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Just outside Brits, and only an hour’s drive from Pretoria and Johannesburg, Miracle Waters is located on the site of a former open-cast chrome mine. An altitude dive site (about 1 500 metres above sea level) with clear, spring-fed warm water, it enjoys a beautiful setting surrounded by natural bush, so is popular with all levels of divers, from novices embarking on their first open water dives to technical divers, who come to perfect their advanced skills and develop the team skills needed for complex wreck or cave dives...

(GPS coordinates: -25.677057, 27.757967)

Read more at www.nightjartravel.com/scuba-diving/miracle-waters-diving

 

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The Eastern side of False Bay, between Gordon’s Bay and Hangklip, offers some varied and exciting diving and is usually best in summer, when the southeaster cleans up the water. Many of the sites are fairly close in so can be accessed by boat from Gordon’s Bay or from the shore. That said, the rocky coastline is steep and difficult to negotiate, so entry and exit can be tricky, particularly if there is a swell. Top spots include...

(GPS coordinates: -34.152216, 18.858199)

Read more at www.nightjartravel.com/scuba-diving/eastern-false-bay-diving

 

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The False Bay coast is best dived in winter after a northwest wind and offers a variety of dive sites that will satisfy everyone from wreck-seekers to macro-photographers. Although the water is warmer than on the Atlantic coast, a dry suit is recommended. Top sites include Partridge Point, Seal Rock and Batsata Maze. The best-known dives off this coast, however, are probably the Smits wrecks, which lie on the sand in about 35 metres of water…

(GPS coordinates: -34.233856, 18.473822)

Read more at www.nightjartravel.com/scuba-diving/cape-town-false-bay-boat-diving

 

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Thanks to the variety of sheltered shore and boat entry sites both in the Bay and around the Point, Mossel Bay is diveable in most conditions. The major diving hub on the Garden Route, it offers wrecks, colourful reefs covered with beautiful fans and sponges and plenty of fish life, as well as baited shark dives and Great White Shark cage diving. Dolphins and, between June and November, whales are regularly seen along the coast and divers will occasionally see Ragged-Tooth Sharks, turtles and even manta rays...

(GPS coordinates: -34.1789, 22.1416)

Read more at www.nightjartravel.com/scuba-diving/mossel-bay-diving

 

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Aliwal Shoal Diving

Aliwal Shoal offers some of the most varied and exciting diving in the world and is regularly showered with accolades by international dive magazines. A fossilised sand dune, the Shoal is about five kilometres long and about three to five kilometres offshore. It supports an incredible variety of marine life as well as dramatic topography. There are two wrecks – the Produce and the Nebo – vast Brindle Bass, magnificent rays, including manta rays, turtles, great shoals of pelagic fish and some rare sightings, such as Harlequin Goldies and Tiger Angelfish. These are often overlooked by divers, who come in the hope of seeing the stars of the show, Aliwal’s famous seasonal visitors, the Ragged-Tooth Sharks, which congregate on the Shoal to mate between June and November...

(GPS coordinates: -30.20063, 30.802717)

Read more at www.nightjartravel.com/scuba-diving/aliwal-shoal-diving

 

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Landers Diving

The little-dived sites of Landers Reef, about two to four kilometres offshore just south of Aliwal Shoal, are the best-kept secrets of South African diving. The sites are accessible, even if they involve a fairly long boat ride, from Umkomaas, and several operators launch out of the small controlled slipway at Rocky Bay about 20km to the south. The topography and marine life on these reefs, which includes fossilised sand dunes, are fairly similar to Aliwal Shoal but the reefs are deeper so there are exciting opportunities for experienced divers to explore the walls and deeper sites, while novices can dive the top of the reefs…

(GPS coordinates: -30.33547, 30.734535)

Read more at www.nightjartravel.com/scuba-diving/landers-diving

 

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uShaka Marine World Diving

Although KwaZulu-Natal has the best diving in the country, you don’t have to brave the open ocean to enjoy the marine life - you can have one of the best underwater interactions of your life in the crystal clear, four-metre deep lagoon and open ocean tanks of uShaka Marine World. Dive virgins can sign up for a two-hour Discover Scuba Diving experience and mingle with the 1 500 or so curious reef fish in the lagoon, which include beautiful bannerfish, emperor angelfish and even harmless smooth houndsharks a metre long. Three times a day, at 10.30am, 1pm and 4pm, guides from uShaka offer the Xpanda Shark Experience, which allows you to get up close and personal with Zambezi and ragged-tooth sharks from the safety of an acrylic cage...

(GPS coordinates: -29.86799, 31.04498)

Read more at www.nightjartravel.com/scuba-diving/ushaka-marine-world-diving