Mboyti

Everything starts at the river mouth. Launches for this part of the Pondoland coast go from Mbotyi or from Port Edward to the north, and the ground offshore is mainly shelving rocky reef running parallel to the coastline, with the best diving in the 12 to 40 metre range. There is no single pinnacle or wreck to work: the reef shelves away from the shore, so how deep you dive is set mostly by how far out the boat drops you.

What covers that rock is not tropical coral. The benthic community here is dominated by coralline seaweeds, gorgonian sea fans and large sponges, because this coast sits too far south of the equator for warm-water reef-building corals, so the reef reads as a temperate garden of fans and sponge heads rather than a hard-coral wall. It is scenery that rewards a wide-angle rig more than a species checklist.

Plan for moving water and changeable clarity. Strong currents are common along this coast, so dives here run with the flow and the boat follows rather than sitting on a mooring. The many rivers along this shore carry silt and in the rainy season the visibility is often poor, with the Mbotyi River emptying right beside the launch. Water temperatures range from about 25°C in summer to about 19°C in winter, and May and June are often the best months for diving this region.