Diving Packages

Discovering Africa Safaris Classic Shark and 'Big 5' Safari

Our original and still most popular Safari is designed to meet the needs of divers and their non diving family members. The emphasis is on sharks but we also dive the best coral reefs in Southern Africa and spend plenty of time in getting up close with Africa's 'Big 5' in our Provincial game parks.

The Safari is more relaxed than our 'Big Shark only' Safaris. We stay in the best accommodation at the various sites with special attention being given to the availability of quality restaurantation at ridiculously low prices compared with Europe.

Our first day is a restful full days visit to Hluhluwe and Umfolozi Game Reserves. This is the place that saved the White Rhinoceros from extinction and from where White Rhinoceros are exported to parts of Africa where they have become extinct. KZN Wildlife is currently working very hard to ensure the survival of both the Black Rhinoceros and the African Wild Dog (Lycaon pictus) both highly endangered at this time.

We now move on for 3 days diving at South Africa's premier coral diving site – Sodwana Bay. We do see sharks at Sodwana (certain times of the year even the odd Great White ) but mainly it is Reef sharks – Grey, Blacktip, Whitetip sharks with spectacular Mantas and Whale sharks in our summer. For the rest of the family, Sodwana offers kite surfing, surfing, Game fishing, visits to nearby Mkuze Park or the amazing Tembe Elephant Park home to most of the world's remaining Tuskers (Elephants with tusks weighing 100+ pounds each signifying an elephant probably over 100 years old).

From Sodwana we move across the international border in to Mozambique and the world's premier Bull shark site of Pinnacles Reef at Ponta do Ouro. Normal divers on Pinnacles have a maybe 40% chance of seeing a shark in the distance but our guide Brian and his son Peter have spent 11 years training these Bull sharks to approach close – but not TOO close – to the divers. Some sort of telepathy exists between shark species because once our guides have the Bull shark relaxed, the Tigers, Scalloped and Great Hammerheads, Silvertips, Blacktips and also Mantas, Devil rays and Eagle rays appear. Did we mention the Whale sharks we snorkel with on the boat ride out to Pinnacles ??

We break the long road trip from Mozambique to the Aliwal Shoal south of Durban with an overnight in St Lucia – a small village right in the Isimangaliso Wetlands Park, a World Heritage site. In the morning we do a two hour boat trip on the Lake to see it's 2,000 crocodiles, 800 hippopotami and 400 bird species including the beautiful African Fish Eagle.

Our last visit is two day's diving on the World famous Aliwal Shoal, home (in our winter) to hundreds of breeding Spotted Ragged Tooth sharks (Sand Tigers) and the equally famous baited shark dives for Tiger sharks, large numbers of Oceanic Blacktip sharks and the occasional Dusky and Bull sharks.

Cost in Euros
Diver € 2,525 Non divers € 1,850
Baited Tiger shark dive € 95 (replaces two normal dives)
Single room supplement € 125
Hire of complete scuba gear € 295

2 525 € (2 631 $) Book Now

Discovering Africa Safaris - 10 and 15 day Shark Specials

Our 10 and 15 day Special Shark Safaris are designed for the 'Shark nut' who has to dive with all the ' biggest and baddest' sharks. We do take the opportunity of driving through Umfolozi/Hluhluwe Game Reserve but the emphisis is entirely on spending as much time as possible with the biggest sharks. Basically the 10 day Safari we dive with the sharks resident in Mozambican and Natal seas with clients wishing to do so, then clients staying for 15 days fly down to Cape Town to dive with the Cape's special large sharks.

Clients arrive at Durban International airport and we travel immediately towards the Mozambique border post overnighting in a private game reserve 160 kms before the border. The following morning we are on the road early to cross into Mozambique in time to have an acclimatising reef dive to check out our weight and ensure that all our photographic gear is watertight and properly set up.

Our airconditioned hotel is close to the beach and it's famous Mozambican restaurants. Ponta is above all renown for it's seafood and Mozambican peri peri chicken.

