Sodwana Two Mile Approach

Sodwana Bay · KwaZulu-Natal · South Africa

Sodwana Bay sits on the Maputaland coast of KwaZulu-Natal, a stretch of subtropical African coastline where the warm Agulhas Current sweeps south from the Mozambique Channel, carrying tropical water and tropical species to latitudes that should by rights be temperate. The bay is the gateway to the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that protects one of Africa's most significant coastal ecosystems. The diving here has been famous since the nineteen seventies, when the first sport divers discovered that the reefs extending offshore from the bay supported hard coral growth that rivalled anything in the western Indian Ocean. The boat launch at Sodwana is an experience that deserves its own paragraph. Rigid inflatable boats are pushed across the beach sand and into the surf zone, where they punch through breaking waves with an enthusiasm that leaves first-time passengers alternately terrified and exhilarated. The launch I experienced on a December morning involved three significant waves, each met with full throttle and a shout from the skipper, before we cleared the break zone and settled into a gentler swell for the ride to the reef. Two Mile Reef is Sodwana's most popular dive site, but I had asked specifically for the southern approach section that receives fewer visitors. Our skipper positioned the boat over a section of reef where the depth sounder showed a bottom profile of scattered pinnacles rising from eighteen to twelve metres. The mooring was a free descent in blue water, the reef revealing itself as I dropped through the water column, appearing first as dark shapes that resolved into detailed coral formations as I closed the distance. The coral coverage was stunning. Hard coral in genuine tropical profusion covered the reef surfaces: table corals, branching Acropora, massive brain corals, and delicate plate corals all competing for space on the rocky substrate. The species diversity was remarkable for a site at twenty-seven degrees south latitude, the Agulhas Current's warm influence clearly expressed in the community composition. Soft corals added colour to the shaded overhangs, and sea fans grew from the current-exposed faces of the larger pinnacles.