Eat. Dive. Sleep. Repeat. / essen. tauchen. schlafen. wiederholen.

》 exploring the underwater world at a touristic place where you feel to be at home was just AWESOME! 《

33h travelling in taxis, coaches and cars...I arrived in  beachy Sodwana and finally met my friend Jamie! As I started my vacation down here, we didn't know we'd met up - we did organize / book all rides, lifts and the flight quite spontaneos and we're both glad we made it happen! After those 33h with hardly no sleep there was no time to rest - we had to prepare supper as well as the new years party in their garden. Some friends of Jamie's family dropped by to celebrate, drink and enjoy. Happy new year to you all!

My first day in Sodwana started with an english breakfast and sunshine. Then the whole family (Jamie's parents Neville and Wendy as well as her boyfriend Jason) and I went to find the "most beautiful, secret and hidden place" around here. Literally hidden, we were driving around in the bush for two hours, following the GPS and several tracks - we haven't found the place. Jamie, Jason (J's) and I were at the backside from the pick up (logically no roof). Now you can imagine, how burned we got. Pain for days. For their two dogs we drove to a little river next their house - felt like we'd be in the jungle.

Jamie's home.

their livingroom.

idyll.

jungle feeling.

Woke up early, mission beach. Both J's and I were driving down to Sodwana Bay where we went into the ocean for jumping in the waves like little kids. Due to Jamie had to work, we left the beach before nine. Jason and I spent some time talking about South Africa and their corruption / communities life as well as about meditation, yoga, books, fantasy and the future.

selfmade - J's living place (next to the house).

After eating traditional vetkoek's (fried bread dough) I started with my scuba diving open water course. I had to fill out medical papers, get thru some paper work, excercises and finally I had to do a swim (200m) and a float (10min) exam. In the evening got thru my teachbook instead of watching movies. It was honestly quite hard doing this stuff in english with all these technical terms. I just had to make sure not to mix up important words like descend/ascend, inflate/deflate, dicrease/increase... Together with my dictionary, a beer and the help from the others I managed the first three theoretical sections all the way thru as I was told to do so from my personal diving instructor Nick (dive instructor since four years, did many more than 500 dives). The theory was about the relationsship between depth-pressure-air volume-air density, about equalization, buoyancy, the scuba equipment, underwater seeing/hearing/size/distance, dive environments and conditions, hazardous aquatic organisms, shore diving, overexertion, underwater problem management, etc. (probably now you can imagine why I had to look up many words - these were just headliners).

"Alpufzuug"?

Jamie's workplace.

Jamie did me some excellent french toast as power food for the four pool sections at Reefteach (diving school). At Reefteach Nick showed me how to put together / make the safety precheck for the Buoyancy Control Device (BCD), the regulators and the weight system. I've put on the wet suit and all the other gears. We were in the water for almost two hours, practicing how to breath (I first had problem with that), how to float and flush my diving mask underwater,... luckily I was his only open water student (OWS), so I got all his attention, was save and he was by my side all the time. He's even put his hand on my shoulder while I was doing a task, in case I had the feeling to go to the surface fast. At this time I was considering about the time when I will be 18m down in the ocean with Nick and I struggle with something... After my course I went to Sodwana town and walked around, went into the shark museum, visited Jamie's work place, bought stuff and talked with natives (btw, the most onec are black inhabitants with the mother tounge zulu). I was alone for a few hours and always felt safe. Neville (he's a dive master at Reefteach and dives since ever) gave me a lift back home as he came back from the beach.

the local foodstore.

shark-museum.

The following day was the day of my first open water dive! To avoid confusions, I'll first tell you how a normal dive procedure (and day) is like and following about my OWcourse including my experiences...

