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Sardines at Sunwich Port: Photograph

Sardines at Sunwich Port: Photograph

Janet of Orca’s Bar and Restaurant, in Sunwich Port, keeps a sharp vigil for marine life passing by. Here she captured one of the many shoals of sardines – that are causing quite a stir down on the KZN Lower South Coast, at the moment.

Sardines at Sunwich Port, on the lower south coast of KZN Natal (c) Orcas
Sardines at Sunwich Port, on the lower south coast of KZN Natal. Natal sards, or redeyes? Natal sardines were netted at Pumula on Monday  (c) Orcas Bar and Restaurant

Janet has a machine of a camera, with a telescopic lens, and is able to get right up close and personal with all kinds of marine life. Orca’s Bar and Restaurant features a huge whale watching deck, upstairs…perfect for checking marine life out.

Janet reports that the many humpback whales that were regularly seen cruising north lately, have all but disappeared. The whale migration did occur in deeper water this year, but they are due to return on their way back to the icy south, over the next few months. Dolphins have been up and down, but also looking as confused as the many wandering fishermen – all missing the sardines.

With some of the shoals of sardines spotted, were big dark things with big fins – according to Janet, a few shoals were definitely accompanied by big dark shadows!

Orca’s Bar and Restaurant features a truly south coast style menu with steak, egg ‘n chips narrowly beating the surfers special, as my favourite slection from their cool menu…check Orca’s out at Sunwich Port Beach, KZN south coast, for good food and vibes.

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Hibberdene for good fishing

Hibberdene for good fishing

Scelo Cele, lifeguard at Hibberdene’s Blue Flag beach, get’s lots of opportunities to get out there and shoot or catch some fish. He wastes no chances either, as can be seen from these photographs of Scelo and his catches, from this last week.

With the westerley about to blow…the water for the next few days could be promising, with Garrick and Daga Salmon about…things are great for spearfishing, down here on the lower south coast of Kwazulu Natal.

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The Sardine blasts through 6000 hits per day!

The Sardine blasts through 6000 hits per day!

Today Last 24 hours Last 7 days Last 30 days
Hits 3567 6340 20697 51593
Pages views 1067 1968 6672 27812  …
Unique visitors 261 491 1266 4600  …
Unique visitors ?(1h interval)? 520 1164 4137 17471
Unique visitors ?(30 min interval)? 613 1346 4810 19683
Hits per unique visitor 13.67 12.91 16.35 11.22
Pages per unique visitor 4.09 4.01 5.27 6.05

It has been a period of tremendous growth for thesardine.co.za, the above data set was taken from Wednesday, last week. As can be seen above, we are going off the scale – it’s great to reflect that when we started this show four years ago, as an online entity, and broke 200 hits per day…we celebrated!

We have mainly an American audience, China next – with South Africa, Australia, England and the other EU states, Russia and the East ?! randomly filling up the top ten countries.

This sure means that potential tourists are browsing thesardine.co.za’s offerings…our advertisers content, and items in the Shop…, which is ticking over quite nicely.

So, for content marketing, brand association and SEO (search engine optimization), thesardine.co.za annual campaign at R3000 per year…is a bargain! Find more out here…

Or …

TheSardine4YourBusiness

Contact Sean on +27 79 326 9671 or email umzimkulu@gmail.com for more information.

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Bruce Gold collectors edition tee

Brucifire on fire at supertubes

Bruce Gold collectors edition tee

It was fun and fanfare yesterday at the original home of the Gold family, in Southport…a reunion of sorts, delicious biscuits and coffee and photos with the family. Bruce’s Mom at 90 was the star of the show, ably supported by Jenny (Brucifires sister).

Golden-Family
Highlight: havin’ my photo taken with the Golden Family…

It’s no coincidence that Bruce grew up in this very house a few hundred metres from the most thunderous wave around for miles. It’s his closest beach?! Did he surf it alone back then? “Of course!”, is the convincing reply.

Bruce-Gold-Tee
That’s my shirt! Bruce Gold Collectors edition Tee shirt by the Holmes Brothers. Shalom chom…(c) Holmes Brothers

The Holmes Brothers from Durban side have released a collectors edition tee-shirt starring Brucifire…and featuring a soul arch that could stretch across the whole of J-Bay! On a mean wave nogal! Write your name on it the same time you buy it bru!

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R549 Smartphone: “Dad get this one rather!”

R549 Smartphone: “Dad get this one rather!”

Well this is good news! A smartphone running the latest software – Andriod Kitkit 4.4, selling for R549!

Vodafone Smart 4 fun Nala

This means that, if you keep your contacts in the cloud, with Gmail say, and you sync your pics to Google+ or similair…and you do all your work in the cloud via Google Chrome…then when you drown you phone, all you do is buy a new one at R549, stick your sim card in, login with Google…and you are back in business!!! 

