What not to miss - Durban -> Punta Do Ouro - May 2021

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Zeke XA3

Contributor
Scuba Instructor
Messages
301
Reaction score
32
Location
Queensland - Australia - Most of the time
# of dives
5000 - ∞
Good evening folks,

Me and the misses are hoping to attend a wedding about an hour in from Durban in May next year.

We are taking hopefully 2 weeks holiday so 2-4 days for the travel/wedding the rest for us diving. We are both very keen divers, me for new experiences, my misses for anything.

Im a Full Cave Stage diver and Rec Instructor, missis is a DM.

She hasent seen the big sharks which i have heard are off the coast there, I have done bullies and HHeads we both love nudies and i love my tech/cave. We dont mind staying on land diving each day or going on a liveaboard (we actually live and work on a boat ).

We are able to travel north and south, we have heard of Punto de Oro, Sudwaya, Aliwal Shoal.

What ya got!
 
Zeke.

I'm a DM, dive 95% of the time in the Durban area and live in a small holiday town 30 minutes north of Durban. (Ballito).

You're coming to the right spot! Especially in May when the vis is slightly better and fortunately for us, it's never really that cold in our water. Expect around 18 degrees in May on average, but anywhere from 16 to 21, depending on what the wind has done to the currents. I dive an old worn 5mm all through winter and summer.

For sharks, you're going to want to go to Aliwal Shoal. It's a marine protected area with some excellent diving and there are fantastic operators in the area, some of them dedicated to baited shark dives. Typically on a non-baited dive in Aliwal in May, you can expect to see raggies, and sometimes blacktips, anything else is just good luck. The two operators I recommend are either ScubaXcursion or African Watersports. ScubaX are just great people with a relaxed vibe while Walter at African Watersports is the Shoal's local shark whisperer. I'm not kidding, you should see him tickle a tiger until it "falls asleep". :)

Sodwana (about 3.5 hours north of Durban) is the best diving in South Africa. You're less likely to see sharks there, the vis will be better and the water warmer. I love it and in fact went up there with a huge crowd in December last year to celebrate my 40th. Personally, I recommend Coral Divers for their relaxed, but very very organised operation.

Ponto is about 4.5 hours north of Durban (through the border into Mozambique). Excellent tropical diving, calm, warm, flat seas. It really is great and May is a good time of year too.

In Durban itself there's only really one operator to speak of and that is Umhlanga Scuba. Excellent operation. The owner is a rebreather diver, tech instructor etc. In fact, I'm busy doing my tech course with him at the moment. Our local club uses him for most of our dives and if you're on a Saturday morning dive you can expect half the boat to be filled with regulars (including me) who know each other well, talk ****, laugh and have a great time. Often you'll find that more than 50% of the boat is made of of DMs too. Another point to note is that when conditions aren't terrible, we do a night launch at least once a week.

I'm guessing your wedding is in the Midlands area (Pietermaritzburg, Howick area?). With your itinerary, I would do the wedding, head to Aliwal for 2 or 3 days' diving. Drive an hour to Durban, do 2/3 days diving, drive to Sodwana for 3 days and then spend the rest of the time in Ponto. 4/5 hours drive back to the airport.

Some things to note:
No liveaboards in the area.
Notable wrecks are the Nebo and Produce in Aliwal. (Both great, expect a decent current on the Nebo). T-Barge, Fontao and Coopers in Durban. My favourite 3 local sites. (Coopers will blow you away on every dive, the only problem is that sometimes it's the current that's blowing you away and sometimes it's the conditions :) )
Durban is not known for visibility. Typical is around 8m to 10m, but I've had 30m and a fair share of 1m to 2m. Both Aliwal and Sodwana typically have better vis. In Durban, it's all about the wind. When the east blows, you know you're going to need to feel your way around the dive. :)
Everywhere we've discussed above, you'll dive from a RIB. That's OPS normal here in South Africa. Expect a beach launch through the surf. It's really not as rough as some might think & typically ladies are on the boat early while the chaps help push it out and jump up.

Lastly, Durban has a fleet of deeper wrecks, but don't plan a quick visit to a 75m wreck, no operator is going to do that without "getting to know you" first.

Feel free to ask anything else you need to. I hope you have an awesome trip & we see each other on the boat.
 
That was a pretty complete reply !! Thank you very much.

As much as id love a good tech dive, just as they wouldn't let me out to a 75m wreck i would not go to one without several dives with the operator too! Wouldent mind a nice cave dive but cant find any operators in SA.

