Even by Andy Murch’s standards his Big Fish Expeditions’ “South African Endemic Shark Diving Safari 2022” was memorable. Originally planned as a two-week trip to five locations, False Bay, Plettenberg, Gqeberha, East London and Aliwal Shoal, I extended it three times to dive Sodwana Bay, then False Bay a second time and finally having contacted Covid-19, to self-isolate in a Johannesburg airport hotel! The two-week trip lasted a month! 

The Big Fish Expeditions trip officially concluded at Aliwal Shoal. Our BFE trip companions Jochem Seb and Tig flew home while Andy and I travelled 400 kilometres north to Sodwana Bay near the Mozambique border, for six days of diving on the local tropical reefs of Two Mile Reef. This is the largest in Sodwana, being over 1.8 kilometres long and 900 metres wide. Its depth ranges between 8 metres and 35 metres. In the bay, the boats launch from the beach through the waves and take divers to the many reefs that are named after their distance from Jesser Point, the rocky outcrop that provides reasonably protected launching at Sodwana Bay. Andy and I dived eleven dive sites, namely Two Buoys, Big Stringer, Little Stringer, Antons, Mellow Yellow, Roonies, Chain, Simons Cave, Bikini, Garden Route and Four Buoys.