Yesterday I headed out with the Blue Wilderness crew to the Alphard Banks, 42 nautical miles SE of Struisbaai, Cape Aghulas, to what is arguably the most southern scuba dive destination in Africa. The spot rises up to around 15 meters, and then drops off to around 80 meters to the west and 70 meters in the east. 

Two short tail stingrays on Alphard banks

The trip out in relatively flat seas for this area took two and a half hours, steaming at around 30 to 35 km/h. Once there we put down a market buoy, and I rolled over the side to freedive the drift and get a feel for the current, visibility and animal life. The visibility was green but clean, and on shallow section was visible from the surface, as were shoals of small hottentot, and it was exhilarating to be diving in wild new territory where pretty much anything was possible from an interaction perspective.

Mark then joined me and for half and hour and we hunted yellowtail, shoals and singles of which kept appearing out of the fringes of our vision, mostly singles, but twice massive shoals of perhaps a thousand individuals. Then it was onto SCUBA and down to the bottom, where we engaged with four short tailed rays who kept us entertained in this epic location that has al the makings of a legendary dive location, albeit someway off the coast.

A large shoal of yellowtail on Alphard Banks.
According to local spearos who have dived this area many times, when the variables are right the place lights up like a pelagic bomb - marlin, pelagic sharks, yellow tail, and huge shoals of reef fish. Yesterday the water was perhaps too cold for us to witness the reef at its best, but we left with the certainty that its the kind of location which when exploding is just phenomenal. Clearly we will be back - on good days hopefully, when the drive time there and back is under five hours.

Enclosure