And beach… within a week – the hecticness continues!

So after a hectic couple of days in KNP, I literally had a couple of hours to get ready for Sodwana. Shopping for 4 people for 4 days = 20mins! Inbetween lunch at JCC Woodmead, drinks at JCC Auckland Park & cooking a dinner for my Mom. But I was ready to leave (a little late thanks to a nice cut on my toe) by 6:45am. By 8, we were still not on the highway… It was a hint of things to come! It took over 10hrs to get to Sods, about 500km away!
After avoiding potholes (aka Craters-that-trucks-disappeared-into), we arrived in Ermelo, bursting for the loo! Happily relieved at MacDonalds, we noticed a Game opposite and so began a shopping-for-forgotten-things experience (we got a watch, sheet & picnic set). Back in the car, we remembered we had forgotten to draw money. Roll on Piet Retief. Except that a) every 2nd person in the bustling metropolis of PR uses STD bank (as do Julie & I), b) there was only 1 working ATM, c) it was pay day and d) it starting pouring with rain after waiting in the queue and not moving for 20mins! We decided to try elsewhere and headed off to Pongola. 3 hrs and 100km later (thanks to road works and storms), 3 VERY grumpy people arrived in Pongola. We were slightly happier when there was no queue at the ATM which worked, and singing again after Wimpy lunch! Food Glorious Food! And it was off to Hluhluwe – and another shopping-for-forgotten-things experience (this time for “Pretty Girl/Lady” etc.) hair stuffs (try diving with hair in your face – not fun!). And finally, we got to Sods!
After a quick unpack, it was off to the Smoothie Bar for some cocktails – YUM! Anyone in the area – it’s worth the stop :) A quick dinner and it was off to bed – needed to be on the beach at 6am for a 7am launch
First dive was to 7 mile – YAY – a long boat ride, which turned out to be even longer than expected due to a malfunctioning motor and Meg attempting to steer ;) However, it was worth it – although not as much life as shallower on 2 mile, very different and very pretty with many different corals that hid hawkfish. After about 35mins at 25m, I was out of air, so left Candice (buddy) and Leandra and I headed up and got caught in the bubble stream – amazing! On the surface we waited… and waited… and waited! Eventually everyone was up and we got on the boat. I immediately fed the fish (sea sickness…). Change of boats into one with 2 functioning motors) and Leandra joined the fish-feeding club!
Back on the beach, we were joined by a beautifully scratched Liesl – who had gone snorkeling and ended up on the rocks – OW! But we were soon off on another dive to Stringers. LOTS more life with awesome teeny tiny box fish, some eels, nudibranchs, octopi,eels… and no fish feeding!
Shopping followed (again!) at the beach markets followed by showers and an attempt to cook before the graduation, which was themed survivor-style, complete with flags, sashes and torches! Thanks to Doug for the music! And not thanks to Chris for the Shooters! Or Shona for not being there so me drinking for her!
Sunday was not so early but an awesome deep dive to Deep Sponges – amazing… HUGE eel amongst other things, but nice long dive, thanks to my buddy Peter! Upon surfacing, we saw whales breaching about 15m away – WOW! And then a turtle in the breakers! That afternoon’s dive was also great, and, thanks to the efforts of Dave (DM), Candice (buddy) and Peter, I saw my 1st ray (blue spot) for this trip but also some Porcelain crabs!
We headed back to the Smoothie Bar for dinner on Sunday Night – where I promptly fell asleep… Oops! After being starving when we got back from the beach and eating lunch at 5:30 (after assisting Tomme who tried to cut his thumb off), Candice and I could not finish pizza between the two of us! Bed called, so we headed home early.
Monday was another early dive to Roonies to find seahorses. No seahorses but we saw a HUGE marble sting ray (wing span 2m), eels, mantis shrimps, cleaner shrimps in a potato bass mouth, a scorpion fish (good spot Meg), 2 paper fish (thanks Cathy) and some awesome nudibranchs! A deep dive by Paolo, Francois and Karen meant they had a long deco and we bounced in the water = others joining the fish feeding club!
It was sad to leave but leave we did. The journey back was much better apart from a freak storm which lasted about 100m with bright sunshine either side but such hail and wind and rain that we couldn’t tell which direction it was all coming from, never mind where the road was!
Again, thanks all for an AWESOME weekend!
Pics are at: http://picasaweb.google.com/lancasterjenny/Sodwana09?authkey=Gv1sRgCLvGrtS976SO8wE#