Sodwana Bay, South Africa

In early December, a small group of us skipped town for a weekend at the beach (the rainy season didn’t disappoint…there was a lot of rain and we were all in some need of a little sunshine). The trip goers were all PAC doctors and significant others + Phil (a consultant on loan from Bain to TechnoServe for a couple of months). As per our norm, we scooted out of town after the weekly doctor’s meeting on a Friday and try as we might to avoid it, ended up driving the last leg in the dark enroute to Sodwana Bay. In our defense, there was a fierce storm that held us up at the border for about 40 minutes (amazing and beautiful, but fierce). Fortunately, we were in a caravan and members of the group had been there before so we arrived safe and sound for a fabulous weekend of sun, scuba diving, speed scrabble, and beach drinks. Our accommodations worked out perfectly, and we even survived a surprise attack from the monkeys (only a sleeve of crackers and a couple of PB & J sandwiches were sacrificed). Guess they weren't kidding about 'the monkey problem.' I have to admit, that's one of my favorite things about Africa...the pests are not squirrels or pigeons or bears, they're cool things like monkeys and charging beasts that I get excited to see (even if it means welcoming them into our beach house).

It was a typical beach house with the bedrooms on the ground floor and the 'living area' and kitchen on the second floor.

View from the patio

Conspiring monkeys

On Saturday morning we headed down to the beach for our first dive. While packing us up in Swaziland, I couldn't find Doug's dive certification card, but I did find his original certificate from 1996! We had to take a picture because it is kind of hard to believe he still has it! Needless to say, they verified his diving credentials on-line prior to our departure...

The 'satellite' dive shop, oceanside

They really like their Zodiac dive boats over here...none of this luxury dive boat stuff in Southern Africa - it's a glorified rubber dingy with a motor that you roll off of backwards when the skipper says, 'one, two, chicken!' I'm always too scared to be the last one on the boat, but I've kind of wondered what would happen if I didn't roll on command.

Getting 'kitted-up' (from left to right: Erin, Phil, Michelle, Paisley, Stephanie, and Jason)

After our morning dive we were all feeling a little green (due to the ocean chop) and as a group we decided not to go out on a second dive. Doug made friends with our dive master and discovered that his son stored a longboard at his house, so that was the last we saw of Doug for 5 hours (literally). The rest of us lazed around reading books (I was reading The Book Thief and highly recommend it), taking naps, and walking on the beach. The beach was totally isolated and nobody was out - the dunes were really beautiful.

After a night filled with good food, good friends, and good games (I take them with me wherever I go!) we got up again on Sunday for more diving. The sun finally came out and it was awesome. Since Jason got to dive the day before while his wife Fiona stayed behind, he was on Daddy duty on Sunday and father and son were clearly both happy about it!