Jul 30 2021
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HTML IS THE NEW YOU?

By Sodwana Bay

Website hosting and building with an extra personal touch… HTMLUP is web designing and hosting company that exclusively works with Html websites, but we also know our way around WordPress as well! So what is an Html website? FAST LOADING… Let your website speak for itself – No more delays or slow loading pages. Gear up with your new HTML website! FITS TO SIZE… Your new HTML website will size itself to fit the device its served on – no extra coding or plugins. Ready for any mobile. GO BOOTSTRAP All our Websites are built on the famous Bootstrap platform which makes your new HTML website BETTER – loads FASTER and makes it more reliable…

May 07 2021
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Super Tired!

By Cherie Beling

Super Tired! I am 29 weeks 5 days pregnant! Yes, I know its Friday and everybody gets tired of the long week and can’t wait for the weekend to start! But honestly since been pregnant I have struggled to get back on the horse when blogging – more accurately since the car crash happened and it started sinking in all the privileges that were stolen from us! So, most days I spend tryna find myself and figure out what is needed to be done during the day! Dishes, washing, washing the dogs, helping build the house where I can – although I am pretty much useless in that department its fun watching Tom (baby daddy) get excited and bounce ideas off of me. Since it has always been his dream to build his own house! “And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” 2 Corinthians 4:8  So, why do I feel so tired all the time? I worked harder in Pretoria and felt less tired. Well I guess carrying around extra weight all day long doesn’t help, constantly focusing on not toppling over all the time like a drunk takes a lot of focused energy since my mind still hasn’t adjusted its center of gravity and literally getting annoyed with any sound my mind deems unnatural, such as if the dogs chew or itch or just generally breath to loudly can drive me insane these days! The dogs breathing, chewing and scratching at night keeps me awake besides getting up at 11, 2 and 7 in the morning (if I am lucky those are the only times I wake up. It sometimes is more). Surprisingly, it’s not the baby’s movements which keep me up at night, more like I need to pee 10 times in a row and am an unlucky sleeper that takes sometimes hours to get back to sleep – literally between 2 and 4 hours mostly! My week was ok. Tom can’t believe that it’s Friday, he woke up this morning thinking it was Wednesday! Me on the other hand am just so grateful it is Friday! I told him this morning he gave all the extra time to me. I guess the slow week is due to the anticipation of next week’s Antenatal care (ANC) Checkup. I can’t wait. Although, I really wish these appointments would come with scans. But I guess as long as the health care workers don’t think there’s anything wrong we should be good. This coming week we will be 10 weeks and counting till babykins arrives! Read Previous blog – Excitement, Worry and Fear?  

Mar 04 2021
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African Red Knob Sea star found in Sodwana Bay

By Cherie Beling

We found a Patrick- Sponge Bob’s best friend! Wow our very first star fish/ Sea star ever found! We found this gorgeous African Red Knob Sea star in Sodwana Bay’s Rock pools while snorkeling! We were on our way to go snorkel in a nearby tidal pool when Tom suddenly saw a bright red star with a grey body clinging to one of the rocks in a shallow pool. At first I thought it might be a toy until it started moving slowly, Tom wanted to touch it, but I cautioned him not to touch it just in case it might be poisonous (Not venomous!)? He then decided to try pick it up with the GoPro and took it out the water to take better pics. It was really huge. Never expected a star fish could get that big – we estimate this starfish was about 20 – 25cm diameter. They can grow up to 30cm in diameter. These Starfish are apparently a prize to keep in an aquarium and are actually nocturnal… Hmmm wonder what this one was doing up so late in broad daylight? Like all sea creatures I would prefer admiring these gorgeous creatures in the sea and having the joy and excitement of been able to find such a creature in the sea rather than captivity seeing them miserable in someone’s house! I always get super excited finding new sea creatures I never imagined could exist and can’t help myself finding out all the amazing fun facts about our new found species… So here are a few fun facts about these beautiful creatures!   Fun facts: These starfish like the warm ocean as they are only found in the indo-pacific ocean! The African Red Knob Sea star is also commonly known as the red knob sea star, red spine star or the African sea star (Scientific name – Protoreaster linckii). Now anybody who has held a starfish dead or alive or just seen a starfish would consider this creature to be more like part of some sortof coral, but in actual fact is classified as an animal not plant! These starfish can grow up to 30 cm in diameter. That as long as a standard ruler which in my opinion is rather large for something I always imagined being small! Its body is grey and the red lines and knobs are actually tubercles making its appearance look like it has a really messy circuit board on its back! These stars can be found in shallow tidal pools and love to hang out with coral up to 100m deep – one of their main food sources lives on coral! These poor starfish are great pets for aquariums, but are very incompatible with most reef tanks as they eat soft corals, sponges, tube worms, clams, other starfish, and the like! So why not just leave it in the sea where it can be controlled by nature! Like most starfish they have 5 arms, their bellies are red and they have pink podia’s(feet) with a central mouth like all starfish do! I never knew a creature could do this – The red knobbed starfish has no teeth to consume its prey, instead it will push out its stomach from the inside out and consume its prey afterwards it will retract its stomach back into its mouth and carry on digesting its food! I mean is this thing something from an alien horror movie or something. That sounds really gross and out of this world!!! “Once the starfish has a clam in its arms, it pries the mollusks shell open and release its stomach into the shell. The stomach has very strong digestive juices that kills and liquefies the animal inside the shell. Once the mollusk is dead, the stomach sucks up the animal, brings in its stomach, and leaves the empty shell on the ocean floor.” – Quote from: Branson’s Wild World Starfish do not have brains and use filtered sea water as blood. These creatures become more insane the more you read about them References: Wikipedia, Branson’s Wild World, Pets on Mom

