Feb 18 2020
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Shove It! – East African Shovel snout snake @ Sibaya – Sodwana Bay

By Sodwana Bay

Full Name: East-Africa Shovel-snout (Prosymna stuhlmanni) Classification: HARMLESS A smallish snake averaging around 22 cm and inhabits lowland forest and moist savanna where it may be found under rocks or logs or in leaf litter. Whilst getting ready for bed, we found a little worm like creature slithering around in the corner by our bedroom door post. We have grown a custom to Shongololos (giant African millipede), our Jack Russel pup loves it when they crawl into a ball, she will always push them with her nose until they curl up and wait till they open up again and do it all over again, unless the next  bug comes a long, especially her puppy bugs (Fork-nosed Dung Beetle). Luckily she is already ready for bed when we start packing up to go to bed… Tom was busy taking things to the room when  he noticed our slithery friend tryna climb up the wall or just get into the crack of the wall to hide, since it is such a tiny snake. At first I thought it was a baby, but research suggests this is not such a baby, as they don’t grow very long. We have a WhatsApp group for family and friends, where we inform them of all the weird and wonderful things we encounter. I think we scared everybody half to death with this little guy, not because its a snake but because of what snake we thought it could: A stiletto snake (Dangerous). Luckily for us it was a sweet harmless East-African Shovel-snout. They are fairly small snakes and mostly eat reptile eggs. Well of course what it can fit in its mouth. The one we found seemed quite curious about us and would rather try get away than pretend its dangerous. We were able to go visit Sodwana Bays local snake guide and he informed us that there was no panic needed and that it was a harmless shovel snout. But it is still wise to be careful of any unknown  snake… Although this awesome wildness can get a little scary sometimes it is so cool that we can experience Africa for its true beauty and no more the fake big city life. A few nights later we found another little one on its way to our house. We not sure if its the same one, cause we took the first one quite far from the house. This one was super friendly, went straight into the container we used to take it away from the house and just kept on looking at us like it completely trusted us. We don’t necessarily  worry to much about harmless snakes near our house but the problem comes in the dogs don’t like anything foreign near us, so for the snakes safety we move them where the dogs can’t get to them? More about this cutie pie – Eastern-African Shovel-Snout Snake: Most Eastern-African Shovel-Snout Snake only grow up to 22 cm. Their main habitats are moist Savannah and lowland forests. Makes sense there is water atleast on 2 sides of us less than 5 km away. The Eastern-African Shovel-Snout Snake does not coil up like their cousins when threatened. Easiest way to identify this specific species of Shovel Snout is their cute yellow snout. Right on the tip their snout they have a yellow spot, some of them also have white spots on their backs. They feed on small reptile eggs, of course any egg that can fit in their mouth they will consume, oddly enough they love hard shelled gecko eggs. Its kinda strange to me since the are so tiny! Theses snakes are also super shy and really don’t like being center of attention…Sounds like me!!! Source of all factual info: africansnakebiteinstitute.com  

Feb 18 2020
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Mr Frog, what on earth are you thinking – The African common toad or guttural toad @ Sibaya – Sodwana Bay

