Another Side of Africa

A small town at the foot of the Overberg mountain range in South Africa is no stranger to being in the spotlight for its magnificent marine wildlife. Ashley falls easily into the laid-back rhythm of this coastal town, but his anxiety levels soon hit the ceiling as he shares the ocean with some mean looking sharks.

The big lagoon was for centuries the exclusive domain of the Khoi and San people or Bushmen, but when the first Europeans arrived, they harvested the valuable forests on the mountains around the lagoon. The true treasure, however, is hidden on sand flats and in man-made channels.

Over the past 380 years, one ship was wrecked for every kilometre of coastline along the southern tip of Africa. The promise of treasure is a big motivator to find shipwrecks, but Ashley discovers another side as he relives the horrors that often went with sea disasters.

Ashley explores Sanbona, a unique, almost textbook - example of eco-tourism at work. He searches for the big five in this massive reserve, which plays a decisive role in the conservation of the very sensitive Karoo environment of which a mere 0.05% habitat is under formal protection.

In December 1957 one of the South Africa's main tourist destinations took a beating when several shark attacks blemished its reputation as a safe vacation venue. Sharks once massacred, are now revered and Ashley gets the change to come face to face with these animals.

The warm tropics, visibility that extends forever; that is only a dream for Ashley. He dons a thick wetsuit against freezing water when he searches for giant mammals like seals, cow sharks, and tiny organisms that have adapted to living in the unique Western Cape coastline.

Ashley visits the West Coast National Park where he meets people who are dependent for their survival on the Atlantic Ocean, he goes diving with ragged-tooth sharks in the cleanest waters on the west coast of South Africa and has to step it up when yellow tail fish give him a run for his money.

Tucked away in a secluded valley in the Elephants River, Ashley goes in search of the elusive white rhinos of Imbambala, but in the process, he discovers other scarce species like the Southern Ground Hornbill and finds that the smaller things are often just as intriguing and potentially dangerous as the massive pachyderms that roam the reserve.

Ashley discovers why meerkats that weigh less than one kilogram are often larger than life. Then he creeps deep into the heart of the earth as he tracks the footsteps of the earliest people that occupied the African continent and ends up coming face to face with the biggest land mammal on earth.