November 23-25, Staring down Monkeys and Other Adventures in Sodwana Bay

After two great nights at Cape Vidal we made our way north to Sodwana Bay, still part of the St. Lucia Wetland Park. We had read that Sodwana Bay was within the top ten of great dive spots in the world and that there was also great snorkeling. We had booked 3 nights of camping precisely because of the beach and the snorkeling. We arrived at the check-in a few minutes after 3pm to find the rangers locking the office up. They told us to go to the gate and just check in there. When we did the guard was very confused to find that we had already booked and paid in advance as we thought we needed to because it is the start of summer and thus school breaks/vacation time in South Africa. We have been warned by all guide books and people to book in advance for our accommodations during the next few months. So we did, and after a lot of confusion the guard reluctantly let us through the gate to the campgrounds.

Because Cape Vidal had been almost completely full and because Sodwana Bay has this fantastic reputation we assumed the same would be true of the campground here. We fortunately had a site number already, E-249, so we started to follow the signs to E. The paved road ended and heavy sand began, making it difficult for our 2WD Toyota Corolla to maneuver. We drove around and found – NO ONE. Not a soul. NO ONE. We eventually found our campsite after passing 20 or 30 EMPTY sites.

On our third and last night at Sodwana we had only ever seen ONE other campsite filled. And the camp is massive – there are easily 250 sites (seriously – google map it). When we arrived on the first day, I found this very disturbing – having no idea where we were (even where our campsite was in relation to anything else) and thinking of all the African animals and bugs that surrounded us in only our mosquito net tent. And in fact to confirm this fear shortly after we arrived we saw a troop of 30 mongooses wander through the campsite next to us.

As night fell, Duncan went to collect water to boil and returned saying, 'Well I've seen my first wild African cat.' (At Cape Vidal when we were hanging out with our neighbors they had told us that they saw long tailed genets in the tree above them). Trying to size up my predator I asked 'How big? Like house cat size?' Duncan replied, 'Oh no, bigger.' We finished dinner and climbed into our tent for the night and were slowly drifting into sleep when we heard, 'meow!' Turning our lights on we discovered a very pregnant house cat sitting underneath our car. Ahhh, relief. I figured that a very pregnant cat would not survive long in the bush unless there was a lack of large predators – especially considering she was the size of the mongooses we saw earlier. She left us alone that night but then returned our last night and hung out for some time. We said goodnight to her figuring she would be gone when we left in the morning, but there she was to greet us as we woke. She watched Duncan make breakfast and hung out with us until we left. She was a very pleasant surprise.

The beach at Sodwana was farther away than we had anticipated. At Cape Vidal we could walk 4 minutes to the beach, at Sodwana we had to drive 7 or 8. The other problem was to get to the reefs you really had to charter a boat. If you were a diver there was no problem because there were lots of companies ready to offer good packages, but there were no real packages for snorkelers, and the only company on the beach regularly would only offer to rent us snorkel gear. So we had a great time swimming and Duncan in particular did some good snorkeling at low tide just off the beach with our own mask.

The only other adventure we have had of note was a war with the monkeys who view our food as their food. One morning Duncan cooked up a wonderful breakfast of sausage and French toast. We had finished the meal and cleaned up. Duncan went to sit in the car and read for a bit and I wandered off to the bathroom. I came back to find Duncan standing outside the car with a big stick in his hands. He explained, “Monkey Attack.” Looking around our campsite we were completely surrounded – at least 20 monkeys. The only thing we had left outside was our garbage bag which had one piece of moldy bread in it. One monkey had created a diversion while another stole the bag and climbed up high in the tree. While clearly one piece of moldy bread is no treat for 20 monkeys, we being the only campers for what seemed like miles, were the concentration of their efforts. We threw rocks into the trees, waved sticks, banged our pot, clapped our hands, and hissed all to the great amusement of the monkeys who didn't budge except when the occasional rock came their way. They all had their different personalities and different roles in the troop. One was definitely the leader, one was the 'sentry' who would see how close he could get, and others were diversion makers. Eventually they lost interest and went away, only to return every morning and evening, conveniently around meal times to see if we'd be careless again. We were not. :)

Andrea

P.S. If any of you are divers you should really consider Sodwana Bay. Look up Coral Divers on the internet – they are down the road from our campsite and provide full accommodation, meals, and dives for very reasonable prices (in fact, even to us it seemed a great deal). They also have a deal for you divers who want to teach others to dive - $1000 USD for 3 months accommodation, meals, and training to become a dive master. You of course work for your keep in those three months, but your work is really hands on training.