Experience the great reefs in Sodwana Bay. We have had first hand experience in snorkeling on the rocky reefs of Sodwana Bay. Although on first glimpse of swimming around in rock pools it will seem as if there are absolutely no fish in the water. This is not true, although the water is a beautiful deep dark blue on the surface on a calm weathered day you will find that the water is quite clear underneath the surface, with plenty of fish, some fish are more common than others , but rest assured when swimming under the water you will think you are been transported to another world. If you are lucky you might catch a few eels hiding in rock crevices or coral, or even small manta rays, 0r like us we were lucky enough to find a rare spotting of a Marbled Electric Ray (Check out the Video below:) This was by far my favorite siting of all the times we have been to Sodwana Bay. But beware of getting to close to it, they can pack a nasty electrical punch if feeling threatened. Although we didn’t know this the moment we saw it. Well apparently it didn’t feel too threatened by us, cause it didn’t try attacking us. If you have any exotic or rare videos you would like to share send us an email with a link and description and your video could be uploaded on our Website. Click the link below to send an email to our Sodwana Bay Team and keep an eye out for your video: info@sodwanabayinformation.co.za
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)
Great news guys. Our video editing team is working on new Sodwana Bay Video’s… Links will be uploaded real soon as we publish. So stay tuned for our next exciting video… Youtube Channel Channel address: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXH0Nm5epc8gZj9WfI8qGIg Sodwana Bay -Sibaya ~ 2019 Mashup GOPRO HERO > https://youtu.be/fm3euK8prog Sodwana Bay January 2019 > https://youtu.be/fI3ycfIG4OM Green Snake – 19th December 2019 > https://youtu.be/5-z28Q0t-34 Marbled Electric Ray > https://youtu.be/czs5uaTJ6RE
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.
Hey guys & gales – our new domain https://gosodwanabay.co.za is live!!! We so happy – we will be using Go Sodwana Bay as a Digital Magazine (blog) for all things Sodwana Bay. It wont be the same as our Information Gateway where we promote local businesses and services.