Dive Travel - Cape Town, South Africa
Gordon’s Bay is a charming naval town nestled against the Hottentots Holland Mountains. It’s a 45-minute drive from Cape Town CBD and a 40-minute drive from Stellenbosch in the Cape Winelands. Situated on the eastern side of False Bay, the largest bay in South Africa.
False Bay faces southward and is almost 1,000 km², bounded by the Cape Peninsula to the west and Cape Hangklip to the east. Conditions range from cold upwellings from South Africa’s southwest coast to warm-water intrusions from the Agulhas Current off the southeast coast, creating unique conditions for biological diversity. The nutrient-rich water sustains abundant reef life and kelp forest ecosystems.
Dive Conditions
Water Temperature
The warmest water temperature is in January at around 20.4°C (68.7°F). The coldest month is September at 15.6°C (60.1°F). The usual wetsuit thickness is 5mm to 7mm with an added layer underneath or over to be around 8 to 10mm.
Divers are getting ready to enter the water
Visibility
Visibility ranges from 5m to 15m. The best time to dive in Gordon’s Bay is from September to March.
On deep dives, you sometimes have 1-to-2-meter visibility when descending through the top 15 meters, then it opens at the bottom to clear visibility of around 10 to 15 meters.
Palmate sea fan with a giant orange wall sponge behind it, growing on the vibrant reef
Currents & Surge
False Bay has no drift dives or diving in currents, but you’ll often experience a surge, the back-and-forth water movement caused by waves.
Surface Conditions
Diving in False Bay benefits from calmer surface conditions, making for easy boat rides and less sea sickness. Another perk is that all dives launch from harbours, avoiding gruelling beach launches and rough surf.
Underwater Typography
A dive site named Pinnacle
The dive sites’ typography follows the rocky mountain slope into the sea, creating a beautiful rocky reef.
Shallow dive sites are 5m to 15m deep. Deep sites are 18m to 35m at Steenbras Deep. All are a short boat ride away.
Shore Diving
R44 Clarence Drive
There are shore dives along R44 Clarence Drive between Gordon’s Bay to Hang Klip. These challenging sites vary in difficulty and accessibility. Due to the steep mountain slope, they are hard to reach with heavy scuba gear. Therefore, we suggest boat dives in Gordon’s Bay.
Divers entering the water on a shore dive in Rooi Els.
There are easily accessible shore dives in Rooi Els, just a 25-minute drive from Gordon’s Bay via the scenic Clarence Drive.
What do you see here?
Big Marine Animals
Gordon’s Bay has resident Cape Fur Seals that visit divers and African Clawless Otters spotted recently. African penguins, dolphins, and whales are frequently seen from the boat on our dive trips.
Inquisitive young Cape Fur Seal underwater
We have various small catsharks and larger pyjama (or striped) sharks. Sevengill cow sharks and Bronze Whalers have also been spotted.
False Bay is famous for its Great White sharks, which feed on the seal colony of the False Bay Seal Island Reserve. This island, home to around 70,000 Cape Fur Seals, is 26km from Gordon’s Bay. Despite being the White shark’s home, they’re rarely seen on dives.
Pyjama (or striped) shark | Short-tail Stingray swimming overhead
Friendly short-tail stingrays grow up to 2.1m, making for a memorable encounter. Ocean sunfish (Mola mola) are seen occasionally. Beautiful jellyfish like the Box sea jelly, Compass, and the bigger Root-mouthed.
Compass jellyfish | Root-mouthed jellyfish
Giant orange wall sponges, strawberry anemones, and feather starfish cover large portions of the reef, along with vibrant soft corals and sea fans with basket stars holding onto their branches. These scenes make for exquisite wide-angle photography if visibility allows.
Strawberry anemones cover a large part of the reef
Smaller Marine Animals
The reef is busy and full of life. If you like finding small critters, then Gordon’s Bay diving is for you.
Violet-spotted anemone | Pink Feather-duster worm
This is a photographer’s dream with diverse species. Shallow rocks are covered with purple, pink, and orange urchins, colorful anemones, and various sea stars: bristle worms, fascinating sea spiders, crabs, shrimps, and rock lobsters.
Hermit crab | Cuttlefish
Gordon’s Bay has a diverse range of nudibranchs (over 75 species), a treat for macro enthusiasts.
Inkspot nudibranch (Ceratosoma ingozi) | Orange gasflame nudibranch (Bonisa nakaza)
Octopuses and cuttlefish adorn the reef, along with various fish species like the colourful klipfish, rocksucker, pipefish, bluefin gurnard, striped fish, vibrant red roman, blennies, and more.
Colourful klipfish with a beautiful pattern | Horned blenny
Gordon’s Bay is a treasure trove of marine species. If you visit Cape Town, add this to your diving list.
Hope to see you diving with us here in Gordon's Bay soon. See the dive schedule.
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