Top 5 Favourite Dive Sites in South Africa

I've changed my mind already. I dived Atlantis (near Partridge Point in Cape Town) on Saturday for the first time. It was awesome. The topography is spectacular: Two huge granite pinnacles coming up from 24 metres on the sand to about 4 metres below the surface, with a few large ledges and overhangs. The marine life is brilliant too: all sorts of sea fans, lots of basket stars, shysharks, a large school of Hottentot, nudibranchs and on and on.

 

Wow... Top 5 dive sites in South Africa....

Steenbras Deep, Noble Reef and New Reef in Gordon's Bay (the other side of False Bay to Simons Town) - fabulous, unspoilt reefs, unusual marine life, macro climates all of their own, diverse, nudibranchs, lush...colorful - simply stunning!

oops, that is three already....

Batsata Maze in Simons Town, lovely swim throughs, cracks, very colorful.

Shark Alley in Simons Town to dive with the cow sharks.

As you can see, I love diving in Cape Town!

 

A bit embarrassing, but I've never dived anywhere on the eastern side of False Bay. I really should try to make a trip out there soon.

 

I'm also Cape Town based and mainly boat dive here ... sites I can recommend: Deep Partridge south of Millers Point, Fan Reef (18-30m) and Boat Rock close to Millers... all granite reefs with amazing assemblages of invertebrate life on them.. I never get tired of diving them. Atlantic side it's really hard to beat Star Walls: the longest wall in Cape Town, drops from 8m to about 36 in places and the wall itself is just covered with life: sumo crabs and nudibranchs all over... as one diver said, it's nudi wallpaper down there Then Di's Cracks... visitors of course like to dive with seals, ... and the sevengills, which can be done as a shore dive... it's quite something to dive with these big sharks.. 10m of water and they come close enough to touch ..
Shore dives I like Coral Gardens and man have we ever been finding interesting stuff at little old Long Beach -- three very unusual nudis for starters
of course there are wrecks galore for the wreck boykies, pick a side, pick a depth, pick the sort of wreck you want to dive..
I'm starting to dive Gordons Bay side as well and find the marine life there very interesting
PE... though the viz on the south coast is generally pretty bad, what that means is the marine life is varied and vivid and fascinating. Also, herds of endemics...
Protea Banks I like, very much as well as Aliwal, Cathedral.. then Sodwana.. hmmmm. For my money Seven Mile is better than Nine and I'm still hoping to dive Gotham.. but Two Mile -- Stringer, Bikini, Rooneys... Caves and Overhangs, Antons.. it's all pretty jolly amazing.
and then of course there's the Sardine Run.

---------- Post added April 16th, 2014 at 10:49 PM ----------

Atlantis is my top favourite dive of all time, anywhere.

 

Great to read about these dive sites. I am sure they are wonderful. I enjoy diving Sodwana , Aliwal and then I have done so many great dives in Southern Mozambique that we try to dive there every year .

We once did a dive near Inhaca island on an old steamboat wreck and the huge amount of fish life around us was amazing ! We also travelled past at least 4 separate groups of Humpback whales playing off the coast to get to our dive site ...You never forget such happenings and dives .

 

OK I will Bite. How can i have only 5?

1. Smits wrecks. Love the rockeater. dived on Saturday 1-2m viz and still had a great dive. Follow up with intro to wrecks never let you down site PMB. (Pietermaritzberg)
2. Atlantis. This is an incredible site that we all have a responsibility of maintaining in immaculate condition
3. Another vote for Bakini-Mellow Yellow Sodwana. This is like an eel nursery! Love the cleaning stations as well.
4. Roman rock. 5 sites in one relatively shallow depth gives you great bottom time with huge diversity to choose from.
5. Gordons bay Noble reef or either Coral Gardens both Gordons and Atlantic side.

We are spoiled for choice here. Launching from Hout Bay last week one of my divers glanced at my GPS and remarked. "you have a lot of way-points marked." each one a great dive site.

 

I see you have just bought your first Dive boat....then anywhere you are going with it will be a favourite dive spot...congrats & enjoy the diving !

 

Thank you Jan. Yes you are so right, the pleasure of choosing where I want to go as well as relaxed scheduling is really amazing. I also have a bunch of great buddies to dive with when we go out, so I am loving it.

 

5 Sites well I'd go with;

Princess Elizabeth in Cape Town (cause she's in great shape still and fun to play on);
The Fleur in Cape Town (cause you can check out her sister ship at the waterfront before you dive her);
The Athena in Plettenberg Bay (cause I love both Plett and wrecks);
5 mile in Sodwana (cause the topography is amazing);
Komati Poort (cause I am yearning to dive the mine again).

 

I have only dived in Cape Town so I probably can't say the best sites in South Africa, but as far as Cape Town goes my favorites are definitely A-Frame (for a nice swim through), Pyramid (to dive with the Cow Sharks) and then of course Smitswinkel Bay (for the many wrecks).

I'm heading to Aliwal in a few weeks to go dive with the raggies so then I'll probably add another one to the list