“Epic Awesomess” - Sodwana Nov 2010

After months of organising (and stressing), we finally hit the road early on Friday morning with Dustin looking slightly stressed at what he had got himself in for (two girls threatening to play ABBA for 600km/10hrs)! This was only compounded by squeals of delight from Meg and I every time we hit “new” road and the fact that we threatened to lock him in the car when we finally stopped in Ermelo for a loo break (he was taking a long time and we were bursting!). Ermelo also meant Wimpy breakfast - what would a road trip be without a Wimpy meal? Or for that matter, a quick stop in the Crazy shop? (This has become a habit since a girls weekend to Clarens). So after buying hats and things, we pointed the car for Sodwana – and then stopped. And went. And stopped. And went… And so it was that quite a couple of hours later, we arrived at Triton in Sodwana.
And of course, arriving at Sodwana meant only one thing – quickly unpack and head to the Smoothie Bar – Yum yum! The only problem is the choice of what smoothie to get! Think Tara and I did well with a French Kiss though – Vanilla, Kahlua and not sure what else but REALLY good! Good start to the trip! It was also a good time to catch up on the happenings of the last year with Henri and Leigh :)
We got a late launch so only needed to be at the beach 8:30 (Greg – 8:30, not 9:15! Lazy bugger got an extra hours sleep and used the useless excuse that he only arrived at 1am!). But late launch = lie in on a dive trip = amazing! The only problem was my usual coffee-in-bed-person was looking after his girlfriend so I actually had to get out of bed and make my own coffee – a first for a Sods trip I think! Need to get that sorted! Our first dive was to Antons (saw dolphins on the way, about 10m from the boat!), and it didn’t disappoint – eels, rays, lots of fishies, porcelain crabs… Bounce, bounce! No wait, bad idea - that uses lots of air! But after 50mins, most people were hitting critical pressure (thanks for the 15l cylinder Doug – I was fine even with Liesl buddy breathing!) so it was back to the beach. There is a 2 hour blank in my memory here – bit concerning… as suddenly, it was time to start kitting up for the next dive! It was a “special interest” dive with Peter Timm over the sand. He gave us the most incredible briefing and then it was off to south of Jesser point. As predicted, we saw very little for the 1st 5mins but then… Sand dollars, sea pen forests, cuttlefish, sea stars… INCREDIBLE! WOW! We packed up and headed to, you guessed it, the smoothie bar. Brazilica this time – hazelnut and frangelico? Also good :)
Back at Triton, it was time to get ready for the graduation of 1*’s , fines and then the party. Pat was an awesome Turquin – hoola hoops and all – and duly made all the 1* promise various things! And somehow emphasized the “Bode Brothers” status – not quite sure what this status is and whether we should laugh or be in awe… Then the fines came up – one whole boat, bar two people, “fed the fish” = fines all around, breaking down before getting to Sods = more fines, being an awesome instructor, being a fish and not using air – its amazing the fines that got dished out! But it did get the party off to a great start.
And party we did! Awesome music (thanks Doug) with two individuals (Jason and Dustin) not allowing anyone to leave and an amazing group of people. However, what goes on tour stays on tour, so for those that were there, I say 99 red balloons has scarred me – “Epic” (in a good and bad way?) FAIL! For those that weren’t there, you may need to bribe people to find out… We literally brought the roof down – and Hardy put it back up! The party ended close to 1 am (sorry for those with an early launch) when Doug (early launch!) turned the music off and we went swimming – in various stages of clothes (no – there was amazingly no skinny dipping!). And then the chirp of the trip came up: Imagine 30 odd people swimming in tiny little pool, all on a high after an amazing party. Noise may (or may not) have been made. So Hardy stands at the end of the pool, and in a very responsible voice, requests us all to keep quiet in 15min, party over. To which the response from the pool was “Hardy, are those tighty whitey’s?” - the laughter was probably louder than any noise we may (or may not) have been making! But within 15mins, every one was on their way to bed, and I was fast asleep (apparently I was called to go chat/go for coffee/something…)
The next morning, my coffee in bed issue was solved when coffee and breakfast (fruit and yoghurt) and juice was brought to me in bed – Thanks Dust and Meg! Very soon we were off to the beach, where some people, feeling the effects of the night before but still brave enough to dive, fed the fish! We had an awesome dive – lots of rays which buried themselves, more pretty fish, a geometric eel… The highlight of my dive however was SEEING MY FIRST TURTLE! Yay! Eventually! Right at the end of the dive as well! I was on my way up to safety stop (after a 70min dive!) and went back to look at it! :) :) :) And then we got to the surface and a HUGE one swam towards the boat! :) The next dive was also good! My buddy by this stage had learnt to talk underwater and so yelled at me every 10mins to check something out! This was a good thing as the previous dive he pointed stuff out to everyone else and then me! Remember some beautiful nudi’s on the this dive… We also took a slate down so communication became easier. I also learnt that if I briefly lost him for a second, I just needed to look for someone floating head down :)
Back at Triton, it was lunch time (at 5pm!) while others passed out - either in their cabins (= good option) or in the middle of the central camp area (= bad idea - you shouldn't surprised to wake up a while later surrounded by people and with a savanna being poured down your throat!). And then off to the Smoothie Bar. Again :) I hear your shock and horror and match it with a mochagelico (frangelico and coffee? – YUM). Except that this time we also ate – pizza - mmmm.... Then while the rest of us went back to bed, others went for a walk on the beach, and came back a couple of hours, sopping wet, to complete darkness – there was a huge storm and the electricity went!
The next morning, bright and early (and after a bit of bribery to DM’s so my boat could get a nice DM), we went for our last dive for the weekend. I saw my 3rd turtle. And my 4th. And my 5th. And my 6th. And then I stopped counting and starting swimming past them! One huge one though was very cute as he had wedged himself inbetween some rocks and was having a back scratch. Funnier though was Dustin who went quite close to watch him and with a surge ended face-to-face with him. We also swam past (as there were so many) honey comb morays at cleaning stations. We did however see an octopus, an ENORMOUS marble sting ray and at our safety stop were surrounded by fish balls! Another amazing dive!
And an amazing weekend!
Long live the turquin in epic awesomeness!

Link to the pics:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lancasterjenny/EpicAwesomenessSodwanaNovember2010?authkey=Gv1sRgCMSah7eCsLiHbA#