May 20 2019
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Isimangiliso Game Park entrance fee and Rhino Card fees @ Sodwana Bay

By Sodwana Bay

Entrance Fees If you enter the park gate you will be charged a daily rate. There is a new day visitor car park just outside the gate – you can now park there and walk into the beach for free.​ The entrance fees were hugely reduced by the new park management on 1 Dec 2018. The current gates fees are as follows: Adults – R23 Child- R19 Vehicle (1-5 seater) – R32 Vehicle (6-12 seater) – R47 The park fee is waived with a RHINO card but you still have to pay the R5 levy per person. ​ Your basic Rhino Card costs you R250 per person (under 60 yrs of age) or R230 per person (over 60 yrs of age) for a year’s membership. There is no juvenile rate. Eg. In order to receive the benefits, two people will pay R 500 ie. you will be buying two memberships @R250 each = R500 and ONLY THOSE 2 PEOPLE enter for free. However, as long as ONE of the cardholders is present, any second person can enter with you for free because you have paid for two memberships. Rhino Club Your Rhino Card will have your ID and name on it, plus your partner’s ID, plus the number of memberships you have paid for eg. No. 1 will be printed onto the card where there is only 1 membership purchased; eg. No. 2 will be printed on the Couple card; eg. No. 4 on a Family Card where 4 memberships have been purchased, etc Park campsite – please confirm the current fees with the operator at the establishment where you will be staying

Apr 24 2019
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First day of Traveling to Sodwana Bay @ Sodwana Bay

By Sodwana Bay

So the if you are traveling from Pretoria/Joburg you know that your travels could be between 8-9 hours. This is the most boring time you will have in your whole vacation period. We always consider traveling day as our first holiday day. We usually like to leave quite early in the morning to avoid adding time to our journey by getting stuck in traffic between Pretoria and Witbank. Here are a few tips on how to prepare for your trip that will get you there sooner and make life so much easier: First of all – Try make sure everything non-perishable is packed and ready to go the day/night before. What I mean by this is, if you have ever been in Sodwana you know most places are self catering, meaning you have to bring your own food water and drinks to the camp site. So stuff that can defrost and go off you would rather pack in the morning instead of letting it thaw out through the night and still have to stay in hot car or trailer all the way down to Sodwana Bay. Quick Tip: What we always like to do planning our trips to Sodwana Bay is start saving frozen foods and vegetables before going down. We always like to start buying what we call “Sodwana food” months in advanced, when ever we see a special or a cheap piece of meat we will buy it chuck it in our freezer and forget about it. Once we start preparing to go to Sodwana Bay we go through our freezer and find we never have to buy extra meat when we go down and often times end up bringing more than half of the food back. Trust me you do not wanna buy anything in Sodwana. The town spar in Mbazwane is insanely busy all day long with nobody respecting each other and very little variety of meats to choose from and the little Town heading to the beach is way to expensive with very little to offer it is better just to prepare before hand. Also never try buy Alcohol there, they will charge you nearly double to triple the amount you would pay here in the city. Try pack all clothes and snacks (non-perishable) the day or even weekend before you travel (depending on when you plan to leave). We find trying to rest the day before you leave to be the best course of action, as it is a really long journey to go down. Make what we in South Africa call Padkos (road food). You really don’t wanna go on an 8-9 hour journey without having something to eat or drink. I guess you could just stop at a restaurant or gas station and getting something to eat there, but there are two (2) reasons I would not suggest that – (1) Its less spending money for when you are in Sodwana Bay. You wanna maximize your spending in Sodwana where your actual holiday is not use it on boring restaurants along the road. Why not save a few bucks by making some great home made food that is anyway in your very own kitchen. (2) The second reason is you can save alot of time, instead of spending an hour to 2 hours in a restaurant you could rather take a 5 minute toilet break every once in a while and eat whilst driving or just stop and take 10 min to eat rather than add hours to your journey. Take a lot of Drinking water with you! Sodwana Water is not the same as city water, most camp sites use borehole water and as a result can upset your stomach if you are not use to it. Rather just bring your own water from home, whether it be bottled or tap water and also make sure to bring enough to last your whole trip until you come back. Keep cold and frozen things together. I have found if keep cold (Fridge) stuff and frozen stuff in the same container it helps keep everything cold and for the most part frozen for longer. So the last thing to do before traveling is to get a good nights rest. Before any long journey you need to be well rested up, so I would suggest the night before your big trip try get an early night in. It is the big day! You are mostly packed early in the morning just got the last few things to pack before locking up your house and off on your exciting vacation. One last check through your to do list and were off on our exciting journey. GoSodwana!!!!!!!!!!!! Once you arrive in Sodwana, you will be exhausted, but still have to pack out everything from the car, first thing is get all the food in the fridge and freezer. That’s done! Next go dump all bedding, bags etc. in the chalet/tent/house. After that jump back in the car and go claim that beach/sea once more. Maybe you don’t need to go swim that very first day but just to see the sea once more and to breath that clean air is just so amazing. Makes me wanna go back there right now! Explore this Website a little more, start at Homepage and discover some of our cool finds in Sodwana and check out our Youtube Channel (Please Like and Subscribe while you at it)

Mar 15 2019
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Umthayi Marula Festival 2019 @ Sodwana Bay