a general divers day / dive:
The whole crew meets up at Reefteach Lodge at half past five - mostly with coffee and cigarettes. They prepare one or two diving boats as well as tractors and gearcars - depending on the amount of todays chustomers. On the boats and the gearcars now are full cilinders, all the wet suits, BCD's, fins, ... the team gets down to the beach; sitting in a car or on the boat. They listen to musig, smoke (what everyone in this town does) and relax. At the beach they prepare everything for the divelaunch(es) and build up a tent against the sun. At seven o'clock the customers arrive, kit up their BCD's, put themselfes into the wet suit and lay out all the equipment which will be used for the dive. The crew takes the gear, put it onto a gearcar, which moves it to the boat. Meanwhile the dive master (DM) briefes all divers. He or she introduces the group where the dive will be at, which animals should be seen around that area (with additional information about them), assigns the dive buddies and if there are OWS on the dive. Done that, everyone moves dressed up to the boat. A tractor pushes the boat into the ocean and the divers push it more into the water until the DM says "ladies up". Then all the women enter the boat, the men still pulling it into the water until the DM makes the finall call for everyone to hop on the boat. Safety first: lifejackets on. The skipper hits the waves and drives to the place where the dive will be at (coordinates given by the DM, on the "two miles" riff). Lifejackets off - gear on. They all help you to kit up yourself because the gear is like almost 15kg + weight belt up to 8kg. You have to split into your own mask to avoid foggy glases. The skipper goes "3,2,1, go!" and then you have to do a backroll into the water and decend. Most important rule while diving: always breath normally (I can tell you, easier said than done). Always make sure you equalize permanently (and correctly!), also make sure not to lose your group as well as to stay with your dive buddy. After the decend the dive is between 40 to 55 minutes - depending on the highest air consumption from anyone on the dive. There are signs like "are you okay?", "look!", "danger!" or "how much air have you got left?" (and many more). This is important - you must understand and know how to answer them! Alright - the DM has a surface signaling device with a bright cord down to him. This cord helps to give him attention and be visible under water for the divers. You are responsible for yourself (except OWS) and need to make sure you do not run out of air unknowingly. Let the DM know when you reached 50 bar - he than will arrange the ascend for everyone. All together deflate their BCD's and ascend up to five meters below the surface. There you have to do a "safety stop", which means waiting for three minutes until you may ascent and touch the surface (due to the pressures you were suspended). Reached the top, inflate your BCD for a confortable beeing untill the skipper sees the group and picks them up. Because you were not able to comunicate under water as you are used to, they all talk about their experiences under water, what they saw and so on. On the boat you get sweets against the rubbery taste in your mouth. Lifejackets on - hit the waves back - exit the boat - talk talk talk and walk back to the tent. Mostly you do two dives a day (not more because of the oxidation), that's why they all keep their wet suit on and do the whole procedere again on the 10 o'clock dive. When the second adventure is over, they pack together and transport everything pack to the lodge (another 20min for the crew to chill on the boat*). There they either have a pool section or exams to do with the customers. Then the most ones take a nap, because diving is quite exhausting. Here we go, that's how a diveday is like.

prepare the gear.

on the boat.

way back to the lodge - relaxing.

*some workers do not get paid but may dive / stay over for free. Some get a provision each course and others a low rate like R100/day (~ CHF 8.-).

my course / experiences for the wonder down under:
After the preparation stuff from above (paper work, theory, two pool exams, pool sections) the next step was to dive four times in the open water, doing different exams. My first open water dive (OWD): Nick was my instructor as well as the DM. We've kitted up, entered the boat, lifejacked put on. I felt a very bit ill on the boat due to the waves and the tight wet suit. It was all gone, when we did the backroll into the ocean - which was much easier than expected. Well, I then had a long time to descend because I haven't been equalizing enough. All the divers had to wait for me, but Nick was by my side and checked all the time if I'm alright. About 14m underwater I had to float/flush my mask and put my regulator out of the mouth, hold my breath, catch it, blow in it, start breathing again. Passed these exams, we dived. Jamie & Jason joined in that dive, so I knew a few people underwater. I knew quite fast how everything goes and dived alone over the corals, thru the fishes...surprisingly I wasn't afraid of anything (probably also because I was trained so). Nick checked my BCD and my air consumption from time to time. Just as the whole group wanted to ascend, we saw a huge stingray - awesome. I unfortunately missed to do the safety stop, because I didn't deflate my BCD completely. On the boat everyone thanked for the dive - I just went like "it wasn't that awesome?!"...

