by Carel van der colff | Apr 6, 2017 | Dive Inn
Dive Inn first quarter update 2017
Wow, these days the time flies. My idea was to blog every month about something and now I note the first quarter of the year is already gone. Thus the heading for this blog is Dive Inn first quarter update 2017 and almost a follow up on Dive Inn Cape Town 2016 blog of January. 
My sightseeing tours are still doing very well with me doing about 8-12 tours a month and the rest followed by Scuba diving. Scuba diving, PADI training, Dan First aid training or nudibranch hunting. So far this year my computer states 58 dives and 60.2 hours underwater.
98 percent of all the tours and dives are still private with 1-4 people per day. I normally do not mix booked guests unless the weather force my hand and then also only with confirmation with my current guests.
In February we had a great Scuba dive trip to Aliwal Shoal and stayed and dive with Aliwal shoal scuba. For 2 days we drove down the coast to Protea banks and dived with Aqua Planet. Protea banks were the first time we dived there and it was really great. We did do a baited dive, followed by a deep reef dive. In future I would mostly do a baited dive on Aliwal rather than protea BUT we did see Zambesi (bull) sharks here. Unfortunately the Tiger sharks did not come by. The water was much clearer and the current very strong. On the 2nd dive we spotted a school of
Hammerheads
Hammerheads and were an awesome sight to see. Day 2 we did only one dive in great viz and drifted 4.8 km on the 50 minute dive. Thus stay with the dive master as if you do not do it you will be lost in a flash. ALSO the clear warm water can let you dive too deep so easily so keep a look out on your computer and air usage.
Aliwal we had good viz as well with our one and first dive to the Nebo wreck low viz. The low viz was on the wreck itself, midwater was a nice blue but our Cape Town guys were still able to enjoy the low viz dive. Think the DM’ts on this dive was a bit worried. The rest of the 9 other dives were good, nice colours and I was still able to find some Nudibranchs. This time we had no ragged tooth sharks compared to our trip 2 years back where raggies were almost in my Nudibranch pics.
Nudibranch
The next trip to warmer waters will be in September/October to Mozambique you can book by sending a mail to: carel@diveinn.co.za.
Last week we had a big group from Ukraine and Dive Inn went in partnership with Kimo and Tammy from Redsea Jol for the Cape Town stretch of the tour and dives. They just came from Sodwana and Aliwal. It was a tough schedule but a great one to see our wonderful city. We had Great white shark cage diving with Marine dynamics, followed by a drive to Agulhas, the southernmost point of Africa.
Next day was seals and sharks with Shark explorers and penguin viewing. Day 3 was a Cape Peninsula tour with 3 doing an extra seal dive. I chartered Tony form Learn to dive. Day 4 Winelands tour with 10 again doing Blue and Mako shark diving. Day 5 ended most of the touring with a Cape Town city tour. The weather did not play along thus the guys went up the mountain on their off day the Saturday. Organising, touring and diving with such a big group were a first for me but a great experience.
Most of my other tours the last 3 months were in, around, above or under Cape Town. The furthest we ventured was to the game lodges at Sanbona between Montague and Barrydale. We were fortunate enough to have spotted lots of different animals above and below water. Underwater we were even lucky to see rare Nudibranchs and have been
Nameless
spotting a new well camouflaged and very small Nudibranch. At this point we do not know the name of the species.
The beginning of the month the Submerge Diving Magazine published some of my photos in their “Viewfinder” section. Go get your copy or even better subscribe. I am very satisfied with the outcome of the published photos.
Dive Inn first quarter update 2017
This in short was Dive Inn first quarter update 2017. I hope to get a more interesting blog out in May with more Photos of the rarer Nudibranchs species or even new ones we have been spotting in Cape Town.
Happy Diving, Traveling and Touring
by admin | Jan 25, 2017 | Dive Inn
Dive Inn Cape Town 2016
Dive Inn Cape Town 2016 will have a summary of what happened to us .Looking at my calendar today I could not believe that 2016 has flown by. Last year we had a blog post Dive Inn Cape Town Peak season stating what we did in a short period. Thus it will be like a chairman’s report on what were the highlights of our year.
