Beaches - Bonanza of Beauty and Bliss

Bonanza of Beauty and Bliss

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Warm, nutrient-rich Indian Ocean currents play a major role in maintaining the reputation of our Zulu Kingdom coastline as one of the most bountiful on earth for recreational fishing. You'll see lines in the water every day of the year along its entire length - anglers casting from surf-line, headland, rocky outcrop, pier and jetty...plus deep-sea charter boat. Beneath the waves, meanwhile, are speargun-wielding scuba divers and crustacean-hunting snorkellers. It goes almost without saying, then, that every beach resort and holiday haven has a choice of fishing spots where yields vary according to season, tide and wind. Follow other fishermen or ask a local - anglers are, generally speaking, not as secretive as surfers about their favourite haunts!

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This vast endowment of sea-life is protected, however, and reaping its harvest comes at the small price of an easily obtained and inexpensive permit that details catch limits and prohibitions.

There is, though, a 'diarised' freak of nature that sees all rules of rational and orderly conduct thrown to the wind - the frenzy of our annual sardine-run. Every year around June or July countless millions of these small, silvery fish leave their home off the Cape coast and migrate north...with some 23 000 dolphins, 100 000 Cape Gannets and many thousands of sharks and game fish in hot pursuit. In attempting to escape from their predators, huge shoals of sardines are occasionally isolated and driven ashore...straight into the buckets, shopping baskets, cooler bags and every imaginable container brandished by the waiting, jostling throng. Decorum is not the keyword as womenfolk exchange modesty for a skirtful of soon-to-be sardines on toast!

While it's obviously 'luck-of-the-draw' where these free meals arrive, the first to at least see the giant procession is our southernmost resort town of Port Edward . Silver Beach is its central, main bathing area, but other beautiful beaches nearby are merely a scenic, shoreline walk away via the popular Aloe Trail. Fully-fledged retail, banking and medical facilities are also convenient for visitors to the string of quiet, oceanside hamlets between Port Edward and the Mpenjati Nature Reserve found 20kms to the north. These secluded getaways begin with the shark- netted T.O. Strand and include safe swimming at Leisure Bay/Leisure Crest, Glenmore (the bathing beach for holidaymakers at Munster and Portobello) and Palm Beach.

zoom Fishermen on one of Port Edward's famous beaches Ugu District Municipality

Mpenjati is a 66ha reserve offering walks along wild, deserted sands that flank unspoilt dune forests and a lagoon where Fish Eagles swoop to pluck their prey. It's also southernmost point of the 2km-long Trafalgar Marine Reserve that extends 500m out to sea...giving protection to rich and valuable fossil beds dating back some 900 million years. Trafalgar itself is a growing holiday and retirement village with a caravan park at the ocean's edge and a vast stretch of golden sand that sweeps beyond the exclusive San Lameer resort to Marina Beach...where the ideally-situated 'self-titled' hotel overlooks the entire, glorious beach- and- seascape.

Southbroom is the next port-o- call on our sandy travels north...an up-market, predominantly residential-and- retirement village in beautiful, leafy surroundings right up to the picturesque lagoon and long, curved bathing beach. A small headland creates well- shaped surfing waves and provides an excellent vantage point for watching dolphins and whales. Over-hit your drive on Southbroom's fine 18-hole course and you may well pay an unplanned visit to the beach in search of your ball!

zoom Whales are frequently seen off the South Coast Photo:Ugu District Municipality

If you're still in the mood for walking, try Parry's Path...a 4km or so seaside stroll north to Ramsgate. At this quaint hamlet with its ski-boat bay, safe swimming and lagoon-borne paddle-boats we enter a 10km string of shoulder-to-shoulder resort towns with inter- linking bays and golden beaches. Thanks to its natural beauty and international-class facilities, the kilometre-plus seafront of Margate achieved Blue Flag status...thus ranking this archetypal playground-by-the-sea among the world's finest. Margate boasts its own Mardi Gras...and live music spectaculars on the beach attract thousands of 'party animals' to dance up a storm with sand between their toes! Just a stone's throw away are boutiques and artist-outlets for that shop-till-you-drop bonanza and, come sundowner time, 'The Strip' is ablaze with pavement cafes, restaurants, bars and clubs spinning the latest dance tunes for all-night ravers. This is beach culture at its most hedonistic!

A few kilometres north, the quaint hamlet of Uvongo is popular for its picturesque lagoon and waterfall bordering the main swimming beach, while the waves at adjoining St Michaels-on-Sea regularly host South Coast surfing competitions.Beyond St Mike's, as it's popularly known, Shelley Beach is a long-time holiday destination with protected swimming and a small craft harbour...prime launch site for ski-boat fishing plus dolphin- and whale-watching excursions. Offshore lie the Protea Banks - a deep-water locale of world class where experienced scuba divers face up to a wide variety of sharks...including the unpredictable ones. The next 10km or so of unpopulated, bush-flanked beach is the sole domain of fishermen and those surfers prepared to exchange the protection of shark nets for uncrowded waves. Watching is fine...joining them is for the experienced only!

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