Jamie accompanied me on my first open water dive :)

My second OWD: after one hour surface time, we went on my second OWD, Nick as my instructor and Neville as the DM. I again had problems with the equalisazion, had to do some tasks and then we enjoyed the dive. Just after a few minutes underwater, Neville made the "attention" noise (you can hear the noices underwater much louder) and I swam to him. I haven't seen anything...he recocnized that, took my hand and pulled me slowely down to a cave. My eyes got huge!! There he was, a three meters long giant sleepy shark just "next to me" - and this on my second dive, awesome! Neville dives literally every day twice and haven't seen that species since two years. If I were afraid? You may not be. Sharks don't attack you if you leave them alone - the bubbles irritate them because no animal they eat does it. I actually was more afraid of touching corals with my fins instead of the shark. After a jiffy I saw another shark and than got surprised by a big turtle. As in my first dive I had to make myself buoyant all the time again and again. Nick thought I can dive and let me look around. I donno why, but I descended and wasn't able to ascend again. Higher, higher...tried to get Nick's attentiom but he didn't see me. I touched the surface again as in the first OWD without the important safety stop. I made myself buoyant (inflate BCD) and made sure the skipper sees me. Just then Nick came up and asked me if everything was fine - and it was. We entered the boat...then I got seesick. I threw up on the way back to the beach. Again I thought to myself "how can they love that physically stress?". Even though I must say it was a nice dive but just because of the fact that I saw two sharks and a turtle. At the evening I must have been dehydrated, I felt bad/ill and drank not even a liter the whole day. My third OWD: went down to the beach with Reefteach in the boat at six in the morning. The weather changed, there was a mild current and the visibility switched compared to yesterday from about 20m to 7m. My regulator didn't work properly. However, I struggeled again with descending - it took me ages! Already exhausted and not equalized fully I arrived at the bottom. Nick had to do the last three exams with me; take my mask complitely off and put it on again, inflate my BCD manually and follow a compass. I really really haven't had fun doing the first two tasks! At the first task I forgott to breath for a while and during the second task I almost run out of air. I breathed in air with water...and had to calm down immediately. While I had to less air, I closed my eyes and focused just on a slight breath. I didn't care about anything else. After a while I opened my eyes and made the signal "ok" to Nick. Resumed we also haven't seen a lot animals underwater - at least I did my safety stop properly and we were not that much on the dive, due to just three out of ten divers made it down to the bottom (the rest waited on the boat until our dive was finish). My fourth OWD: Nick passed me to Ed (another DM at Reefteach) for my fourth dive. Following I haven't had a supervisor and basically already was an normal diver. The visibility was still bad and definitely not my best dive due to equalization problems thru out the whole dive.

a freedom-feeling underwater beyond description.

My fifth OWD (not as a OWS anymore): Because the tractor broke down on the way to the beach, we arrived with a one hour delay, which wasn't a issue to care about because we had time. Neville was the DM on that dive as well as my dive buddy. Due to the high current we had to descend fast. I was struggeling at the surface (much too) long until I almost haven't seen the others anymore... then I told myself it's my last dive, deflated again and had hard work to swim down - I never was so fast at the bottom and even though I did equalize without any pain my very first time -- I felt happy! Right at the beginning we saw a guitar shark - genial! Shortly after another shark swimming away, I wasn't able to classify. The whole dive was accompanied from about 15 dragon stingrays / round ribbontail rays. It was awesome! Even the strong current underwater hasn't changed anything at this mood. It was my best dive! I started to ascend again as in my third dive, even if I shouldn't have to amd did deflate correctly. Neville catched my hand and pushed me down again, where we all together made our safety stop. It really just was a brilliant dive! My new dive friends Júlia (BR) and Dominik (DE) were at the same dive and as happy as I was!

my divebuddy & -master Neville & I.

Theory-exam: with another OWS and Nick we went thru the solved mock exams and than switched to the official exams. After over three hours examination Nick congratulated: "You've past. You're now officially an certified open water scuba diver. Congratulation!" - wueh, finally!

I appologize for the long blog, but that whole thing was such an amazing experience for me! :)

Let's switch to Sodwana's life and what I did the other time when not diving. Because beeing underwater is exhausting, it made me having a afternoon sleep every day. After my naps I did different things... Once we were going at a special place for sunset, another afternoon chilling at home and talk about what we saw, one time we saw a Boomslang (snake) in our garden (which terrified me, because it was classified as very dangerous!), once I went with Júlia and Dominik eating pizza (both divers as told before) and one day I went out with J's to the lighthouse restaurant. Jamies family did also cook very very well - which means I ate every now and then something. In between I was studing with my open water book. On my last evening, J's, some of reefteach and some divers went to "the tree", a local bar/restaurant. It was nice to see everyone again before leaving the day after... Always when I was talking with someone or in a group, the conversation topics were absolutely different to them in Switzerland. We discussed about animals, about animals/nature documentaries, which snake or shark attackes or doesn't and why/why not, why you may not be in between a hippo and the water, what to do when you get bitten by something and so on. For me as well as for the others it was educational.

a Boomslang on it's way up...

sunset on a hill.

at the tree.


