The Wild Coast and the Sardine Run

The Wild Coast of the Eastern Cape earns its name between June and August each year, when the huge migrating sardine shoals arrive, bringing with them the predatory sharks and dolphins. This coincides with the migration of the humpback whales, which are moving north to their breeding grounds. The waters between Port Elizabeth and Durban are alive with activity, with the everyday drama of survival played out between the whales, sharks, sardines and sea birds providing visitors with great opportunities for sightseeing, scuba diving and photography.

The Reef

The Aliwal Shoal, around five kilometres out from Umkomaas, is renowned as one of the best diving locations in the world. It is also something of an anomaly. Unlike most reefs, it is not made out of coral but is formed from an ancient fossilised range of coastal dunes, which survives as a rocky reef rising from the sea bed up to around 11 metres below the surface of the ocean. The reef supports a variety of hard and soft corals, which provide shelter for a great many species of tropical and subtropical fish, not least the many species of sharks, including a huge population of ragged-toothed sharks, which are often seen in groups of up to fifty or sixty strong between July and December after the sardine run is over. This is one of the mysteries of the area—why they congregate at this time in particular—but it means that these waters provide a year round and ever changing spectacle for visitors.

Dive with the Sharks

Durban is one of the most popular city destinations for travellers to South Africa, and is a stop-over port on most Africa and Indian Ocean cruises. Umkomaas is only a half hour’s drive away, making it the ideal spot for a shore excursion to soak up the atmosphere of the beautiful Eastern Cape coastline, its beaches, open spaces and opportunities for witnessing the drama of the wildlife out in the ocean. When the wind is up and the huge waves are crashing upon the shore, the sight of surfing dolphins flying through the spray is one you’ll never forget. The months of the sardine run are comparatively busy along this coast, with many tourists coming for the organised diving vacations to explore the reef and its shipwrecks and to dive with the sharks. Day trips for inexperienced casual divers are also available, providing a memorable experience for anyone brave enough to face these fearsome fish in their natural habitat.

The Ragged Tooth Shark is not aggressive, although it looks pretty fearsome. This makes it a popular aquarium exhibit as well as one of the safest species of shark to meet on a dive. The greatest populations of Ragged Toothed Sharks are found either on the Aliwal Shoal, on the reefs further south—in the dive sites of Chunnel, Cathedral and Raggies caves—or just north of the shoal on the wreck of the Nebo, a 200 ton steamship that has laid on the shoal since 1884. All that remains is a steel skeleton that supports many colourful sponges and soft corals, home to large schools of fish that attract the sharks.

Different Species of Shark require different diving methods. These can be caged or free dives, baited or un-baited. Caged diving is for the brave, although it is perfectly safe. If you want to come face to face with the truly awesome Great White Shark, this is for you. However, some of the other species of sharks are much more docile and you can safely swim with them. Tiger Sharks are shy, inquisitive and intelligent, and are attracted to an area by baiting the water. This is done by working with the currents to create an odour corridor that attracts the sharks to the boat. Once they have arrived, the divers slip carefully and quietly into the water to swim among them. This is not risk-free and only a few countries around the world allow free diving with Tiger Sharks, but safety divers are always there to accompany the group and intervene if any shark comes too close.

Whale Watching

Whales have long been associated with the town of Unkomaas. The name of the river, Mkhomzi, can be translated as ‘the place of cow whales’, so called because of the whales that used to swim into the estuary to shelter and give birth. These days you may be lucky enough to see one in the area during the winter, but the large schools of cow whales have gone. You need to go out onto the ocean to see them.

For those who like to keep their feet dry and stay onboard the boat, just getting out among the whales, dolphins and sea birds during the sardine run is as exciting as any encounter with sharks. You can witness a feeding frenzy without the fear of becoming a part of it. Anyone who has witnessed the magnificent grace of a huge humpback whale at close quarters comes away somehow change by the experience, by this contact with the mysterious intelligence of these giants of the ocean.