Cape town from air
Dive Inn Cape Town 2016 we did 156 dives with an average bottom time of 54 minutes. We had one dive trip to Sodwana Bay at Reef teach and had some great sightings. Snorkelling with a whale shark and Dolphins then scuba diving with a big manta. Not to mention the small critters like Sea horses and of Course Dive Inn favourite – Nudibranchs.
We had more Nudibranch hunting trips then scuba training. Courses done were PADI Open and Advanced open water, RAID Enriched air divers, Discover Scuba divers, PADI Rescue diver. And our topside favourite course the DAN basic life support and First Aid course. This course is ideal for divers and non-divers alike. DAN also does a lot or the dive community so a good agency to support. An extra feature of the DAN BLS & FA course is that it is Department of Labour Approved.
Iridescent
The touring part of Dive Inn Cape Town 2016 was the busiest with over 100 days of touring done. With the Cape Peninsula and Cape Winelands tour being the most popular. Table Mountain and city tour a close follower. With the great white sharks cage diving and Hermanus tour another popular trip we did. West coast flower trips we had no requests to do. These tours are normally done in August and we hope we will some for the 2017 year on the calendar.
Lot of my guests and friends ask how can you do the peninsula tour sometimes 3-4 times a week and not get bored with it. Easy as the only the road/route stays the same (sometimes). The sightings and weather change constantly and of course our stunning Guests. With all the tours we share what our wonderful Cape Town has on offer and all the guest share a bit of their stories as well which makes the tours even better. I think for me and the guests.
Most times after a tour when we do our farewells it almost feels like we are family or have known each other for a long long time. Thus the tours can never get boring or so I hope ;-). The wine farms always have good wine or we visit the De Villiers chocolate or even have Beer Tasting at Cape BrewingCompany. So the options are endless.
Our Dive Inn Cape Town 2016 guests were from all over the world but the most was from America. We had Brazilians, Peruvians, Argentinians and Mexicans. From up north the Canadians also had a couple of representatives.
Nudibranch Hunting
Europe side we had English (for now), Irish, Scottish, French, Danish, Dutch, Norwegians and Germans. Also from Africa we had guests from Dubai, Qatar, Ghana, and Namibia and of course South Africans. In addition Ukraine, Singapore, India and Indonesia also send some guests my way. Sjoe as I’m typing here it is unbelievable how many nationalities I have met. Wonder now which countries I have missed.
Thank you
Most of all Thank you to all my guest and students who endured my strong Afrikaans accent and added to it my fast way of talking.
Hope Dive Inn 2017 to be just an eventful year with loads of laughs and awesome guests from all over the world. Check us out on FaceBook, Instagram and Twitter. We even have some of the guests praising us on Tripadvisor.
To end Dive Inn Cape Town 2016 blog, also some bit of advertising as seen in the 2017 Official visitors guide Cape Town. “Dive Inn Cape Town provides Private tours, Scuba dive tours and training to travelers and locals in Cape Town with packages to suit all. Level 1 First aid training (department of labour approved) is also provided. We’re committed to ensuring you have a wonderful time in Cape Town above and below water.”
by Carel van der colff | Jun 27, 2016 | Dive Inn
Cape Town Nudibranch hunting
Cape Town Nudibranch hunting is our speciality and at Dive Inn Cape Town we really love the little critters.
Gasflame Nudibranch
In Cape Town Nudibranch hunting from shore is possible and you have a good chance to spot alot. Nudibranchs do move around and are seasonal. Or this is what I noticed so you are not always guaranteed to spot them. With some they are so well camouflaged and or small so very difficult to spot. And just to make it slightly more difficult our wonderful Cape Town waters can have low viz with a bit of swell and surge. This can make nudibranch hunting and photography quite challenging. And Macro Photography is what nudibranchs are about. The Frilly Nudibranch is the only one I have not spotted from shore yet. Most of the photos in this blog are of all the Nudibranchs I have see in Cape Town.