Jan 21 2021
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Let a Local Advertise your Business

By Cherie Beling

  Lets get Sodwana Businesses supporting other local businesses. Check out our advertising PLANS  Lets be honest – SafariNow, trivago, tripadvisor and all these corporate travel agencies are great and convenient for customers and how you arrange bookings! But honestly unless you have returning clients and people who actually know about Sodwana Bay or have heard of Sodwana and would like to give it a try, you get lost in the system and have to compete with way more popular holiday destinations such as: Cape Town or Durban or even Mozambique and Richards Bay. Honestly this is truly not fair! Our team here at Sodwana Bay Information wants to help change all that. How do we propose to do this, you may ask? Well by putting Sodwana Bay on the map, by not just tryna recruit old clients in to coming back and a hand full of new tourists that happen to stumble upon this gorgeous rural gem, but we want to recruit new clients who have never been here from all over South Africa and Internationally! Not just the Germans and Hollanders, but what about Americans and the British, Asians  etc. Bring them to sunny South Africa. Yeah everybody is scared of crime. But its up to us as a community to chase the rif raf away! How we propose to put Sodwana Bay and your local Business on the map is by taking Sodwana to Social Media… Yeah our community has its Sodwana Bay Facebook groups and that is great!  But sadly this is not enough! I have been on countless SA groups and international groups, and I am sad to say – there are no mention of Sodwana Bay anywhere. Although I am totally in love with Sodwana Bay I only learnt this place existed after I turned 19 years old. How sad is that and how many countless people die not even knowing this hidden gem exists! Lets make Sodwana as popular as Cape Town, so famous that international tourists will rather wanna experience true Africa instead of just another Big City/Town! We can help with that. Check out our price list below and help make Sodwana and your business Famous again!

Jan 18 2021
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They cling to deceit – Jeremiah 8:4-8

By Sodwana Bay

4 “Say to them, ‘This is what the Lord says: “‘When people fall down, do they not get up?     When someone turns away, do they not return? 5 Why then have these people turned away?     Why does Jerusalem always turn away? They cling to deceit;     they refuse to return. 6 I have listened attentively,     but they do not say what is right. None of them repent of their wickedness,     saying, “What have I done?” Each pursues their own course     like a horse charging into battle. 7 Even the stork in the sky     knows her appointed seasons, and the dove, the swift and the thrush     observe the time of their migration. But my people do not know     the requirements of the Lord. 8 “‘How can you say, “We are wise,     for we have the law of the Lord,” when actually the lying pen of the scribes     has handled it falsely?

Jan 06 2021
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Seek yourself second – Matthew 6:33

By Sodwana Bay

Day 1 Seek yourself second… Matthew 6:33 – Amplified Bible “33 But first and most importantly seek (aim at, strive after) His kingdom and His righteousness [His way of doing and being right—the attitude and character of God], and all these things will be given to you also.” It’s now more than ever, amidst the uncertainty of tomorrow that we need to put aside the fickle things of this world and honestly and sincerely seek the Father’s heart. This which is happening around us today is nothing new – the bible is full of stories where Gods people are “tested” by circumstances that are totally out of their control.  These challenges aren’t sent by God – they are part of life – if you are alive you will face difficulties; you can bet on that. If you walked a strong solid walk with God, these “tests” will not be difficult for you – it will be a walk in the park, but like most of us – we aren’t always at the spiritual place/level we should be. Our Father is forgiving and understanding but He can’t do anything – you are the one which needs to come closer to Him. He is always near… So, when we are faced with these challenges – our first response is to act out and moan how awful things are because we do not understand and are not in sync with the Holy Spirit. Instead of submitting our path and knowledge to God we go into a full on childish tantrum mode and miss the whole point of the exercise. When things get rough in our lives, I constantly have to remind myself: You chose this path: Read the full chapter for context >Isaiah 43 The moment I made Jesus my Lord and Savior; I started walking away from the masses into Gods glory and his Kingdom. I chose a personal relationship with my maker. This will be hard as I am now busy on my journey of RENEWAL.  The renewal process is one of discovery and honesty and takes courage to be real and admit flaws and faults. I will be tested with water – rivers – fire and storms so that I can be purified! I will get through this… these things SHALL pass. Isaiah 43:2 “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you. When you walk through fire, you will not be scorched, Nor will the flame burn you. God is always ready to help: The moment you commit or choose to sin – there is ramifications – Good & Bad! God will forgive you but cannot just rip you out of the place/circumstances you are in right now. You will have to endure the storm – GO through it! But there is a Bonus – even though you might not feel his presence Jesus is right there next to you.  It might be time to slow down and surrender “thy self”… our “ego” closes our ears to His voice – to his calling. You might feel God is stripping all the most important bits from you but He is actually removing all the burdens from your life; the clutter, the half truths and filth of sin. If you will only allow Him – you will see the awesome results! Yes, the covid-19 is a real threat but it is time to understand our part to play in the “foreplay” of the coming of the one true KING – JESUS CHRIST. Realize this today – Our Messiah is coming back! I can’t say how long or when precisely, but JESUS is coming. The covid-19 and all the things which will follow have been predicted – so God gave you a heads-up so that you will not be full of fear… or in the dark for all that is coming. Prayer: Lord, I am a sinner and need you now more than ever. I submit/exchange my will – plans – hopes – dreams for your purposeful dreams and plans. Help me to see through your eyes – to see others as you see them. May my hands – feet – voice be all yours. I am yours, make with me as you please… Amen! Put your lives secondly so our Fathers Kingdom will come – Maranatha!!!   [wp-review]