Diving Tofo

After spending two days in Maputo I headed up north to Tofo to do what I went to Mozambique for, diving.

The busride to Tofo was utterly uncomfortable. A small minibus takes you to Praia do Tofo in 7 or so hours, cramped in a very small space, with only two breaks during the journey. Definitely not comparable to an average long distance coach trip. But I arrived there safe and sound, so I couldn't complain. Met some cool people on the way and we hung out together along with some other people we met at the backpackers, having a general fun time at the seaside.

Tofo is a nice little place. I stayed at Fatima's, the Tofo branch, which is the best option if you want cheap accommodation close to the village. And the brilliant thing is, it is located on the dunes, so the beach is just 2 steps away. Weather was brilliant and the atmosphere rather laid back. There's a small market in the village, but if you want to make an excursion out of it, you better go to Inhambane, which was what we did. It was also a money run to the ATM as there was none in Tofo. The bus to Inhambane took 45 mins. Not that the town was far away, but the bus was really slow going. Clearly the Asian rubber time is also very much present in Mozambique.

The town of Inhambane itself is gorgeous! Portuguese influences are to be found all over the city while the town is clean(er) and not as hectic. Rather quiet actually. Very charming indeed.

The diving in Tofo wasn't quite what I had expected, though. I did see what I wanted to see, manta rays, but the experience itself was different to what I'm used to in South East Asia. Dive groups over here consist of 8 divers for 1 divemaster and 1 sweeper who stays behind to see that everything is okay. I'm not sure whether I'm just inexperienced but I reckon 8 divers is a bit much for 1 group. Everyone was just diving around and against each other. Structure was kinda hard to find there.

Diving Tofo also means it's an expensive affair. Whereas in SEA you pay €25 per dive with rented equipment, here you'd pay €43 for the same, for less bottom time. Of course the depth also has a lot to do with it, but still.. If you're on a budget, you have to carefully weigh how many dives you want to do and also what you want to see.

I did 3 dives, all 3 deep with negative entry. This means you descend as soon as you jump out of the boat. There's no inflating of your BCD and no waiting for the others to be ready. You just go down, try to find the buoy line and keep with your divebuddy and -master.

The first dive was at a site called Office which left me somewhat unimpressed. 32 mins bottom time and we only saw 2 white tip sharks, plus the visibility was a bit shite. But on our way to and from the divesite we saw lots of humpback whales. Some of them even came as close as 2 meters from our boat which was awesome. That sort of saved the day for me. My second dive was the much anticipated manta reef. It didn't disappoint. Saw about 5 manta's swimming above the cleaning stations. Very very cool! Then the third dive was at a site called Giant's Cave, home to numerous lion fishes and a huge blotched fantail ray whom we found chillin on the seabed. Massive bugger that was!

So all in all, Tofo is definitely worth going to for the diving but don't expect to see the same diversity of fish and coral as in SEA. It's all about the larger pelagics over here.

The last night I spent in Tofo I went to the full moon party at Dino's bar and danced the night away with my roommates until I had to take the bus back to Maputo at 4am. I decided to save Vilankulos for my next trip to Mozambique when hopefully I will have a bit more time to travel from one place to another. The ride to Maputo was another uncomfortable journey from hell, but again I came out alive so I was happy enough.

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