By Sodwana Bay

iSimangaliso supports preservation of culture through nature conservationUmthayi Marula Festival 2019 During this festival, the entire community unites in preparing the special traditional marula beer and presents this to the King of the Tembe people, Inkosi Mabhudu Tembe, in song, dance and a feast for all at the royal palace in KwaNgwanase, northern KwaZulu-Natal. This commemoration was even more eminent this year after the prolonged drought experienced in the last four years throughout the region and the entire country. This was a huge reminder that conservation is for all, and this generation is no exception. Tradition requires that the nationally protected marula tree that is widespread throughout the province, the fruit of which is used to make the beer “ubuganu”, is conserved and made one of the preferred species to plant as we carry out our greening efforts as a nation. Inkosi Mabhudu Tembe and his regiment presenting a grand entrance into the Emfihlweni event site to the great anticipation of local community members, dignitaries from far and wide, distinguished guests as well as media. Skilled women, after brewing the beer, present their produce with happy song and dance to the King. Over 20 000 thousand people graced this year’s event. Distinct traditional outfits told a story of origin for many and showed that numbers came from eSwatini and Mozambique amongst other international guests. The steaming hot weather did not deter attendees as the mood of celebrations and festivity filled the entire stadium. Various artists performed to the delight of capacity crowds, featuring professional and celebrity artists such as Tira, Buselaphi, Zero Khumalo and others. Zero Khumalo is an iSimangaliso-groomed artist and a beneficiary of iSimangaliso’s Training & Capacity Building programmes that mentored and granted him his initial recording contract. Key speakers included His Worship Cllr. N. Mthethwa – Mayor Umhlabuyalingana Municipality; Cllr. T.S. Mkhombo – Mayor Umkhanyakude District Municipality; Inkosi Mahlungu – Chairperson of the National House of Traditional Leaders; Inkosi Mokoena – President of Contralesa; Mr. S. Zikalala – KZN MEC: Economic Development, Tourism & Environmental Affairs; Prince Russel Tembe and Inkosi Mabhudu Tembe, who all commended iSimangaliso on great work being done and looked forward to more benefits and developments in the region through iSimangaliso as a key tourism driver and an organisation mandated to deliver social development to communities adjacent to the Park.

Sep 12 2018
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Activities in Sodwana Bay – South Africa @ Sibaya – Sodwana Bay

By Sodwana Bay

We recently had the privilege of taking a trip down to Sodwana Bay (South Africa). Our journey started in Pretoria, and took us (roughly/about) 8 hours to reach our destination – Emoyeni Dive Lodge, although the trip was long and most of the way kinda boring we were still holding out with excitement to see the ocean once again and to have an exciting adventure in Sodwana Bay! Our first day, we settled in our “new Chalet” which we would be calling home for the next 10 days. Packed all our clothes away, got comfortable with our new layout of things and went for a quick drive down to the beach (+- 15 min from our location). It was really awesome to take in the ocean after such a long drive – worth every penny spent. Quick tip if you are planing on going to the beach in Sodwana Bay, get yourself a Rhino Card which will set you back R250 per person. Its a once a year subscription fee that gives you access to any of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park gates for a measly R5 p/p per day – Community fee. You will be paying a hell of a lot more per day without this card. Trust me we did that once! Heres the link to the website – sodwanabayinformation.co.za/rhino-card Sodwana Bay is a great place for snorkelling  in the rock pools, and Scuba diving on the many reefs in the protected marine area, some dive charters cater for those who cannot dive and offer offshore snorkelling expeditions as well. Although this time round we stuck to the rock pools we still had massive amounts of awesome fun. There is plenty more Activities  to do in Sodwana Bay but that is a topic for another time… We had an amazing experience with Snorkelling in the rock pools on the days that were not so windy and the seas were a bit calmer. We got amazing video footage of the mesmerizing underwater world, and even caught a small Manta Ray on video swimming around in the rock pools near the ”preek stoel”. Luckily we never stepped on it as we only noticed it on our video when we got back home. Here is another tip: Don’t be discouraged if you don’t see any fish on the surface above the water ‘cause most of the time they are keeping a safe distance from you, but are really close by, the moment you stick your head under the water you will get to realize how many fish truly are all around you. Also make sure to get yourself a pair of booties from your local dive shop. You will seriously need them walking in those rock pools. They are relentlessly sharp. Scuba diving is the most popular thing to do in Sodwana Bay. Although I do not have my Scuba Diving certificate yet, from what I have heard it is an amazing experience. Almost every Camp/Lodge I have heard of and seen all cater for scuba divers. Whilst we were in Sodwana Bay  we took a day trip out to Mkuze Game Reserve, which is also part of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park. (You can also use youre Rhino Card to gain access there). It is situated about 30 min drive from Sodwana Bay driving to Hluhluwe. Although we never saw the Big Five, we were able to see a few hippos in the hideout area and lots of bucks. We will at least try again next time we go. Remember there is picnic areas around the Pan, so take a “tjoppie” with to Braai. The park also caters for board and Lodge where you can stay over night in a Chalet or in a tent. There is a gift shop + take away area as well. So come join the Community of Sodwana Bay, Zulu land and experience all the great stuff this great land has to offer! A special Thanks to Emoyeni Dive Lodge for accommodating us during our amazing Holiday!