Generally about Sodwana? They are barefoot all the time - beachlife. Literally all the time - while driving a car, going to the beach, go out for dinner or a drink, walking on very hot sand, going to work, etc. Further you basically just need a pyjama and a costume, because you switch between those two all the time. Apropos time - even though it's a touristic place (season stated around November and is tailing off now), they come when they come and take their time whatever they are doing. In general they are all realy about relaxing - it seems like relaxing has a high value in the whole country. In Sodwana hardly everyone (knowingly from the white people) smokes and drinks. That's usual here. Further you walk by some cows, goats or dogs. In Sodwana there are a lot of huge fishingboats at the beach / driving thru the town with a tractor. A few pubs, restaurants and little shops complete the little touristic and nice town.

beachlife!

shops at the beach.

"Sodwana-Lolly".

meat is what they eat.

Reefteach entrance.


_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

« die Unterwasserwelt an einem touristischen Ort zu erleben, wo du dich praktisch Zuhause fühlst, war einfach GRANDIOS! »

Nach einer Reise von 33h in Taxis, Bussen und Cars kam ich endlich im schönen Sodwana an und habe endlich meine Kollegin Jamie getroffen! Als ich meine Ferien in ZA begonnen habe, wussten wir noch nicht, dass ich sie besuchen gehe – wir haben die Fahrten/Flüge/private Fahrer alles sehr spontan gebucht und organisiert. Wir beide sind sehr glücklich, dass das Wiedersehen geklappt hat! 😊

Silvester – so war also nach diesen 33h Reise praktisch ohne Schlaf keine Zeit für ein Nickerchen, wir mussten das Abendessen kochen und die Neujahrsparty vorbereiten. Freunde und Familie von Jamie’s Familie kamen vorbei und genossen die Zeit miteinander. Frohes neues Jahr euch allen!

Mein erster Tag in Sodwana sowie im Jahr 2020 startete mit einem «english breakfast» und Sonnenschein. Danach gingen wir mit der Familie (Jamie’s Eltern Neville und Wendy sowie ihr Freund Jason) zum «schönsten, versteckten und geheimen Ort» in der Umgebung. Buchstäblicherweise – den auch nach über zwei Stunden Suchen im Bush, dem GPS und den Autospuren folgend, fanden wir den Ort nicht. Jamie und Jason (J’s) sowie ich waren hinten auf dem Pick up, welcher logischerweise kein Dach hatte. Jetzt kannst du dir vorstellen, welchen Sonnenbrand J’s und ich uns eingefangen haben…tagelanger Schmerz. Für ihre beiden Hunde Bugs und Ody fuhren wir noch zu einem kleinen Fluss in der nähre Ihres Hauses – es war, als ob wir in einem Jungle waren…

Früher Tagwach – Mission Strand. Die J’s und ich fuhren zur Sodwana Bay, wo wir kurz in den Ozean schwimmen gingen. Da Jamie arbeiten musste, fuhren wir schon vor Neun wieder nach Hause. Dort habe ich die Zeit mit Jason verbracht – wir unterhielten uns über die Geschichte, Korruption und Communities von Südafrika, wie auch über die Meditation, das Yoga, Fantasy Bücher, Wissenschaftsbücher und die Zukunft. Nachdem ich vetkoek’s (frittiertes Brot) gegessen habe, begann mein scuba water open water course bei Reefteach (Tauchschule).