We now have two days' diving visiting Pinnacles shark reef in the morning followed by a reef dive. Pinnacles is 11 kms from the launch site giving us plenty of time to spot a whale shark and have an unforgettable snorkel with these huge sharks. At Pinnacles itself, our initial goal is to get a Bull shark in close. Divers on other boats may, if they are lucky, see a shark of one species or other in the distance but to get the various shark species to come in close enough to photograph, it is essential to have a dive master who can 'call in' the Bull sharks. There are only two Dive masters with this skill – Brian and son Peter Griffiths. Once we have the first Bull shark swimming around our group of divers, there is some kind of unexplained telepathy between the sharks because now more Bull sharks (up to 6-8 Bulls) join us together with Tigers,Silvertips, Oceanic Blacktips, Scalloped and Great Hammerheads, Dusky sharks. Brian has seen 14 different species of shark on Pinnacles. We must remember to keep keep looking around us as Pinnacles is also home to Manta, Devil rays and Eagle rays.

After our last dive, we quit Ponta and cross the border back to South Africa to overnight in our private game reserve. The following morning is a lazy day. We are travelling down to Umkomaas to the south of Durban (over 500 kms from the Mozambique border). To take advantage, we travel via Umfolozi/Hluhluwe 'Big 5' game reserve entering via the northern gate and exiting at the southern gate. This is the park complex which saved the White Rhinoceros from extinction and is currently working to save the highly endangered Black Rhinoceros and African Wild Dog.There are all the species indigenous to this area including lion, leopard, cheetah, elephant, buffalo as well as the White and Black Rhino, various antelope, hyena, giraffe etc etc. Kruger is our biggest game park but Hluhluwe/Umfolozi is the most interesting.

We have two days diving on Aliwal Shoal. Each day we have the choice of a baited shark dive or two reef dives. The baited dive consists of suspending a drum filled with about 20 kgs of rotten sardines at a depth of 8 metres in an area where there are numerous resident Tiger sharks. Immediately we drop the bait box in the water, we are surrounded by 30 – 40 Oceanic Blacktip sharks (Charcharinhus limbatus ) but we stay patient in the boat for maybe 40 minutes to hopefully have a Tiger shark or two waiting for us when we drop in to the water. This dive is at only 8 – 10 metres so (if you can keep your breathing calm with so many sharks around) a dive of 90 minutes is possible.

In the winter, Aliwal is home to hundreds of breeding Spotted Ragged Tooth sharks and we normally have a few who decide to stay over through the summer months. Huge 4 metre Guitar sharks are also to be found on southern sands.

The following day, our 10 day Safari guests fly home whilst the remainder fly down to Cape Town to continue our dives with the Cape's special species.

First day in Cape Town is planned for a Great White shark dive. By law,these dives have to be done at the surface in a cage. The reason for this is simple. The Great Whites are to be seen at Dyers Island, Gansbaai or Seal Island False Bay. At both locations, there are huge seal colonies which provide easy meals for the sharks but at both areas, visibility is very limited. Big sharks in bad visibility are really dangerous in that not being able to visually check if a diver is food, they turn to tasting the diver.

The following day we have two dives (no cage as visibility is again good). The first is with the most primitive shark that we know, the 7 gill Cowshark together with a number of smaller sharks who exist only in these Cape waters. Our second dive is with the playful Cape Fur Seals,

On our last diving day, we sail 30 kms out to sea to where there is a warm water current. This is where we find Blue sharks and Shortfin Mako. This dive is done in the same way as out Tiger shark dives using a baitbox filled with rotten fish.

Our last full day is reserved for a land trip to visit the Cape Peninsular. It would be a great waste to not visit the Peninsular but we have another reason for keeping this day to the end. In Mozambique and Natal it is rare that we have seas rough enough to make diving impossible. The Cape, however, does get bad seas. By having a day in hand, if we have a rough sea on a diving day, we substitute the land trip and still have a spare day to fitin dive/s that we missed.

Costs

Diver 10 day trip €1,650 Non divers € 1,075

Diver 15 day trip € 2,546 Non diver € 1,575

Baited shark dive € 95 (replaces two normal dives)

Hire of complete scuba gear 10 day € 145 15 day € 275

Supplement for single room 10 day € 85 15 day € 155

1 650 € (1 719 $) Book Now