"contributed by Susie Fellowes" 

Making Room For the Past: Umkomaas

Ocean Park Guest House under construction 2007

Our guest house is situated in one of the most beautiful towns in South Africa. However it seems that it is also quite the unknown little gem too. So Ocean Park Guest House has decided to make accommodation to share a bit of the town’s history with you, and some of its most famous events. It may not be on the scale of the big cities, but in its own way our quaint town of Umkomaas has such a flavourful past that it has contributed to the establishment of a fiercely loyal local community, one that holds a great sense of love for the town and its surroundings. We introduce to you our town, Umkomaas, love it like a local, we know you will.

In 1861 a harbour was built on the KZN South Coast primarily as a place to ship the local harvests of sugar; with all the activity surrounding the harbor, the town of Umkomaas formed around it. The local people named the river uMkhomazi, which means “The Place of Cow Whales” because of the large number of whales that used the shallow estuary as a place to give birth to their calves. Unfortunately with the development of the ports in Durban and Port Shepstone, the Umkomaas harbor fell into disuse, but the town itself, as you can see, continued unhindered.

Named ‘South Barrow’ until 1924, the river itself was literally teeming with wildlife, including hippos and crocodiles well up until the mid-1860s when attempts to establish a harbor in the river mouth began.

In the 1860s a Mr. Greenacre established a general dealer store and small inn on the hill overlooking the uMakhosi River in order to capitalize (as did his family years later in West Street Durban) on the passing trade.

Aside from the sugar trade, Umkomaas is known for a few interesting historical events such as the WW2 Kitty Hawk that was involved in a mid-air collision and crashed in the Umkomaas river as well as the establishment of the local chemical cellulose manufacturing business in the 1950s. An Italian group invested in the business, attracting many Italian people to the area; because of this it is said that the Italian community in Umkomaas is the largest in South Africa.

At the age of 17 (around 1870), Sir Cecil John Rhodes who was diagnosed with a lung disease, possibly consumption, and was sent to stay with his brother, Herbert Rhodes who was attempting to farm cotton in the Umkomaas Valley. (The land was later considered unsuitable for cotton farming, and the farming venture failed.)

Umkomaas has also attracted a few more modern celebrities; among these is PGA golfer, Tim Clark who is credited with designing Umkomaas golf Course. The course proved to be quite a challenge as it was set in the middle of a densely forested area that features a delightful waterfall and a number of bush walks.

Then we have Swedish-born tennis player Mats Wilander, who although not originally from South Africa, is rumored to have invested in a well known property in Umkomaas.

Literary reference to the Umkomaas river valley is found in an early chapter of Alan Paton's 1948 novel Cry, The Beloved Country.  “From Ixopo the toy train climbs up into other hills, the green rolling hills of Lufafa, Eastwolds, Donnybrook. From Donnybrook the broad-gauge runs to the great valley of the Umkomaas.”

We all know that Umkomaas is most renowned for the superb diving opportunities created by the Aliwal Shoal, 4 kilometers off Umkomaas. Aliwal shoal is named after the sailing ship ‘Alawal’ that was almost wrecked in 1849 during a storm. Aliwal shoal is about 1,5km long and 1km wid. It’s a fossilized sand dune of soft and hard coral and sponges, which hosts an astounding variety of marine life, most notably the Ragged Tooth Shark.  Aliwal shoal also sports few adventurous wreck dives on the 'Produce' and the 'Nebo' and great reef drift dives.  The local dive scene is not only famous for these but also baited open water shark dives where divers can get up close and personal with Tiger sharks, Black Tips and Bull Sharks - locally know as Zambezi Sharks,  which are abundant in the area.

Umkomaas is also honored by the South African Navy with the naming of a mine countermeasure vessel being named after it, the SAS Umkomaas.

Rich with history, and a future filled with interesting activities, Ocean Park Guest House looks forward to sharing our beautiful town with you.

Bookings can be made online or by emailing our guest house manager, Lana on info@oceanpark.co.za.

Join us on Facebook or Follow us on Twitter