** da ich den Kurs auf Englisch machen musste sowie alle Instruktionen usw. auf Englisch waren, assoziierte ich die englischen Begriffe zu Tätigkeiten und Bilder von Afrika – die deutsche Übersetzung kenne ich oft nicht und teils gibt es auch mit dem Übersetzter nichts Sinnvolles. Darum bitte entschuldigt folgend die englischen Begriffe. **

Zu Beginn des Kurses musste ich die medical papers ausfüllen sowie mit meinem persönlichen Instructor Nick durch mein Theoriebuch gehen sowie Aufgaben lösen. Anschliessend musste ich im Pool zwei Tests machen – 200m am Stuck schwimmen und 10min «floaten» (einfach den Boden nicht berühren). Dies war alles für den ersten Tag. Am Abend musste ich mich durch diverse Theorien buxieren anstatt fern zu schauen. Obwohl ich mehr oder weniger gut englisch kann, musste ich so viele Wörter auf Deutsch übersetzten und das Zeug mehrfach durchlesen, bis ich es raffte. Gut, taucht Jamie schon seit Neun Jahren und Neville schon seit eh und je – so konnte ich auch diese beiden Fragen. Ich musste Wörter büffeln wie einst in der Schule, da ich wichtige Wörter wie ascend/descend, inflate/deflate, dicrease/increase immer wieder verwechselt habe. Unter Umstände wäre dies dann sehr gefährlich geworden... Generell ging es in der Theorie um die Verbindung von depth-pressure<->air volume<->air density, über den Ausgleich der Bars Unterwasser, das Buoyancy, dem ganzen Material, über das Sehen/Hören Unterwasser sowie die Unterschiede der Grössen und Farben von Unter-/Überwasser, die Overexertion, Unterwasserprobleme/-Management usw. - - - Zusammen mit meinem Dix, einem Bier und den anderen meisterte ich die ersten drei von fünf Theorieblöcke und erfüllte somit die Hausaufgaben.

Jamie machte mir zum Frühstück exzellente French Toasts als Powerfood für meine pool sections (Aufgaben/Prüfungen im Pool). Bei Reefteach zeigte mir Nick dann, wie ich die Tauchausrüstung zusammen machen und anlegen muss. Dazu gehört auch der Check vom Buoyancy Control Device (BCD – quasi ein aufblasbares Gilet mit allen nötigen Luftzufuhren). Zuerst musste ich das wet suit (schwarzer Tauchanzug) anziehen, danach einen Gewichtgurt und alles andere. Wir waren für mehr als zwei Stunden im Wasser. Nick zeigte mir das Atmen (leichter gesagt als getan!), wie ich mich ausgeglichen bewegen kann, wie ich Unterwasser meine Tauchbrille vollständig mit Wasser befüllen und entleeren kann, … Zum Glück war ich Nick’s einziger open water student (OWS) – so hatte ich all seine Aufmerksamkeit und fühlte mich sicher, da er immer dicht an meiner Seite war. Mag strub tönen, da wir ja immer noch im Pool und nicht im Ozean sind, aber es fühlte sich doch «nöd ohni» an. Als ich gewisse Aufgaben ausführen musste, legte er auch seine Hand auf meine Schulter – einmal zog er mich hoch, als ich Mühe mit einer Aufgabe hatte. Ojeh…was, wenn ich 18m Unterwasser bin und «schnell» an die Oberfläche muss?! Anyway. Nach meinem Kurs lief ich in Sodwana Town umher, besuchte das Haifischmuseum, habe Jamie’s Arbeitsplatz besucht, Souvenirs eingekauft und mich mit den Einwohnern unterhalten (übrigens, in Sodwana ist ebenso praktisch die gesamte Bevölkerung schwarz, Muttersprache zulu). Ich war alleine für ein paar Stunden, aber ich habe mich immer sicher gefühlt. Neville (er ist dive master bei Reefteach) nahm mich dann mit dem Auto zurück nach Hause.

Der Tag, an dem ich meinen ersten open water dive (OWD) hatte brach an! Bei der englischen Version beschrieb ich zuerst den Tag eines Tauchers und der Vorgang eines Tauchganges im Detail, danach meine fünf Tauchgänge. Wie gesagt – aufgrund dem, dass ich alle Begriffe «learning by doing» gelernt habe und die Begriffe selbst auf Deutsch übersetzten müsste, könnt ihr es entweder oben auf Englisch lesen, im Google Translater eingeben oder mich um eine Sprachmemo bitten. 😊

