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South Africa
I'm now in Cape Town celebrating my 31st birthday but for now I'll just tell you what I've been up to the last couple of weeks. From Maputo I got a lift back to Sodwana Bay in South Africa with Anke and her mother Christina from Berlin. Sodwana is in the middle of the St Lucia World Heritage marine and wetlands area and I came here to get my Advanced PADI scuba certification.

Southern Africa - part 2

Stevemonty
2005-09-23 18:36:59

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I took a refresher course followed by 5 sea dives and studying in the afternoons. Each morning we'd be up at 6am riding over the surf in motorised dingies out to the offshore reefs and in the evening laughing about and drinking with new diving friends from Johannesburg and Pretoria. Mariza, Mel, Tammy, Andy, Steve and Adrian.

The area is famous for it's marine diversity and large reef formations including channels, towers and cliffs to swim through. During the week I saw a white tip Shark of about 2 metres, several turtles, a lion fish, lots of rays and plentifull colourfull varieties of trumpet fish, angel, butterfly, starfish and nudibranks slugs. I passed the course fine but don't wasn't really given sufficient instruction because the staff were overworked over Easter break.

From here I caught the bus on down the coast to the large busy streets of Durban with it's African & Indian holiday flavour. West street running through the main shopping area combines modern department stores and take aways with space on the wide pavements built with permanent stalls for African street sellers and so you have the modern world coexisitng with traditional street sellers. Apple carts on street corners, Indian spices and telepone tables where you can make a call.
I next stopped for a week relaxing and making friends at Jungle Monkeys in Port St Johns on the Transkei or Wild Coast. The Transkei is a subtropical area of mostly unspoilt natural beauty. Rainforest, cliffs, gorges, river estuaries and the power of the sea against beach and rock, to me this was the closest yet I have found to paradise and I was sad to leave.

The area remains undeveloped partly due the difficult hilly terrain and was designated independent status as a homeland for blacks under the apartheid era. It is also the region where both Walter Sisulu and Nelson Mandela grew up.

During the week I went on a couple of Rikky's nature hikes exploring ...