+27 84 448 1601 carel@diveinn.co.za

Port Elizabeth Dive Fest and Road trip

We used the PE Dive Festival as starting point for our road trip and after two years of bad weather this year had great conditions again!
All the boats launch from the Wildside Boat and Ski Club. There is a festival atmosphere for the 3 days of the festival with music, food stalls and a lot of divers from all over the country.
Participants register for their dives on the website beforehand at a discounted price and when you register at the registration desk a lovely t-shirt and goodie bag awaits you.
We have to mention the great job the wildside club committee has done again this year with the organising of this dive festival.
The dive sites are covered with soft and hard coral. The koester fish is nice and colourful with it spots and we were lucky to see a big horse fish which is characteristic to the area. Ragged tooth and other sharks like pyjama, leopard and shy sharks are also seen on the dives. The skippers are experienced launching through the surf and students from the navy academy help you with your gear at the boats shivering in the shallows as the wetsuits they are provided do not fit or they are only standing in the water with board shorts and t-shirts.
The award after diving your heart out might be a big prize or some equally lovely spot prizes.

After the festival the idea was to dive all the way back to Cape Town thus the idea of the Port Elizabeth Dive Fest and Road tip.

Unfortunately the weather did not play along at Tsitsikama, Plettenberg Bay, Mosselbay and Cape L’Agulhas. 1 dive was made in Knysna at Thesen’s jetty to look for the scarce Knysna Sea horse. The water was dirty, 14 degrees and full of rubbish, but 4 different types of nudi’s, couple of blennies/ gobies and at the of the dive when the camera fogged up properly a Sea horse was spotted.

Naomi van der Colff