As for never really cold, i was teaching an AOW here in the bahamas today, 31C on the surface, i still wear my 5mm, last year in Cape Town i was in the shops rental 5 mm and my 5mm hooded vest in may and was still frozen but did 45 mins every dive at least!

We both learned in the UK so can do low vis, and we currently dive from RiB here for fun so no worries on that part.

Thanks for the operator recommendations too we will take a look at each ones offerings and see what we can short list. We know every thing is a maybe due to Corona but positive thoughts!

Ill have to check the location, thats the lady's department, i just go where she tells me!

Only other questions i really have are non dive related, hows the roads between all these? We drove the garden route last year in May, im really not adverse to doing a full days activities then driving in the evening to a late check in at the next place to be ready for something new the next day. Is the border crossing to PdO easy in the car?
 
That was a pretty complete reply !! Thank you very much.

As much as id love a good tech dive, just as they wouldn't let me out to a 75m wreck i would not go to one without several dives with the operator too! Wouldent mind a nice cave dive but cant find any operators in SA.
Pleasure, & yes, I agree.

As for never really cold, i was teaching an AOW here in the bahamas today, 31C on the surface, i still wear my 5mm, last year in Cape Town i was in the shops rental 5 mm and my 5mm hooded vest in may and was still frozen but did 45 mins every dive at least!

We both learned in the UK so can do low vis, and we currently dive from RiB here for fun so no worries on that part.

Thanks for the operator recommendations too we will take a look at each ones offerings and see what we can short list. We know every thing is a maybe due to Corona but positive thoughts!

Ill have to check the location, thats the lady's department, i just go where she tells me!

Only other questions i really have are non dive related, hows the roads between all these? We drove the garden route last year in May, im really not adverse to doing a full days activities then driving in the evening to a late check in at the next place to be ready for something new the next day. Is the border crossing to PdO easy in the car?
Cape Town is proper cold!! (for me)

Noted on the rest.

As far as the roads are concerned, pretty much everything I've discussed is highway driving (good roads). The exception is the trip up to Sodwana and then further up to Ponto:

Heading north from Durban, the first 2 hours are fine on a highway, after that you're on tarred roads all the way, but single lane, rural, some wildlife & goats/cattle to keep an eye out for. Also quite a few speed bumps along that route. I have and do do the trip at night, but it's not pleasant and I wouldn't recommend it for someone who doesn't know the area.

The upside is that Sodwana is only a minor detour off the route to Ponto so I would:
Dive Durban or Aliwal in the morning
Drive up to Sodwana around midday, check in late afternoon.
Do 2 (or even 3) dives at Sodwana on day 1. Repeat on day two, checkout by 2pm or so.
Drive 2 hours up to Ponto, check in late afternoon.
The road from the border to Ponto was recently (last year?) tarred and is now accessible in any normal car. Before that it was basically beach sand and 4x4 only. Once you're in town, the dirt roads are in a bad shape so you're either crawling, or driving something with a little ground clearance. If you're renting a vehicle, I would recommend a crossover SUV or bigger. Something more than a normal sedan. (4x4 not needed) (Even without the Ponto trip, I would recommend that anyway). As you know, driving in South Africa can be "fun" so a tougher vehicle is always better.

Feel free to shout if you have any questions.
 
Some solid replies here already and great explanations! I just wanted to add a site/area called Protea Banks, as you mentioned sharks. As it is not much further South than Aliwal, I would highly recommend going down that way as this is where you can see the bigger boys.

An operator there that I could suggest is African Dive Adventures.

If you want to do caves, then you need to head inland with the closest to your holiday region (as far as I know) being Komati Springs, run by Don Shirley.

Shout if you need any more info.
 
Looks like the caves are too far away for this trip but ive now got great info and leads.

Now we just gotta keep an eye on the situation and we are ready to get wet when the time comes!
 
Looks like the caves are too far away for this trip but ive now got great info and leads.

Now we just gotta keep an eye on the situation and we are ready to get wet when the time comes!
I'm a bit late to the party here but if I'm correct your "cave areas" are more in the Northern Cape Province region of South Africa and as Fires already stated DON SHIRLEY is your man for that.

For future reference you could fly into Johannesburg and catch a hour flight to Kimberly which would probably be your closest airport in the Northern Cape

Diving in South Africa - Wikitravel will show you the list of Inland Dive Sites as well as some other coastal dives around south africa
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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