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)

Apr 09 2019
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Sodwana Bay Tourist guide lines @ Sodwana Bay

By Sodwana Bay

So we were fortunate enough to go back to Sodwana Bay for our third trip and every time we go, we find something new and fun to do down there. As we explore we realize that we are missing in our tourism/travel kit. For instance – the first time we went down to Sodwana Bay we tried using our Tablets and Cellphones to take pictures of all the cool things we discovered in Sodwana and that you need a back pack that you don’t mind messing up and getting full of see sand when you pick up shells! Solution to this problem – get yourself a waterproof camera if you can afford it. Its hard to carry Tablets and cellphones on the beach as you are always fearful of them getting wet. We saw a girl using a clear bag for her phone and it seemed to be water proof (I would suggest researching that before submerging your expensive phone in the water). Second pointer – Often times you wanna pick up shells on the beach. Its a fun activity to do and also pass the time, especially when your little ones are curios and excited about everything. So what should you do with all these shells and odd objects that they pick you up? Well you could just put them in your pockets (if you have some) or carry as many as you can till you have no more space, but that can be annoying if you still wanna go swim or do more activities on the beach that day. Best solution that we found was getting the cheapest bag you possibly can find that drains water easily but doesn’t necessarily drop all your treasures out again. This way if you still wanna go for a swim after shell hunting you can do so or just go dump everything in the car. Next pointer is Shoes –  Shoes are really important when you wanna go to the rock pools, plus the sand can sometimes really get hot and burn your feet, but I wouldn’t suggest going with normal flip flops – 2 Reasons for that: One is I have lost 2 pairs of my flip flops due to they tend to break a lot by your toes, because of the force of the water when you walk and also they like to float away from you. Solution for this – get sturdy hardish shoes or closed airing shoes. I found a great pair of running shoes that look very similar to booties (water shoes) that are covered in small holes right down to the sole of the shoes as well. They are light weight, a breeze to walk with in the water and dry fairly quickly.  Never try buy clothes and shoes at Sodwana Beach shop –  Unless you don’t have a low budget and don’t mind spending R300 – R1000 on shoes I would not suggest buying clothing or shoes in Sodwana Bay unless for a memorabilia. Unfortunately as beautiful as Sodwana Bay is, it is still a tourist town, meaning almost everything that you find there will be expensive. If looking for a souvenir and don’t wanna spend all your money buying one item I would suggest go to small trinquete  shops and buying small items. Snorkeling and Diving – So most people will go to Sodwana Bay to Scuba Dive, but what about the times where you are not scheduled to dive or you are not a qualified diver.  I know that some people will never be able to dive for various reasons, some have or had lung diseases or their lungs are not strong enough or even some people just simply get panic attacks when going to deep under water. What can these people do while in Sodwana Bay? Well here is a great solution: Snorkeling! Snorkeling is a great way to explore the rock pools, discover some new fish and just have fun! We only took our Snorkeling gear with the second time we went down to Sodwana, but were very disheartened at first as we couldn’t see the fish on the surface, but we decided to take a leap of faith and go for a swim any way, once we had our snorkeling gear on and submerged our faces in the water we discovered a whole new world with fish and everything right under our noses. It was incredible the fish were right by us and we couldn’t even see them through the surface. Every time since then, we make sure to have our camera on hand ready to shoot for any exotic creatures we might find (in a later article we will reveal our most exciting find so far). One caution I must advise you guys on is that its not a great idea to go Snorkeling in High Tide, (you can check out the tides by googling Sodwana Bay Tides there are lots of accurate weather apps there.) When in High tide you can easily be swept onto the rocks which could cut you or even be pulled in by the current and pummeled by the sea. (We were caught like that).  Well that’s all for now. Hope this info can help a few people out.   

