Today was fantastic, it started early, about 0530, had a muffin for breakfast and then just after 0600 I set off to ‘Into The Blue’. I filled in the paperwork, got my wetsuit and weights and sorted the rest of my tank. At about 0800 off we went to a little marina. We set up all our kit and then got changed and ready to go.
We headed down to the boat and off we went. On the way to the first dive site we saw a few dolphins which was awesome. The first dive site was called ‘Clifton 4’, my buddy was a German girl called Stephanie, who isn’t very experienced and hasn’t dived for two years (apart from her refresher of course). We got all kitted up and then rolled into the water. Most of us were underweighted (I managed to get down but really struggled to stay there) so we got another kilo from the boat and off we went. It was a very shallow dive which makes buoyancy harder to control and quite a few people (including my buddy) kept bobbing to the surface. I got her back down each time and then we carried on with the dive. It was really cool, the visibility wasn’t great but we were in all the kelp which is just so awesome. Seaweed isn’t slimy and horrible when you’re in the water! We saw a couple of nudibranchs and some starfish too. The dive masters were great and made sure we all stayed together in the bad visibility. After about half an hour the visibility got suddenly a lot worse so they decided to end the dive early. We all got back on to the boat and headed back to shore.
On the way, we saw a sunfish/mola mola. This is one of the top things on my ‘Bucket List’ to see, we weren’t in the water with it but it was so incredibly exciting! We also saw quite a few more dolphins.
We arrived back to shore and had about half an hour break (I had a chocolate muffin for a snack). They weren’t sure if we would be able to do another dive or if it was going to be too windy so we just waited for a while whilst they checked the weather and decided. They decided that we could dive, so off we went. There was a slight mishap at the dock, the car keys ended up falling into the water, which was luckily only about one metre deep. They were quickly retrieved and then off we went.
Our second dive site was called Strawberry Dock. We got all kitted up, got into the water and had to immediately drop down or the wind would have taken us the wrong way. This dive was awesome, we saw loads of seals, they are so inquisitive and really like torpedoes in the water – so fast and agile. They are incredible to watch. It was such a fun dive. We ended the dive and headed back to the surface. The wind had really picked up, we had to all group together and hold onto each other and then the boat came and picked us up. The skipper had to keep the boat in the same place and we all tried to get in as quickly as we could. Once we were all safely in off we went.
On the way back this time, the day got even more amazing, we saw some dolphins, a penguin and two sunfish. It has literally made my year, seeing the sunfish! It was such an incredible day!
The scenery on the boat rides was just incredible, with the mountains in the background – so beautiful.
We arrived back and all got changed, my buddy thinks that I should do my Instructors course as I am so good, relaxed and patient – how kind of her! We all headed back to the shop and filled in our log books. I decided to book another day diving with them – I had such an awesome day!
Once all the kit had been sorted I headed back to the hotel for a little while and had some rusks. I used the internet for a bit and then went across to the breakfast place to see if it was too late to get breakfast (about 1600)! The man said it was fine, so I just took two croissants and two orange juices to take away. (I’ve decided waiting until 0800 for breakfast is just too late because then I go out later)! I then headed out for dinner. I went to a little pizza place called Unwined. I had a chicken, feta, spring onion, pepper and chilli pizza. It was delicious – one of the nicest pizzas I’ve ever had! I also had a cranberry juice.
I headed back to the hotel and spent the evening sorting my photos and doing university work.
South Africa According To Jenni 