Perfect for surfers, fishermen and boat going people!

So you get a slightly slower processor and a lower resolution camera, but the Andriod 4.4 is a huge bonus – filled with improvements and built in power. 

And they give you 250mb of free data when you buy one!

Right now my Dad is in the market for a new phone, does not want a free “boutique” smart phone in exchange for paying top call rates, and after going through all the options…this deal sounds perfect! When you consider the ease of accessing the internet these day, so many good prepaid deals, and prepaid calls getting in line…who needs a contract? – Shonalanga

“Get this one Dad!”

Full specs…

Battery

  • Battery Type: 1400mAh
  • Standby time: 433h(2G) / 325h(3G0 Hours
  • Talk time: 6.8h(2G) / 2.8h(3G) Hours

Camera

  • Camera: Yes

Connectivity

  • 3G: Yes
  • BlueTooth: Yes
  • EDGE: Yes
  • GPRS: Yes
  • HSDPA: Yes
  • HSUPA: No
  • InfraRed: No
  • LTE: No
  • USB: No
  • Wireless LAN: No

Display

  • Display Size: 480 X 320
  • Display type: TFT
  • Touch screen: Yes

Entertainment

  • FM radio: Yes
  • Games: Yes
  • Music player: Yes
  • Vodafone live!: No

Features

  • Calculator: Yes
  • Calendar: Yes
  • Call records: Dialed, Recieved, Missed
  • GPS support: Yes
  • Java: Yes
  • Key Feature: 3.5″ Screen
  • Key Feature: 1400 mAh Battery
  • Key Feature: Android 4.4
  • Key Feature: 2 Megapixel Camera
  • OS: Android
  • Phonebook: Yes
  • QWERTY keyboard: No
  • Stopwatch: Yes
  • Torch light: No
  • Voice dial: No
  • Voice memo: Yes

General

  • Colours: White / Black

Messaging

  • Message type: Sms,mms. email

Sound

  • Built-in handsfree: Yes
  • Ringtones type: MP3
  • Speaker phone: Yes
  • Vibration: Yes

From Vodacom…

“New low-cost device and Power Bundles to drive internet access in emerging markets

Vodacom today launched the Smart Kicka, a new smartphone that represents a step-change in affordability. This device, which is the first ever Vodacom-branded device, was designed specifically to make it possible for more South Africans than ever before get access to the internet.

“At the moment only 27% of people living in South Africa’s emerging markets have access to smart devices. We aim to double that number in the next year. The Smart Kicka is not only affordable, coming in at around the US$50 level, but also offers the best from a technology perspective. Put simply it gives users the best possible internet experience without breaking the bank,” said Phil Patel, Vodacom’s Chief Commercial officer.

The Vodacom Smart Kicka, which is priced at R549, runs the latest Android 4.4 KitKat operating system and has over 4 gigabytes (GB) of memory, a 3.5” screen and a two mega-pixel camera. The device will also come with five free 50 megabyte (MB) Power Bundles to get people connected straight away.

“By including Power Bundles we’re making it easy for first time internet users to experience the web – whether it’s downloading music or catching up with friends on Facebook,” said Patel.

Launched in March 2014, Power Bundles have been hugely popular with around half of all prepaid usage now stemming from bundles. Vodacom currently sells around 40 million bundles per month which give prepaid and Top Up customers bite size, time-based access to Vodacom’s network. Power Bundles include 10 minutes of airtime for R2, 60 minutes of airtime for R4 and 50 MB of data for R3. All of the bundles can be accessed by dialling *111# and are available for purchase in stores.

“Our strategy is to provide customers, particularly those on tight budgets, with exactly what they need, when they need it, and at a price they can afford. Much has been said about bringing down prices for those consuming large amounts of voice and data, but this bundle strategy is the key to driving internet penetration for all South Africans. The success of Power Bundles as well as our other bite-size voice services, like Power Hour, has meant that quite literally millions of people are now able to access services that used to be out of reach,” said Patel.

By actively reducing data prices and through new initiatives like Power Bundles, Vodacom has brought down the average effective price per MB of data by 30% over the past year.  This has resulted in a 70% increase in data traffic on its network, with over 52% of Vodacom’s 32.5 million South African customers now using data.

On top of providing affordable products and devices, Vodacom is also investing heavily in its network to ensure that its new internet users have a seamless online experience. This year alone Vodacom plans to invest upwards of R9 billion in its South Africa network. A large portion of this has been earmarked to provide 3G coverage in emerging markets across South Africa.

“Our strategy is very simple. We aim to have 3G coverage wherever we have voice coverage,” said Patel.   “

Press release disseminated by:

Olivia Jones Communications

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