By Sodwana Bay

The African common toad or guttural toad (Sclerophrys gutturalis) is a species of toad in the family Bufonidae.[2] It is found in Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Réunion, Somalia, South Africa, Ethiopia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forest, subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest, subtropical or tropical moist montane forest, dry savanna, moist savanna, temperate shrubland, subtropical or tropical dry shrubland, subtropical or tropical moist shrubland, subtropical or tropical dry lowland grassland, subtropical or tropical seasonally wet or flooded lowland grassland, subtropical or tropical high-altitude grassland, intermittent rivers, freshwater lakes, intermittent freshwater lakes, freshwater marshes, intermittent freshwater marshes, arable land, pastureland, rural gardens, urban areas, heavily degraded former forest, ponds, and canals and ditches. Of course since coming here, I have this weird fascination of toads and frogs. I guess I get that from my mom, she use to love frogs and always tried to protect them. But my fascination is not that they cute or kinda almost alien looking but why do they always smile, I know our grey foam-nest froggie hates it when its overcast. He always has a sad face when it rains or the sun doesn’t shine, but this frog constantly smiles and he is only active at night, maybe he’s feels like the luckiest frog alive, his species is thriving, I guess there must be a lot of bugs around, but I wonder if he has ever considered the snakes that might be lurking around looking for such a yummy meal like him? I guess we will never know… This big guy we often see when we take the dogs for their last walk before we go to bed, its kind of a nightly ritual for us. Sometimes the dogs will even come remind us to take them for their walk around the garden. Lately every night while on our walk Mr frog is seemingly sitting and waiting for us to pass by, all the dogs and even the cat greet him on the walk and when we come back say goodnight. We love all our Sibaya creatures, it reminds you of how wild South Africa truly still is… A few fun facts about this amphibian: They are a large specie of frog, males can grow up to 90 mm and females up to 120 mm. Like most frog species the female is larger than the male They are super adaptable to change in their environment, so habitat is never an issue for them, although they do prefer savanna and moist areas. The upper surface is buffish brown with variable irregular dark brown markings. There are two pairs of brown spots between the eyes making a cross-like mark, and there is often a pale stripe down the spine. The arms are edged by distinctive white tubercles and there is a red patch on the back of the thighs. The underparts are pale and granular and the male has a dark throat. The parotid glands are prominent and the toes are only slightly webbed. The guttural toad is very common. It is spreading through southern Africa as its population increases. It can live in a variety of environments, and is very adaptable. It has no major predators and does not suffer much from habitat loss. Source of all factual info: Guttural toad

Feb 07 2020
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Join our Patreon Group @ Sibaya – Sodwana Bay

By Sodwana Bay

 Have you heard about our exciting new Patreon Page. Become a Patron? So the story goes like this, we have been visiting Sodwana a couple times a year for the last 2 years. We fell in love with the ocean, the gorgeous live stock that can roam free and the secluded, isolated, rural, rusticness and quietness of the whole place. In these last 2 years of wanting to move to the coast we have been watching a lot of traveler Vloggers and small townies that just make normal videos about their everyday lives down by the beach. This really inspired us to start saving and preparing to make that leap of faith. Most of our friends and family know how hard we have worked on our websites and in Pretoria to get where we are today, and we thank everybody who has helped us so far on our journey. We were blessed enough to be able to watch these travel vloggers, especially been able to spend the hours of data to watch each and every video and that’s how we were able to stumble upon Patreon. I haven’t done much research into it myself yet. But I know enough that we can add special and exclusive content on our account and people that are on there are willing to help sponsor and grow the people they subscribe to. So I am asking that you guys subscribe to our Patreon group, to find exclusive galleries, articles and videos that we will not be posting on Sodwana Bay Information. We will also be adding some exclusive products that will be up for grabs. Subscribe on Youtube? Become a Patron? Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, follow our blogs and maybe even subscribe to our Patreon group to watch our journey grow into a super awesome and Exciting Adventure…

Feb 07 2020
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Go CNC @ Sodwana Bay – Sibaya

By Sodwana Bay

Whoohoo – We finally got our CNC Machine up and running. It only took us a month to build up enough courage and energy to set it up… But now it is up and we are going full steam ahead!!! Don’t get me wrong we haven’t been sitting on our butts the whole time doing nothing, everyday we let the dogs take us on long walks through our proverbial “Backyard”(Basically the wide open spaces of Sibaya). But then we started to think a little different about our chores in the afternoons. Instead of just going on walks we could also start picking up sticks and pieces of wood to contribute to our CNC Projects! We have always dreamed of using local woods of Sodwana if we ever came to live here… and now we can. So our first project is to make small round discs (Medallions) – either as coasters or just something to hang up on your wall. So far we just doing practice rounds figuring out how best to “Beachify” our trinkets. We have found this amazing beautiful wood. Its hard, durable and best of all- NO SPLINTERS! Our Very first souvenir in Sibaya!

