I visited the Sodwana area, that is linked to the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, for the first time this past December as a diving vacation.

Although the diving was great I have to admit that the experience was tainted by reports of racism and hard-handed treatment of guests to the park by park official - specifically on New Year's day. There are apparently some video evidence of the teargassing of a family trying to leave the park on the 1st of January and I hope that the owner will also publish that.

The mess that greeted us on the 2nd of January, when we wanted to dive again, was also not becoming of a World Heritage site. Despite a "No Alcohol" rule on the beach, the road to the park, as well as the beach was littered with empty bottles and other rubbish. This only finally cleared after about 2 days.

This is such a sad state of affairs, since the area is really great and the reef is great for diving! Hopefully enough people will make their voices heard to force some kind of action on this.