Dolphin Swimming in Sodwana

Janet Rudman 22 May 2022

Towards the end of April 2022, a group of lovely ladies from Gauteng boarded a luxury van with Heartfelt Tours to Sodwana. So what was the aim of this trip? Many of the Freediving Johannesburg divers, while diving regularly, have not freedived in the sea before. Learning to dive in the sea was the next step towards their Freediving journey. After, I had personally dived with John McCarthy in September 2021 and had the most phenomenal, personal interaction with dolphins. After an 8 hour trip and a NAUI mermaid presentation on-route, we arrived at beautiful, tropical Sodwana Bay. We met up with some of our dive buddies from around the rest of the country, who wanted to join in the fun. This included my mentor and favourite dive buddy Gletwyn Rubidge, the current South African Men’s depth record holder.

Each morning we elected to do a very early morning dive, to make the most of the day. We were luckily enough to be loaned a 4×4 game viewing vehicle by Sisodwana Lodge. This making our exploring around the village and sandy roads a lot easier & of course a lot of fun, with the all girl crew on board. We started out with some stretching, before an early launch each morning.

Our sea trips daily usually entailed a scout for dolphins, followed by a shallow reef dive, some line diving and technique coaching, then some depth dives down the line into the blue. During coaching different techniques were introduced to the girls including no fins diving, which proved to be very popular. It was amazing to watch the divers grow on a daily basis and to watch every single Joburg student reach a personal best in depth.

Over the 4 days of diving we were fortunate enough to dive with turtles, some nice big raggies, rays, beautiful tropical fish and the most special, the dolphins. When swimming down 20m to say hello to 5 big raggies, they were unperturbed and almost disinterested in us. On day 2, we were lucky enough to spot some bottled nose dolphins. They approached the boats’ wake and started playing. We took this opportunity to jump in.

John, in his wisdom and years of experience of diving with the dolphins in Sodwana, offered us some very valuable advice. Swim to the bottom, not towards the dolphins. Swim around in circles. Let the dolphins approach you. This worked like a charm, as the dolphins where intrigued and were curious to these beings that had entered their dimension. They swam around us, talking dolphin and swimming around us, while we swam in circles. Making eye contact, communicating in dolphin and having the time of their lives. After 30 minutes, us girls were exhausted. We literally couldn’t swim anymore, and I suppose we weren’t as much fun to dive with anymore, due to our lack of energy and the dolphins swam into the distance. We climbed onto the boat, took off our gear, ready to go do some reef diving. As the boat was about to leave, the same pod of dolphins returned and started playing around the boat. Digger, the skipper of “Da Blu Juice”, in his Aussie accent, informed us the the dolly’s wanted to play some more. So with that, in we jumped, and played some more. We continued to play for at least another half an hour before some scuba divers arrived. We decided to get back onto the boat to give them a chance to play with the dolphins.

While taking off our gear and observing the scuba divers from the boat, we noticed something interesting. They sprinted after the dolphins, in contract to our approach, where the dolphins came to us. The dolphins immediately left the divers and their interaction was short lived. What came to mind was that if a wild animal charged me, I would turn the other way and run. Which is basically what the scuba divers did to the dolphins. In contrast, if a wild animal seemed unthreatening and playful, I would be inquisitive too and possibly want to interact. Moral of the story….treat the wild animal, as you would like to be treated.

At the end of each dive, we headed straight to the tuck-shop on the beach for the most amazing toasted sandwiches and slap chips. Not being used to diving in swell and currents we were rather exhausted each day after our freediving session. So next up was a shower, followed by an a mid day nap. Every afternoon we explored Sodwana, supporting the local businesses. We had a wonderful mermaid pool session and sundowners at Sisodwana Bay Lodge. They happen to have the most beautiful pool in Sodwana. Mzeni each Lodge is definitely worth a visit, they offer a wide variety of cocktails. After enjoying the view and the cocktails, we had a walk down which felt like 1000 stairs to reach a completely unspoiled, white sand, crystal clear water beach, all to ourselves. Definitely worth the visit. Although don’t forget you need to walk up those 1000 steps back again. “Eat” restaurant makes the best burgers in town & we loved the décor, including the padded toilets, which serve as restaurant chairs. Fabio’s Ice-cream Parlor has the most delicious waffles and are wonderful to fill a sweet tooth..

After 4 days of never to be forgotten freediving, it was time to head back to the big smoke. Luckily, heartfelt tours was there to drive us home, as we were completely out-dived and exhausted. It was a quiet and sleepy drive back to Johannesburg. What a memorable trip, with the most amazing dive buddies. Sodwana…. we shall be back!