GVI conquers SODWANA

On the coast of Tongaland, is a cluster of small lakes and marshes connected to the see by a stream known as “Sodwana” (translated it means “little one on its own”). A drowsy coastal high forest grows around these lakes, hiding them from plain sight as one passes through, suddenly opening up to the wide open stretches of beach sand, and the warm Indian Ocean. This was to be our playpen for the day, as the volunteers of GVI got the day off to have some fun at the sea.  

With great caution to the sun, every volunteer smeared themselves to the top with sun protection lotion, but to no avail, the African sun proved mighty on the day, and as you read this, there are still some that are peeling! Thanks to our current intern (Caroline Park) who persisted in making sure everyone was having enough water, there were nearly no dehydrated faces by the end of the day at least!

Since it was the first day out to the beach, things started on a slow note, where even finding the “right spot” proved to take time, (the whole beach was empty, thus ANY spot would have done, but ours was the best in the end!) Within just a short while the whole volunteer group was having fun in the warm waves, even those who were not the too keen on the ocean and all its creatures could enjoy it as the beach so gradually enters the ocean  that one can see through the clear water quite a far way into the sea.

Activities included everything we could possibly think of, including beech soccer, Frisbee, sand castles, and even “whaling the waves”. Our amusement though, was a small ball brought by the Swedes called a “waboba”. This great little ball is slightly smaller then a tennis ball, but when “skipped” over the water, it just carries on skipping, covering amazing distances over the waves, and we ended up with groups standing about 100metres apart with this little orange dot whizzing over the waves to and fro! Attention to one game however was limited, and everyone ended up playing nearly everything, albeit until a new one popped up!

We where entertained by some fanatical, superhuman moves with a heated “beach tennis” match up between the two Swedes, this proved not only to be great amusement but also a chance for the ladies to settle down on a towel and catch up on some tanning, well proved by the blistering African sun, it showed no mercy though, and bottles of sunscreen where going down nearly as fast as the bottles of water!

In the end everyone started to feel like they losing the battle to the raging sun, and we decided to start heading back to base roughly two and a half hours away, through cultural  Tonga land, which most of the volunteers missed as the Siyaya rocked them to sleep, with help from the long happy day at the Sodwana coast.

Vaughan Jezznits

Research Assistant

Hlambanyathi Game Reserve

GVI conquers SODWANA