Life's A Beach

Trip Start Apr 22, 2008

Trip End Sep 01, 2008

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Where I stayed

Fatima's

Flag of Mozambique Inhambane, Mozambique
Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Two main attractions in Mozambique are the beaches and scuba diving. Megan and I left Chimcambane and traveled a few hundred kilometers north to Tofo: a beach community outside of Inhambane perched on the Indian Ocean. HO-LY SHIT. What an amazing stretch of land. The area is a long strip of massive sand dunes covered in scrub brush that pours down to the sea. There are turquoise waters and just the first few signs of development. Getting here is not easy, but minimal improvements in infrastructure could see this place blow up on everyone's travel radar in the next few years. I had seen Megan's posting in Chicambane, which was terrific, but this was my first glimpse of the coast. Tofo is nestled in the heart of Mozambique's scuba diving Mecca. We stayed in a thatch "casita", 8'x8' cabana, tucked in between the dunes and fell asleep to the sound of waves crashing on the beach.

I woke in the morning to catch the sunrise and was treated to a pod of humpback whales making their way north to calve in the warmer, safer waters of the tropics. Seeing the whales breaching off the cost line had me high tailing it down the road to Tofo Scuba. I needed to see what diving here was all about. I was not going to have the chance to see the manta rays or the whale sharks that are typically found in these waters during the warmer months. It is winter and those giants had been gone for about 6 weeks with a return expected around October. Bummer. I still was psyched to check out the reefs.

My first dive was relatively shallow at 14 meters. The second I got down there I began questioning what all the hullabaloo, yes I did just say hullabaloo, was about. 4 meter visibility, lots of current, lots of surge, rocky outcrops, muted corals and only a modest number of uninspiring fish. I was trying to decide whether I had become a diving snob and got back to shore thinking I would be spending most of the time on the amazing beaches and less time underwater.

All of the famous dives I read about were deep dives so I decided to complete my advanced open water license and give it another go. We went out to sea and dived Manta and Giant's refs, about twice as deep as the first dive. I could not have eaten my words from the previous dive more quickly. The sea life in the water was HUGE. Giant rays, massive potato grouper, school of king fish and MILLIONS of Red Fanged Trigger fish. Cruising out to the open sea to make the dive we saw pods of whales along the way. Unbelievably, the dives were to the soundtrack of migrating whales whose echoes and squeals could be heard at all times. This was a type of diving I had never experienced: rough seas, rapid negative descents (fall of the boat backwards and immediately swim down 20 meters FAST to avoid being swept away by the surface currents) and big currents. It felt adventurous.

Megs and I left Tofo and made the short trip to Barra where Annie, Zach and Emily (other volunteers and visitors) met us to start their open water certification. I spent an amazing week deep diving with monstrous pelagic fish, sharks, rays and eels. They got a hookup for doing our training during the low season so we all were able to stay for free in the lodge. What a way to spend a week at the beach!

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