Apr 09 2019
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Raccoon Butterfly fish @ Sodwana Bay

By Sodwana Bay

Among the most common fish that we found snorkeling in the Rock pools this time round was the little Raccoon Butterfly fish. Although they apparently can grow up to 20 cm long, the ones we found were only about 5 – 10 cm long (that’s just a guess) there were also tiny little baby ones swimming around with other baby fish as well, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were even less than a centimeter long. It was quiet a cool find as we have only ever seen these fish on TV, but never in real life. The first one we saw I tried to chase as far as possible and was able to get quiet close to. But the strange thing was with all the fish they seemed to come closer to us and not feel so threatened when we switched our cameras off and just swam with them. But the moment we pointed our cameras at them they were scared of us and tried to swim away from us as quickly as they possibly could. Maybe they thought they camera was a predatory fish or even a spear gun. So tip if you want the fish to come closer to you don’t video or take photos of them. Just relax and ‘swim with the fishes’ as the mafia always say. 😉 Here are a few fun facts and common questions about these fish: Common Names for this specific Butterfly Fish and the Fish family it belongs to: The raccoon butterflyfish (Chaetodon lunula), also known as the crescent-masked butterflyfish, lunule butterflyfish, halfmoon butterflyfish, moon butterflyfish, raccoon butterfly, raccoon, raccoon coralfish, and redstriped butterflyfish, is a species of butterfly fish (family Chaetodontidae). Its Photo: To the left is a photo I took from the Internet and to the right is a photo that I took from the video we recorded. What it looks like? Chaetodon lunula can reach a length of 20 cm (nearly 8 in). These large butterfly fishes have an oval outline, with a pattern of ascending oblique reddish stripes on the flanks and black and white bands over the face and eyes, similar to the “raccoon” mask (hence the common name). They show a black spot on the caudal peduncle and oblique yellow stripes behind the head. They have 10-14 dorsal spines and 3 anal spines. What type of habitat do they prefer? This species prefers seaward reefs and shallow reef flats of lagoon, at a depth of over 30 m. So there are a few facts about this cute little fishy that seemingly looks lost in that big wide ocean. Information Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raccoon_butterflyfish Photo Source: Our own photography, https://www.azgardens.com/product/raccoon-butterflyfish/

Mar 07 2019
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Sodwana Bay – News and Events @ Sibaya – Sodwana Bay

By Sodwana Bay

Join our community and get up to date news and events for Sodwana Bay. We aspire to getting you the latest news and information as soon as we possibly can! Follow us on our personal journeys in Sodwana Bay and also get the latest news and event information.  Join our channel and while you at it like our videos and please subscribe!

Nov 14 2018
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Scuba Diving @ Sodwana Bay

