It’s my last day in the beach town of Tofo, so I thought I’d write a bit about it. The main attraction here is the diving, and it’s a bit more adventurous than most diving locations! You’re diving off unprotected coastline, so the waters can be a bit rough at times. This morning was especially wild, there was only one dive site that they would bring us to in the very choppy conditions. How the diving here in Tofo works is like this: you have a tractor that brings a rubber dinghy down the beach to the water. All the gear is already loaded into the dinghy. Then everyone gets on the sides of the dinghy and drags it out why the tractor is also pushing it from behind. Once you’re far enough in, everyone hops on the boat, they gun the motor, and you get out of there as quick as you can so you don’t get pummelled by the surf. From there, depending on the conditions, it can be another battle to get out to your dive site.
the tractor backing in to drag the boat out
coming in
This morning was the biggest waves we’ve had yet, and even though it was a short ride to the dive site, one guy was already making grunting noises and puking over the side. I wasn’t sitting near him though, ha. We got to the dive site, everyone rolled backwards off the boat, and headed down 30m to the reef. And the current was strong! You really had to hold onto the reef to avoid getting swept away. One couple decided it was too strong and head up right away. Eventually we got to point where we were more protected from the current, so it wasn’t so hectic.
We saw lots of shrimp, lobsters, a few moray eels, scorpionfish, pretty usual stuff. Then at the end of the dive when we surfaced the boat was really far away, and we could see it, but due to the size of the waves, it couldn’t see us. So we had wait maybe 20 minutes floating around before the boat was finally able to spot our orange inflatable device. Some of the people already in the boat didn’t look so good, three of them had thrown up already! We hopped on, and quickly sped off back to mainland. They really gun the boat when you get close to shore to get the boat as far up onto the beach as they can, which is kinda fun. Just another day diving in Mozambique!
I’ve been here 5 nights and have been diving almost everyday. But my stomach can’t handle any more than two of those boat rides a day. Tofo is touted as a place where you can see big stuff like whale sharks and mantas, but we didn’t see either. But did see some cool stuff like turtles, eagle rays, devil rays, blacktip and gray reef sharks though. Sadly no photos! One of these days I'll get a housing for my camera... Other than diving, it’s mostly been chilling on the beach. It’s low season, so everything is a bit dead. Tofo has really picturesque sand dunes, so it’s a popular place for South Africans to build house up on the dunes, overlooking the ocean. The other thing I like is how cheap the cashews are here. You get a massive bag for $2, tough to beat that! And there's one small village nearby, which I like to wander through.
Local village
Trouble in the village: a big snake! They have to call a specialist to remove it
beach around sunset
they usually got some soccer games going
Tomorrow I’m heading north with two Germans and a Swiss guy to a place called Vilanculos, which has some nice islands and more scuba diving. In my head I’ve calculated it to take 6-7 hours, which probably means it will take 12! So one more week in Mozambique, two weeks in South Africa, and then it’s back home for me!