Crowned Nudibranch
Last year I did do a blog about Nudibranchs but decided to it again this year but this time mention all the Cape Town Nudibranch hunting from shore I have spotted the last 6 months only. This will mostly be from the False Bay coastline but do have some pics from Atlantic side. (Please note False Bay is still Atlantic Ocean but slightly warmer. The oceans meet at Cape Agulhas which is about a 3 hour drive from Cape Town)
The most dived shore dive site probably is our training beach – Long beach Simon’s town. The next beach from here towards Cape Point is Sea forth beach, Windmill, A-frame, Pyramid rock and Castle rocks. There are other beaches or dive sites that can be dived on this stretch. They can be slightly more work or can even be very boring. Before Simons town there is the Clan Stuart wreck, Whale Lookout and Sunny cove. On the Clan Stuart wreck I found the least species but did found my first Indian Nudibranch there. (more…)
by Carel van der colff | Mar 14, 2016 | Dive Inn
Eyes
“each of a pair of globular organs in the head through which people and vertebrate animals see, the visible part typically appearing almond-shaped in animals with eyelids”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye
Eyes are also the window to the soul it is said by some.
Galaxy eye
Eyes of underwater critters, animals and humans can have loads of different colours, sizes and shapes and fascinating to eye.
Underwater my favourite eyes to take photos of are that of the Klipfish. Some of them have stunning lines with colours. Some of the rays got lids over them like a veil and lets the eye melt in with the skin colour.
In our DAN first aid course we also advise students if you have an eye injury to close the other eye as well as that injured eye will always move in sync with the other eye. Also have eye protection when working with injured people is a good barrier to have with gloves.
For taking photos of the seeing organs is not always the easiest as you need to get very very close to get the perfect shot. On land it is just as difficult but every now and then you get a good opportunity with a friendly subject who let you get close to their eye. For that reason the 100 mm Macro lenses are much better suited than my 60 mm.
Lesser guitar fish Eye
An eye do have the ability to mesmerize you; I can vouch for that as I got hooked by my wife’s stunning blue orbs years ago. In them you can also see the mood of most creatures.
Not a lot of critters in the wild can survive blind after being blinded. Our humans have been able to adapt with other sensory organs taking over and with technology being able to help and the old way of reading with Braille using ones fingers. Most currency also assists the blind with some braille markings on.
Ostrich eying
Thus in short with Dive Inn Cape Town our eyes are needed a lot for the above water and underwater touring we do to observe the wonders Cape Town holds in our oceans, from the top of Table Mountain to the route to Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope plus the stunning Stellenbosch & Franschhoek winelands.
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Lesser guitar fish Eye
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Seal Eye
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Octopus Eye
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Klipfish Eye
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Crab Eye
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Dark Shyshark Eye
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Sole Eyes
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Roman Eye
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Cowshark Eye
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Cowshark Eye
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by Carel van der colff | Jan 15, 2016 | Dive Inn
Dive Inn Cape Town Peak Season
WOW what a season. Loads of tourists visiting from the states and United Kingdom (mostly cricket supporters) touring and diving in our beautiful city of Cape Town.
Dive Inn Cape Town Peak Season blog is a quick view of what we were up to with some pics of where we have been.
Diving was a bit on the down side with us only being able to do 14 dives in the month. Tours were much more in demand with us doing Cape Peninsula tours, Table Mountain, Kirstenbosch, Constantia winelands, Stellenbosch winelands and even 2 trips to Gansbay / Hermanus for shark cage diving.
Table Mountain
On our dives we saw loads of Nudibranchs but did not find any of the resident seven gill cow shark. They have been scarce for a while now. However we were lucky to have spotted the shy gully shark on the dives which helped as a shark dive just makes it more fun. The best is that most of our dives were still done in the warmer waters of False Bay and Walker Bay with temperatures of 16 to 20 degrees Celsius and viz from 5-15 meters. The Atlantic dives had good viz but with 8-10 degrees, BBBRRRRRR.
Orange Lined Nudibranch
The only courses we done was PADI discover Scuba Diving and refreshers. The rest was Nudibranch Hunting.
We started early on most of the Cape Peninsula tours to miss the seasonal traffic jams there was hectic lines at Boulders Beach and Cape Point Gate. We even changed the tour routes around to miss the big coaches. Table Mountain unfortunately had ques all the time, even with our pre-booked tickets. I got some good exercise in as I needed to park the touring vehicle miles away from the cable car and running up and down to fetch it in very hot weather. More exercise at Cape Point with hikes up to the light house, erected in 1860. There are about 140 steps to the top of the lighthouse after riding up with the Flying Dutchman Funicular. (more…)
