month on an island in the Maldives. What a dream holiday this was. It could not have been better !!!
But shortly after we came back tragedy stroke when our beloved dog Marley got sick. We went on a roller coaster ride which lasted 2 weeks and ended with Marley buried in our garden….
Two months of extreme grief followed and even as i am writing this, i have a huge lump in my throat. i miss my little brother like nothing on earth.
Week later my friend Supp arrived from Germany with my rebreather. For a week he trained me in using this most amazing equipment. Often he moaned at me and often we was close to despair. In the end he taught me new discipline and full on concentration when dealing with a rebreather. If things are too busy i go on scuba, if things are relaxed i go in my rebreather. What a difference this makes !!!
Sup left me with a new puppy too. On their last day they heard a small animal screaming like hell in the bushes near our shop. It was one messed up , tiny little african dog which had barely a few more days to live. Sup and his friends took pity on her….and found her a home….MY HOME !!!!! So once again my life took a turn.
But i love this little thing.
Been banned by Beulah to sleep in the tv lounge with Thembi. So me and little Thembi can do her business in the garden without disturbing the three big girls. ( we have 2 other big dogs )
It’s a dog’s life !!!
So now is new year’s eve. i will start the braai just now while Beulah is pouring the Gin and Tonics.
I don’t think we will get very old tonight. If we make 9 pm i will be more than happy. These days we go to bed with the birds and rise with the birds.
And in barely two weeks time it is back to the BOOT expo in Germany. But more about next year’s plans next year.
Happy new year to everybody who thinks of us and everybody who has dived with us.
We really hope that all people who ever touched our lives will have a great and unforgettable 2016
We are here to make memories…..
24.12. 2015
Merry Christmas from all of us at African Dive Adventures . We hope, everybody will have a peaceful and happy day tomorrow. For us the big event is Christmas Eve. This is when Beulah is supposed to shower me with presents richly !!!!!
We are merely a few hours away from this and i hope very hard that this year will be no exception.
As we are in peak season we have been busy diving Protea Banks every day. The diving has been pretty good lately. Yesterday the second dive delivered 4 schools of hammerheads. This means several hundred animals.
Today i dived on the Southern Pinnacle of Protea Banks and had an amazing dive.
12m visibility, 24 C watertemp, but sharks from beginning to end.
1 tiger, 3 bulls, 50+ hammerheads, 8 guitarsharks and 1 black tip. Really nice. As we came up the expected strong South West wind was upon us. The sea was already white and when we got back to base , the harbour was closed. So no second dive and early finish on Christmas Eve.
Tomorrow we will spend the day with our dogs around the pool. Our little Thembi who we found screaming in the bush near our shop is doing very well. She has more than doubled in size and completely taken over the rule of the house. Starting with me, i have to sleep with her on the sofa in the TV lounge so we are near the gardn when she need to go out at night. Poor Smiley, pur Sardine Run dog is official baby sitter and Fergie our Irish princess keeps a very wise distance from the little trouble by growling horribly as soon as she comes near. Sometimes i wish i could growl like this before i get my feet bittien and bllod drawn….
We are surely having huge fun and joy with the little girl.
But not a day goes by without me missing my Marley…..
Merry Christmas again to everybody
17.12. 2015
After a snall break we are back on the water. Three days ago the boys went out on a Baited adive and had lovely 25m vis, 24C water and lots of sharks. 7 Bulls, 5 Black Tips and 2 schools of Hammerheads. Then a blown out day yesterday and today i went out with my rebreather again. The vis was barely 8m but most of us saw a great big tiger shark and two schools of hammerheads . The latter needed to be guessed a bit…
So we decided to give the current a bit of time to clean up and are looking forward to doing two dives tomorrow.
Besides this, the peak summer christmas season is in full sng here. The roads are congested, the beaches are full the mood is great amongst the visitors. The locals of course moan as they always do all the time…
It is actually quite nice to see this otherwise sleepy town abuzz with activity and people of all sizes and state of minds. Never a dull moment.
The small harbour at Shelly Beach is a hive of activity. For a change there are boats and more boats going in and out loaded with happy visitors.
It is truly nice to live in a holiday resort.
11.12. 2015
What a lovely evening we are having here. It is just after 20:00, dark by now and still hot . I just got out of the pool and have finished our braai for today. For the first time this week we are eating at home instead of out. Really, the culinary adventures we have made lately at our beloved South Coast are dangerous. The one restaurant ha snot heard yet that one is not allowed to smoke inside or outside. Most irritating when a stranger sits barely a meter away and puffs his life away when the wind carries the smoke right into my face. !!!
The second restaurant tried to poison us with their terrible food. I don’t get it. These people have a fully equipped restaurant and staff to do whatever they are told. How is it possible to produce such bad food ???? Sure , it is the owner’s responsibility, but what kind of staff is working there ? Retarded or simply no pride at all ??!!!
Third restaurant, perfect position on the beach, owners never there !!! Food actually ridiculous. How on earth do such businesses survive ? I dare and do my job mediocre and see what happens…..
Well, today we had a Braai around our pool and guess what ? It was so good, i could have invited people to it !!!
Diving was quiet the last couple of days. Our internationals have run away from the peak season madness and our local divers have not yet settled in. This gives us a couple of days to sort out pile up work and chill a bit.
We run around getting Christmas presents for the two of us. We are lucky, because we don’t have to worry about anybody else but ourselves, our staff and our dogs. Easy.
Beulah and i are really spoiling each other. We work hard and play hard. My brother Guentie could live a year off what we spend on presents !!!!
Yeaterdy we went out diving to Protea Banks.mthe first dive on the Southern Pinnacle of Protea Banks was not overly exciting. No current is always a problem…
The second dive was a Baited Dive with four zambezies. They were interested in getting to know the divers up close and personal which made the day a full on success.
My main mission was to take footahe and pics for our amazing new ENOS Safety System. We are presenting this system again at the BOOT Expo in January. For the big screen i need to make a film clip and a number of decent photos for the new brochure. I sure have the tools for the job but the know how ???? We will see.
6.12. 2015
We had a lot of divers this past week. The diving was up and down with visibilities of mostly around 15m. On the Northern Pinnacle of Protea Banks we still had the last three raggies who should have gone to Sodwana long ago. Other than those, we saw the odd bull shark and one or two black tips. On the Southern Pinnacle of Protea Banks things were not much better. Due to the lack of current, we had sharks on every dive but not many. The best option was the Baited Dive. We did quite a few of those this week and were always successful. Yesterday the conditions improved dramatically. Current was back and so were the sharks. Baited Dive had 5 bulls and 3 black tips and the reef dive afterwards had a tiger shark, 3 schools of hammerheads, zams and eagle rays. I am happy for Phil and his brother Ross who faithfully did every dive offered the entire week. People who do this deserve good dives and get them.
Today ( and yesterday ) we had much needed rain ( Brendan knows what this means !! ). Unfortunately the wind made it all very spooky and the crew together with all the dive guests decided to cancel today’s launches. A wise and safe decision for sure.
I had the weekend off. Love lazing around the house on a rainy day. I am of course heavily occupied with our new addition to the family, Thembi the African bush dog.
She brings so much fun and joy into our life. This poor animal was left rotting with vermin in the bush near our shop when Supp and his friends found her. She was literally busy being eaten alive by fleas, ticks, worms and lice.
Today, Thembi is getting better all the time while I am getting eaten and tortured by an ever stronger growing monster dog…. !!!
Despite all the fun and entertainment Thembi brings with, my beloved Marley remains unforgotten and sorely missed…..