You all must have experienced one of THOSE weekends...one that is so desperately overdue and just sneaks up and becomes the most epic weekend of the year. This last weekend was exactly that - an adventuresome getaway with an awesome couple to one of the most beautiful places in South Africa - a reminder of how amazingly blessed we are to live in such a diverse country.
For those of you who have visited Sodwana Bay before, you will know that the park consists of a very large campsite (over 200 stands), and as die-hard camping fanatics, we usually book one of these and set up camp for the weekend. However, as we had friends joining us from Cape Town, it wasn't going to be very practical for them to fly up with camping gear. So we opted to stay in Coral Divers - a diving school that is situated within the campsite itself and offers a variety of accommodation from rustic permanent tents to luxurious en-suite cabins. What a pleasure.
We arrived late on Friday night, armed with a pack of lamb chops and a bottle of GOOD red wine. The fires in their lapa area were already on the go (you can self cater or book meals with them) which led to a hassle free, relaxed dinner with heaps of catching up - and Hendrik and Lindie welcoming a beautiful new nephew into the world! Then it was off to our tented camp for a good nights rest in anticipation of diving our nuts off the next day... even the camper in me was a little relieved that we didn't have to put up a tent! Their permanent canvas tents are pitched under a roof and have two single beds that are super comfortable. Everything the dive fanatic needs really - a place to put your head at the end of the day!
Saturday's 5am wake up call came in the form of several tractors rumbling off to load up the dive gear and head to the beach. There is absolutely no chance of a sleep in, but when you're there to dive, that's the point is it not? Armed with our new GoPro (fancy b'day prezzy from the hubby), we headed off to the beach, where Dale was promptly allocated GoPro duty as I was sure that I would drop it into the sea and never see it again!
You will not believe the clarity of the photos and videos you can get on a GoPro - we were both blown away. It's so exciting to finally have something that we can use to show people how amazing the underwater world is... After a fun dive, we headed back to camp to smash some breakfast into our faces. All you can eat, full breakfast buffet, for ninety bucks! Win! And after that, wallowed around like beached whales on the sundeck whilst the boys went off for a kite surf and introduced the GoPro to another adventure sport. Tough life I tell you...
To cut a long story short, the rest of the weekend included:
* Sharks beating Province in the Currie Cup (woop woop!!)
* The most epic dive ever - Raggie shark, Loggerhead and Green Turtles, schools of king fish, and a DM who had to wear a froggie mask because his team lost the rugby :) - all on GoPro!
* Magnum ice-creams to avoid becoming Hangry - so hungry that you get angry.
* Pygmy kingfisher, herds of Rhino, a bull elephant in musth, and a Kamakazi bird that has the most insane call ever, all in Hluhluwe Game Reserve.
Who would have thought you could cram so much into 2 days???
Now I really can't wait until Monday next week....a whole week of sun, sea and sand! Zanzibar, here we come!!
Hangry! haha
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