Feb 05 2020
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Mysterious friends… – Grey Foam-nest Tree Frog @ Sibaya – Sodwana Bay

By Sodwana Bay

I don’t know about you, but I have always thought about frogs and toads as been real mysterious creatures. I bet our little friends that live in our kitchen have loads of funny stories to tell, especially having the best vantage point of being able to see and hear everything that goes on in our house. It’s as if they are little spies, acting so peaceful and chilled in their little hiding spots taking in every story they can, to tell to their friends. One of the species of frog we have living in our kitchen is the Grey Foam-nest Tree Frog. Our first friend  we discovered the day we moved into our new home when we were testing all the lights out. He was sitting on one of the light switches, smiling away as if he was the happiest frog alive. Although there were gloomy days as well, he especially hates overcast, dark gloomy days. He use to always stair out the window, most probably observing his dinner for the night. But than one day… He disappeared, well I can’t blame him for moving cause he was starting to get a little thin. A few days later we found him in a little cup, smiling again. But that didn’t seem to be so comfortable either, so eventually he went to sit by our kitchen sink. Well that was a bit stressful for him and I. Cause I was worried I would by accident squish him or he would jump on me (I think he had the same concerns). So I moved him to the back of the sink. But than he realised  that there was a pretty girl Grey Foam-nest Tree Frog living in a spoon just above him, so he started climbing the wall and went to sit with her and keep her company. His smile is now bigger than ever!!!! On a later time in the middle of winter we found another Grey Foam nest Frog sitting in a tree in front of our house… Clearly it was getting cold judging by its color! Some fun facts about Grey Foam-nest Tree Frog: Grey Foam-nest Tree Frog seem to like living with humans, I think humans attract alot of bugs for these cuties to eat. They have really freaky suckers on their feet, obviously being a tree frog they need can climb trees, but never thought they would be able to climb walls. Now this is pretty interesting, Grey Foam-nest Tree Frog change skin color according to their environmental temperature. That’s pretty cool if you ask me. Their skin color varies between white and brown. So if you wanna know what the temperature for the day is just ask mr/mrs Grey Foam-nest Tree Frog. They grow up to 90mm(9cm) in size. Thats really small, so just be careful not to hurt the poor little thing if he/she comes to visit. Grey Foam-nest Tree Frogs are actually quite intelligent when it comes to easy food… Instead of staying close to waterbeds and aquatic areas they much rather come attach themselves to a human family (not literally). But they do prefer living in peoples homes cause we attract all their favorite foods through our wastage. For more fun facts like these check out – Sodwana Bay Wiki Sources: Wikipedia

Jan 30 2020
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The shy one was sighted – Thread-Fin Butterfly @ Sodwana Bay

By Sodwana Bay

Everybody who has ever snorkeled or dived and tried to take a video or pic of a butterfly fish knows how hard that can be. Its rare enough to actually find a butterfly fish, especially in rocky reef areas, where they usually live. We have only spotted the raccoon butterfly fish a hand full of times and even more rarely been able to capture it on camera. But this time instead of finding the more common raccoon butterfly fish, we spotted a new kind of Butterfly – The Thread-fin Butterfly fish. They might be a bit more of a common variety but this is the first one we have ever seen in Sodwana Bay’s Waters. They usually swim in pairs and like any other butterfly are very elusive and wary of everything. Research suggests that they usually swim in pairs and are monogamous (Stick to one partner), although they will choose a new partner in crime if one should die. Sounds like most humans… This one unfortunately did not have a partner, which would suggest it is either still to young or hasn’t chosen a life partner yet. Thread-fin’s can grow up to 23 cm(9in) long and lives in water depths of 1 – 35m (3-115ft) deep. Fun fact they also darken their colors and night. No-one knows why.