A bit late in writing this post I'm afraid. It's been really hectic at Indigo Scuba this week. But sorry, that's no excuse...
Last weekend we had a great dive on the SAS Transvaal. Sean and Jenny joined us from Gauteng and this was their first Cape dive. They'd just come back from diving the Red Sea, so from one wreck (Thistlegorm) to another...
OK, so SAS Transvaal doesn't have the motorbikes and trucks, wellington boots and old tyres. She does, however, have some great marine life and we spotted a number of pyjama sharks, orange gas flame nudibranchs, hottentot and many different sea fans, soft corals and sponges.
Lying at 36 metres on the sand and with her deck at 24m, we had a 30 minute dive, followed by an entertaining saftey stop as we were joined by a Cape fur seal who kept us amused with its antics.
The SAS Transvaal was built in Glasgow, Scotland in 1944 for the Royal Navy and was originally named HMS Loch Aird. She was later bought by the South African navy, renamed HMSAS Transvaal and later SAS Transvaal. She was scuttled by the South African Navy in Smitswinkel Bay in the early 1970s to form an artificial reef.
SAS Transvaal Wreck, Smitswinkel Bay, Simon's Town
Crosses, Rooi Els
Today we had the sea to ourselves! Not sure where the other divers were, but they certainly missed out. We had a fantastic dive at Crosses – the sea was flat with a slight swell and visibility was approximately 8 metres.
After kitting up in the car park at the top of the cliff, we took a gentle stroll through beautiful scenery down a path to the rocks. The dive site starts in a gully where an easy but well-timed entry is required. We were followed on our dive by two very inquisitive Cape Fur Seals, one of which took a liking to Kate’s yellow fins!
There were loads of puff adder shy sharks patrolling the crevices between the rocks and in many places the walls were covered with redbait. We also discovered a Hotlips Spider Crab, extremely well camouflaged against a wall of kelp, soft corals and elegant feather stars. This was an exciting find as they are very well camouflaged and often overlooked. Unfortunately, our dive time was finally up and we had to say “goodbye” to our seal companions. This was probably our last “Eastern Side” dive until next Summer!
After kitting up in the car park at the top of the cliff, we took a gentle stroll through beautiful scenery down a path to the rocks. The dive site starts in a gully where an easy but well-timed entry is required. We were followed on our dive by two very inquisitive Cape Fur Seals, one of which took a liking to Kate’s yellow fins!
There were loads of puff adder shy sharks patrolling the crevices between the rocks and in many places the walls were covered with redbait. We also discovered a Hotlips Spider Crab, extremely well camouflaged against a wall of kelp, soft corals and elegant feather stars. This was an exciting find as they are very well camouflaged and often overlooked. Unfortunately, our dive time was finally up and we had to say “goodbye” to our seal companions. This was probably our last “Eastern Side” dive until next Summer!
Outer Castle, Simon's Town
As the wind had dropped on Thursday and turned to a light North Westerly, a group of us drove across to the Western side of False Bay to dive Outer Castle in Simon's Town.
The Viz was good at 15 metres and the sea was like a mirror. Launching from Miller's Point, we reached the dive site within 5 minutes.
After a quick and relaxed kit up, we rolled back into the water and descended to the beautiful boulders covered with purple and green sea urchins, millions of small orange sea cucumbers, striped and plum anemones, feather stars and fragile-looking strawberry anemones.
Sinuous sea fans played host to sponge crabs and false lacy coral; Jaco spotted a pale pipe fish lying motionless in the sand (thanks for sharing that one with us Jaco!), we spotted a pyjama shark and huge Red Romans and Janbruins skulked inside the larger swim throughs. We were approached by a very shy gully shark that quickly turned tail when it saw Deon. Not surprising, really! There was so much to see, I could go on forever. Why don't you come along next time to experience it for yourself?
Coral Gardens, Rooi Els
We've really had some great dives over the past few days.
On Friday we took Jan, from Germany, for his first ever South African dive. As the wind had been blowing South Easterly all week, we took him to our favourite dive sites in Rooi Els - Coral Gardens and Balcony.
Jan, who has dived all around the world, told us that these were some of the most interesting and enjoyable dives he has ever done. He particularly enjoyed photographing the orange and blue gas flame nudibranchs (see right), various sea fans, pink and orange noble corals, the myriad of beautiful soft corals - and was fascinated by the hoardes of crayfish hiding under the ledges in the deeper sections of these beautiful reefs.
On Friday we took Jan, from Germany, for his first ever South African dive. As the wind had been blowing South Easterly all week, we took him to our favourite dive sites in Rooi Els - Coral Gardens and Balcony.
Jan, who has dived all around the world, told us that these were some of the most interesting and enjoyable dives he has ever done. He particularly enjoyed photographing the orange and blue gas flame nudibranchs (see right), various sea fans, pink and orange noble corals, the myriad of beautiful soft corals - and was fascinated by the hoardes of crayfish hiding under the ledges in the deeper sections of these beautiful reefs.
It was great to be able to show a newcomer to South African diving the spectacular and diverse marine life we have in South Africa. We look forward to sharing this with many more of you soon!
