I found Nemo! (and I also saw Crush, and Bruce)

If you have no idea what the title means, I've just spent the past few days scuba diving in Sodwana Bay and Unkomaas (which are apparently among the top 10 dive sites in the world), the highlights of which were seeing a turtle, and my first ever shark (not a dangerous one). Unfortunately the shark was in the distance so I just saw a silhouette. It didn't stick around and I tried to swim after it, but sharks can swim a little bit faster than I can! I also saw lots of other cool fish, and while in the boat to the dive site there were 3 humpback whales swimming about 10 metres from our boat!

I'm now in a quiet seaside town called Port Shepstone, on my way to Coffee Bay, another quiet seaside town but with some great scenery and lots of surfing, local villages and other stuff to do. From there, in a couple of days I'm going to try and find Luzie Drift - a school in the middle of nowhere, that The Compton is linked to. They don't know I'm coming, so hopefully I can find it, and hopefully they'll be happy to see me!

I've been travelling the past few days on minibus taxis, which are like little buses. They're very cheap and fast (a little too fast at times), but can be quite frustrating. Today I sat on one for one and a half hours, waiting for a 30 minute journey, while the driver waited for it to fill up. I then sat with my big heavy rucksack on my lap, and a woman with two kids on her lap squashed up against me. At least I'm experiencing an authentic side of South Africa!

I'm gradually falling in love with South Africa - but at the same time I'm realising that the country has serious issues: crime, poverty, AIDS, and there's still segregation and racism (in my opinion worse than the others, as it's a purely manmade and avoidable evil). It's not unusual to meet a seemingly lovely and reasonable person, who is quite racist.

For example: in Sodwana Bay, I was chatting to a friendly and helpful shop assisstant in a surf shop, who was probably about 30. I asked if she lived in Mbazwana (the nearest town; I didn't realise that people also lived in Sodwana Bay itself, and that Mbazwana is predominantly black). The conversation then went: "Mbazwana? Oh no, I would never live there. I live in Sodwana" (with a mixture of mild shock and disgust) "Oh, I didn't realise people actually lived here" "Oh yes, there are about 200 white people living in Sodwana". Another example was the dive instructor who led me in Unkomaas today. When I told him which dive operator I used in Sodwana, he said "Oh yes, they're very good" - then, after a pause - "They have too many black skippers though". Incidentally he was from Middlesborough originally, but 11 years in South Africa seem to have had an influence.

Of course, this is in no way representative of all white South Africans - and I haven't been here long enough to judge how wide spread it is. But there definitely seems to be a general separation of roles in society, and a lot of mistrust between the races.

Whoa, sorry - I got a bit heavy there! That's all for now, next account will be of whether I made it to Luzie Drift or not.

ps: Compton people - hope the special visit went OK today!