Sodwana Bay National Park

About Sodwana Bay National Park

The small Sodwana Bay National Park consists of a narrow coastal strip of forest covered sand dunes. Sodwana Bay National Park was proclaimed in 1950 and is an angler's paradise.

Sodwana is a fairly remote area (about four hours drive from Durban) but people travel a long way to drive along the endless beaches in their four-wheel drive vehicles and to dive the coral reefs teaming with colourful fish and some giants of the sea such as whale sharks and manta rays.

Did you know?

Situated within the magnificent iSimangaliso Wetland Park (previously known as St Lucia Wetland Park), Sodwana Bay National Park is renowned for its scuba diving, snorkelling and deep-sea fishing. The reef at Sodwana National Park has 14 rocky reefs, covered with coral, and a wide variety of tropical fish.

These reefs, estimated to be over 4000 years old have plenty of caves, overhangs and pinnacles. They are covered with soft and hard corals, and can be dived all year round. Most species of shark have been spotted at Sodwana, and recently three coelacanths approximately 1.5m in length were photographed at a depth of 115m.

The south flowing Agulhas current hits the continental shelf a few kilometres offshore, and this deep water is home to marlin and sailfish.

There are excellent snorkelling spots at Sodwana Bay, Kingfisher Bay, Adlams, Algae Reef and Mabibi, all accessible by four-wheel drive vehicle along the beach. These reefs are abundant in goldies, lionfish, zebras, wrass, crayfish, feather stars, rays and moray eels.

Coral Divers in Sodwana Bay in KwaZulu Natal operate a dive camp and offer numerous dive packages, equipment hire, as well as various PADI dive courses. Dive the Big Five offer tour packages and safaris that put forward all kinds of diving around South Africa, from reef to wreck, shark and cage diving.