ALIWAL SHOALS, SOUTH AFRICA - 31ST JANUARY 2007

Its been a frustrating few days for the team out in South Africa, despite the best efforts of the elite members of Mark and Gail Addisons' Blue Wilderness dive centre (a crack team if ever there was one).

The mission - photos and Hi-Def video of two of South Africas underwater 'Big Five' - the tiger shark and raggie tooth shark.

The locations - Aliwal shoal and Sodwana bay in Kwazulu-Natal on South Africas rugged Eastern coast.

Since arriving on the 26th Jan strong winds and bad visibility have been the norm. Visibility has averaged between 5-8m so Jason and Roger have been forced into getting as up close and personal as possible to the striped beauties in order to get good, clean shots. However one unexpected bonus has been the proliferation of other shark species on the dives. The boys have regularly been circled by upwards of 15 blacktips on each dive as well as spotting the occasional bull shark lurking on the reef below. Not to be underestimated, the smaller blacktips rely on their superior speed to beat the tiger sharks to the bait. They come in fast and from all angles. Returning from the dives there has also been the chance to interact with whale sharks although in very limited vis.

The photos from this trip are slated to be used in Scubazoo's forthcoming coffee-table book, simply entitled 'Reef' while the Hi-Def footage will be added to Scubazoo's burgeoning Hi-Def stock footage library.

The winds are forecast to swing round to south westerlies soon which, in the words of Mark Addison, is 'the medicine' so hopefully some clear water is on the way..... more soon from the boys in SA.

Click here for more reef news and here for more view photo gallery.

Tiger1.mov Tiger2.mov Tiger3.mov