South African Sharks and Safari

With healthy ragged-tooth, tiger, and blacktip shark populations, UNESCO world heritage sites, mountains, endless beaches, historical battlefields and excellent national parks (one of which is home to 30% of the world’s black rhinos), the province of KwaZulu-Natal is a great place to combine some of the best the natural world has to offer below and above the surface.

Sample Itinerary

Day 1: Night flight to South Africa

Day 2: Arrival in Durban and collect vehicle. Visit Tala Game Reserve, home to white rhinos, African buffalos, impalas, zebras, blue wildebeest, ostriches, blesbok, and giraffes. Braai (a South African BBQ) and wine tasting).

Days 3 to 6: Two dives a day on Aliwal Shoal, a four-kilometre long reef that has sunk the Nebo (70 metres long, 27 metres deep,) and the Produce (100 metres long and 33 metres deep). From the end of May to November sand-tiger sharks (Carcharius taurus) inhabit the caves and gullies of the reef looking for a mate. Finding them during a morning’s diving (two dives per morning) is not difficult, and in the past two seasons over a hundred have been regularly seen on a single dive. Depending on the season and diver qualifications (35 to 40 metre dives), Protea Banks can be worth a visit as in December bull and hammerhead sharks return with the summer. Aliwal has a good variety of 'Big Stuff' with eels and large groupers (potato and brindle bass), many ray species including sand sharks (a.k.a guitarfish), eagle rays, devil rays, mantas, round ribbontail rays and honeycomb rays, and many of the usual Indian Ocean inhabitants.

Day 7: Tiger shark and blacktip shark dive (watch a low-res video clip here). After a thorough safety briefing, set off for a morning searching for 2 to 4-metre long tiger sharks. Once they have been found, kit up and roll in for a shallow (approximately 8-metres) 70-minute dive. Often more than one tiger shark is present (the most I have personally seen on a dive is eight), and forty or more blacktip and occasionally dusky sharks come and join in too. One of the best dives you will ever do.

During this part of the trip there is a variety of accommodation available in Umkomaas, from self-catering houses to quality lodges, depending on your budget. Dives take place in the morning before the wind picks up and makes the sea too rough for diving, and afternoons can be spent visiting Durban (20 minutes away by car) with it’s surfing beaches and uShaka Marine World, play a round of golf at one of the numerous coastal golf courses, head to Scottburgh beach, or soak up the rays around the pool.

Days 8, 9, and 10: Hluhluwe-Umfolozi National Park, set in the heart of Zululand is the oldest game neserve in Africa where the Zulu kings Dingiswayo and the legendary Shaka hunted and set up the first conservation laws. The park is the birthplace of rhino-reservation, breeding the species back from extinction (less than 20 rhinos world wide in 1900 to more than 10,000 today). It is also home to the four other species of the 'Big Five' - lion, leopard, African buffalo, and elephant. There are also cheetahs, giraffes, blue wildebeest, impalas, zebras, kudus, hippos, crocs, and the very rare (and difficult to spot) African wild dog, and over 300 bird species. Driving and walking safaris (of varying lengths) with armed rangers are possible, and experiencing the African bush on foot is truly extraordinary.

Days 11, 12, and 13: Diving at Sodwana Bay. More pretty reefs and the Indian Ocean reef dwellers. Sand-tiger sharks come here in December and January to give birth, and whale sharks are often seen at this time of year too. Half of South African divers will tell you they prefer Sodwana to Aliwal, the other half swear that Aliwal diving is the best. I would say that Sodwana has the more colourful reefs with more corals and is better for macro life, due to its location further to the north and the thus closer to the warmer currents.

Day 14: Valley of a Thousand Hills and Zulu village visit. Drive back through the hills, stopping of to visit an authentic Zulu village with a guide, in the heart of the old Shaka’s old kingdom.

Departure from Durban in the afternoon, arrival in London the next morning.

A wide range of activities

This is only an outline - there are numerous other possibilities: more safari, two and four-day walking safaris in tents or under a starlit sky (seasonal), diving at Rocktail Bay or Kosi Bay, a trip to Tembe Elephant Park, wandering through Lesotho, walking or horse riding in the Drakensberg mountains, San rock art, historical visits to the Anglo-Boer, Anglo-Zulu, and Boer-Zulu battlefields, African snow, Africa’s highest pub, the world’s highest gorge swing, there’s plenty to do.

The 'Sardine Run': the 'greatest shoal on earth'

An incredible natural phenomenon that normally occurs between mid-June and mid-July.

Hundreds of millions of sardines migrate close to the coast in popckets forming a superschool 15 kilometres long over several hundred kilometres of coastline from Port St. John’s to Durban. The  shoal is preceded by small pockets flowing the cooler waters that brush the beaches at this time of year and attracts tens of thousands of dolphins and sharks, sea birds and humpback whales. Daily life stops immediately when a school comes close to a beach and everyone drops what they were doing and runs to the beach to catch what they can with nets, buckets and even in their t-shirts. Out on a RIB or on the beach it’s an amazing spectacle. The best way to experience this is to spend five days down in Port St. John going out hunting bait balls in a Zodiac, dive gear at the ready.

When to go:

It depends what you want. In the southern summer (November to April) there are bull sharks and hammerheads at Protea Banks and whale sharks around Sodwana Bay that sometimes come down as far as Aliwal Shoal, but the vast majority of sand-tiger (a.k.a. ragged-tooth) sharks don’t arrive until June. In last two years (2008 and 2009) a handful of sand-tigers have stayed on the shoal over throughout the southern summer. No-one knows why or if this will continue. There is still lots to see at this time of year with tiger shark dives, and the two wrecks don’t migrate. It is warmer, the water is at least 24, and the days are longer and the air stickier, although there is also more chance of rain.

In winter the water temperature drops down to 20ºC but the sand-tiger sharks are out in force from late May. During the winter it hardly rains in KwaZulu-Natal and daytime temperatures stay between 22 and 26 degrees whilst humidity drops to European levels. It is also the season for four day wilderness walking safaris as walking through the bush during the day is very pleasant. Being the dry season the grass is short and wildlife congregates around watering holes, making game viewing easier.
 

South Africa - Afrique du Sud

South Africa - Afrique du Sud