Aliwal Shoals and Protea Banks

[scubasheep]

My girlfriend and I are planning a dive trip to Aliwal Shoals and Protea Banks in South Africa in march this year. We've never ben to either dive site and have 6 or 7 days of diving we can do. Can anyone recommend any specific things to take note of (aside from the sharks obviously) and an idea on how many days we should spend at each site? Any advice greatfully accepted

 

[pretorjn]

scubasheep

Haven't dived Protea Banks, but have done Aliwal a few times. Excellent dives if the weather permits it. Try diving as early as possible in the day as the wind picks up later in the day. I would recommend www.seafever.co.za/ - they know the sites very well and go out of their way to accomodate you.

If you are willing to do some deeper wreck dives: get to the Produce and Nebo. One of my best dives at Aliwal was at the Produce. If possible do a Nitrox dive on this one to down there a bit longer (30+ m depth)

Amount of days: enough .... as the weather can turn bad for 2 days
I cant say about Protea as I have not been there

Another thing you can consider: do a dive in U'Shaka marine world.... I know it is like walking around in a zoo if you dive in an akwarium, but if the weather is bad you can always dive there

 

[scubasheep]

Thanks for the heads up about the weather and the option for that. Sounds like a nice idea.

 

[AndyT]

I dived the Protea Banks in May last year. We were lucky to see some Raggies, but not much else. Unfortunately we had missed the shark season by a few weeks. Aliwal is probably better in terms of all round diving, but I would definitely give Protea Banks a go.

I used Protea Banks Shark Diving with Trevor Krull African Odyssea . Check out the calendar to see which species of shark you can expect to see.