Kurzgefasst: Die Taucher sind sehr gemütlich im Nehmen, auch Unterwasser gibt es keinen Grund zur Hektik (darf es schlichtweg auch nicht!!). Es wird immer auf alle geschaut und Rücksicht genommen – über sowie unter der Wasseroberfläche. Bevor ein Tauchgang gestartet werden kann, müssen diverse Regeln und Zeichen gelernt werden – ansonsten hat man Unterwasser ein Problem. Meine ersten vier Tauchgänge waren für mich nicht so schön, da ich für Nick noch viele Aufgaben machen musste und selbst Mühe hatte, damit ich ausgeglichen im Wasser schweben kann. Alles über meine Schwierigkeiten (einmal dachte ich, ich bekomme keine Luft mehr!!) oben bei den englischen Texten. Das tollste, was ich im Wasser gesehen habe, war ein guitar shark! Dreimal hatten wir einen Hai gesehen, ca. 20x grosse stingrays, Schildkröten und tausende Fischchen. Als dive buddy (Unterwasser ist man immer zu Zweit unterwegs) hatte ich meistens Nick – respektive musste er auf mich aufpassen. Meinen fünften Tauchgang war mein Lieblingstauchgang und ab da liebte ich das Tauchen über alles!! Nach den mehrstündigen Theorieprüfungen im Trocknen schloss Nick endlich ab und sagte «You've past. You're now officially an certified open water scuba diver. Congratulations!» - - wueh, endlich! 😊

(Ab hier wieder alles übersetzt…) Schauen wir uns noch kurz das Leben in Sodwana an, das Tauchen ausgeschlossen. Da dies aber doch sehr streng und früh am Morgen war, gingen wir am Nachmittag jeweils kurz ein Nickerchen machen. Danach haben wir diverses unternommen – einmal gingen wir in die Dünen um den Sonnenuntergang anzuschauen, einst genossen wir die Zeit Zuhause und unterhielten uns über die Tiere, welche wir auf den Tauchgängen gesehen haben, ein anderes Mal war eine Boomslang (eine Schlange, von welcher ich sehr Angst hatte, da sie praktisch das gleiche Gefährlichkeitsgrad wie die black mamba hat) in unserem Garten, an einem anderen Nachmittag ging ich mit Júlia (Brasil) und Dominik (Deutscher) eine Pizza essen (beide beim Tauchen kennen gelernt) und am zweitletzten Abend ging ich mit J’s ins Restaurant Lighthouse auswärts essen. Jamie’s Familie kochte auch ganz fabelhaft! Jeweils zwischendurch nahm ich mein Theoriebuch und studierte das Tauchen. Am letzten Abend gingen J’s, Júlia, viele vom Reefteach und Kollegen von Jamie mit mir in «the tree», eine Ausgangsbar. Es war schön, alle noch einmal zu sehen. Ebenfalls schön waren unsere Gesprächsstoffe – anstatt wie in der Schweiz ins Handy zu gaffen unterhielten wir uns über Tier-/Naturdokumentationen, über die Tiere über und unter dem Wasser und deren Lebensweisen/-erwartungen, wieso dich welcher Hai oder welche Schlange angreift oder eben nicht usw. Schade, gehen solche Konversationen bei uns verloren.

Generell über Sodwana? Also die Schuhe scheinen ein Fremdwort für Sodwaner zu sein. Sie sind barfuss Zuhause, im Ausgang, im Restaurant, beim Arbeiten, Shoppen, Autofahren, Laufen auf dem (sehr) heissen Sand usw. Weiter brauchst du hier quasi nur ein Pyjama und Badehosen – zwischen diesen beiden Outfits wird je nach Tätigkeit und Zeit gewechselt. Apropos Zeit; obwohl es ein touristischer Ort ist, kommen und gehen die Afrikaner, wann sie es für richtig halten. Sie sind immer relaxed – dies scheint sich durchs ganze Land hindurch zu ziehen. Sodwana ist jedoch auch bekannt für den hohen Alkohol- und vor allem Zigarettenkonsum (inkl. Joints). An diesem Ort laufen dir ganz viele Kühe, Ziegen und Hunde über den Weg – wie in der Schweiz Katzen. Die Strassen werden von vielen Fischer- und Tauchboten befahren. Ein paar Pups, Restaurants und kleine Shops vervollständigen dieses kleine niedliche Dörfchen.