By Sodwana Bay

Scuba Diving Terms and Phrases: A Advanced Open Water: Follow up certification after Open-Water Diver; allows for deeper Air: A gas mixture containing 21percent oxygen, 78 percent nitrogen, and 1 percent other gasses (mainly argon); compressed air is held in a tank for scuba diving. Apnea: Breath-holding; apnea diving is a type of freediving, but in scuba diving you should never hold your breath. Ascent: Rising to the surface when diving; typically at the end of a dive. Ascent Rate: How quickly a diver returns to the surface. You should never ascend faster than your bubbles as a safety precaution. Scuba Diving Terms and Phrases: B Backroll: Entering the water from the side of the boat, back first. BC/BCD: Buoyancy Compensator. This is the harness divers wear that hold the air tank and connects to the regulator. Bends/Bent: The pain a diver feels when suffering from Decompression Sickness (DCS). See DCS definition below. The bends often occur from ascending too quickly. Boat Dive: Scuba diving that requires a boat ride to the dive site. Bootie: Scuba gear divers wear with open-heel fins. Booties can range from thin (1 mm or less) to thick (7 mm) neoprene and protect your feet from the cold as well as sharp rocks and other hazardous things you could step on when shore diving. Bottom Time: The length of your dive. Buddy: The person you dive with; this is the person you discuss a dive plan with and you are both responsible for keeping each other safe. Buoyancy: (Positive, Negative, Neutral) Buoyancy refers to your position in the water. Things that sink are negatively buoyant; things that float are positively buoyant; scuba divers should be neutrally buoyant (floating in the middle). Scuba Diving Terms and Phrases: C C-Card: Proof of scuba certification that you receive after completing your training course. This is necessary to go diving without an instructor for open water divers and is proof of any secondary/specialty scuba training and certifications you have. Call: To “call a dive” means that you are choosing or being told to end the dive and return to the surface. Cave: A hollow place in the ground, typically of natural formation. Cave Diving: Entering a water-filled cave system either on scuba or freediving. Cave diving can extend thousands of feet into a cave system for people who are properly trained. Cavern: A semi-enclosed area (often a rock formation) where you can still see the entrance and Certified Diver: Someone who has completed scuba diving lessons through a training organization and is able to dive without an instructor. Certification Agency: An organization like PADI, NAUI or SSI that trains people to scuba dive. There are over 100 agencies that do this, but not all certifications are valid worldwide. Check-Out Dive: These are the dives completed outside of a pool (can be in a lake, ocean, spring, quarry, etc.) to prove that you’ve mastered a set of scuba skills and are necessary to complete scuba certification. Confined Water Dive: Dives conducted in a pool or other shallow, current-free underwater environment so that students can master training and skills in a safe, controlled environment before completing open-water check-out dives. Scuba Diving Terms and Phrases: D DAN: Divers Alert Network DCS/Decompression Sickness: When bubbles of gas (often nitrogen) get trapped inside of the body. There are varying levels of severity, and can be caused by swimming to the surface too quickly. Depth Gauge: A piece of scuba equipment that monitors how deep you are during your dive. Most dive computers serve as a replacement for depth gauges. Dedicated Dive Resort: Accommodations that focus on scuba diving experiences. They often have a dive shop onsite, and include diving in the booking fees. Dive Computer: A piece of scuba gear that monitors depth, bottom time and a ton of other information about each dive you complete. All dive computers are different, but they are an alternative to planning dives with dive tables. Dive Instructor: This person has gone through many trainings and certifications (open-water, advanced-open water, rescue diver, divemaster and more) so that they can teach others how to scuba dive. Dive Light: A flashlight designed for use underwater. Dive Operator: A store, boat or lcoation that will take you to go diving and often can certify you as well. Dive Table: Tool that helps determine how long you can safely stay underwater at different depths. Developed by the military to keep divers safe from decompression sickness Divemaster: A professional-level scuba diver who has logged at least 60 dives and who is trained to assist instructors on dive boats and during certification courses. DPV: Diver Propulsion Vehicle. A handheld and operated scooter or motor device that allows divers to move faster underwater. Drift Dive: Diving in a current, often from a boat. Once the dive is complete, the boat picks you up at the surface. Dry Bag: A bag to keep any items dry that aren’t waterproof. Drysuit: A type of exposure suit that keeps you dry while diving; used in cold-water dive conditions. Scuba Diving Terms and Phrases: E EAN: Enriched Air Nitrox. This is a form of mixed-gas scuba diving. Entry: Getting into the water either from shore, boat, etc. Equalize/Equalization: Putting air into an open area to compensate for the change in pressure. (Most commonly ear equalization for scuba divers.) Exposure Suit: A garment worn to keep divers warm and help protect them from cuts, scrapes and other elements. Scuba Diving Terms and Phrases: F Fins: The scuba gear that you wear on your feet to help you swim faster/with less effort. First Stage: Part of a scuba regulator; this attaches to the air tank. Freediving: Diving deep or staying underwater for extended periods of time without an air tank. Frog Kick: A technique for kicking your fins underwater. The bottoms of your feet move at each other like you’re sitting Indian style to propel you forward. This is a helpful technique to avoid kicking up sand. FSW: Feet of Sea Water Full-Foot Fin: A fin that covers your entire foot and most often doesn’t require you to wear a bootie. Scuba Diving Terms and Phrases: G, H, I, J, K, L Giant Stride: A method of getting in the water where you take a large step off…

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!