Aliwal North

My last few days in South Africa have been spent just south of Durban, in the town of Umkomaas, which is close to the famous Aliwal Shoals. Located about 30 miles south of Durban, Umkomaas is a small town that seems to be there primarily for the diving industry and I stayed at the Dive Centre Aliwal who had on-site accommodation. This suited me well as diving in KwaZulu Natal usually begins early and ends with lunch by then, the sea began to be a bit too rough.

Diving is normally from ribs (Rigid Inflatable Boats) so that the groups are small and a bit of fun to do and dive sites. I planned three days of diving (2 dives per day) and arrived around 6:30 p.m. last night, where I met one of the Divemaster and a couple of other young people who have been housed in the center. After I put my luggage in my room, we went into the dining area and crashed as it was a start early in the morning.

Aliwal Shoal has a reputation as one of the best dive sites in the world and is a hot spot for sharks so after spending the previous week viewing terrestrial predators, it was the turn of their counterparts in the navy. The presentation was simple and we were soon off to the first dive site. Marine life viewing began dramatically even before reaching the dive site with 3 humpback whales appear near so we took the time to head toward them and took some pictures. Soon they disappeared from sight, leaving us with a view "whale tale" of classical etc. we headed to the dive site.

Diving on Aliwal Shoal has always tended to associate a stream and is still affected by the outbreak so all in all, this is not ideal for taking photos. However, its something I always try to do and the region is particularly known for rag-tooth and tiger sharks. My last dive was in August last year when I started taking pictures of marine life fairly commonplace just to get the correct camera settings. At the end of the second dive, I managed 6 photos that I was happy with such a small scorpion fish that I almost put his hand on a paper fish that I had never seen before and a turtle .

The next day the sea was quite difficult with waves of nearly 3m, not ideal for me as I suffer a bit in small boats. Given the state of the surface, I was somewhat surprised to see under water, it was better than yesterday. I managed to get pictures of a shrimp Manta, a couple of Ramore (the fish long thing that normally attach themselves to sharks), a video of a Rag-tooth shark and a turtle eating coral soft. Overall, this was not a bad collection of images, but back on the surface, I was much less comfortable and I was very happy when we got back on dry land. A breakfast and a cup of tea soon sorted myself available for an afternoon of laziness.

My third and last dive day saw the best conditions so far. The sea was very flat and the visibility under the surface has been significantly improved. Just before entering, we found a number of dolphins that surprisingly disappear when the cameras were ready. Regardless, we had 50 minutes underwater before us and we went. As the last 2 days, there was a surge and current, but there were also a variety of marine life and I managed to get pictures of potato cod, clownfish, sea serpent (the rear half ), scorpion fish, moray eel and an Octopus hidden part.

Not bad and we were soon back on board to return to earth. However, June / July in KZN sees the annual Sardine Run, and there had been reports of a large bench at about 100km south of us. On the way back we say that a certain activity to the south and headed over to investigate. We found a small shoal of sardines being attacked by a number of sharks. We also noted that fishermen have been increasingly appearing on the coast. The arrival of the sardines is a great event every winter and they are mercilessly attacked by predators of the earth (humans), sea (dolp.