World Class Diving in Tofo

I was told before signing onto the Mozambique trip that diving off the coast of Tofo was world class. Now, I have little to compare my experiences to, but it certainly didn't disappoint. While some dive sites were more shallow, at less than 50 feet or so (15m), I knew that the real action would be down deeper. For this reason, I began my advanced PADI scuba certification just before leaving. This gave me more flexibility on my dives, and I was about to visit some sites that reached 100 feet (30m).

Our resort had a full service dive center, so they were able to provide support and all of our equipment. On a much neater level, though, my scuba instructor and trip leader brought his own boat and led most of our dives himself. This definitely made things more intimate and relaxed, since we knew everyone on the boat. I even learned to dive with many people that we went out with, which made things fun.

Our dive shop. Note the palm thatch.

On Sean's Boat.

We got to really practice our diving and boat skills while there. They use dive boats, which drive right up onto the sand to beach, and can be towed around by tractors without trailers. This also means that you physically push the boat into the water to launch, and need to get past the surf to get out. Our group (myself not included) learned the hard lessons of this on the first day when a huge wave broke the steering wheel console off, and caused some injuries. Ben was hit in the head and thrown from the boat, and Nick sliced his foot open. We also got lots of practice bailing off the boat, backwards, with full kit on to enter the water and begin a dive. I'm sure you've seen this in movies. Everyone has to fall at the same time, or the current moves the boat, and you can fall onto someone. This actually happened, and someone's tank fell on my head. Ouch. Then you do a negative entry, which means that you have no air in your vest and must hit the water and immediately swim down, so as not to spent time at the surface, drifting away from people. As you may be getting, the current can be pretty strong. And it happens very fast.

"Masks ON! Regulators IN! 3. 2. 1." (bail).

Daniel, Me, and Alexei

Anyway, to the depths! On my first deep dive, at Giant's Castle, we dove to 100ft (30m). The visibility was something like 75-100ft (like a gigantic swimming pool with lots of life), and, again, the water was 80ºF. Simply outstanding. Very shortly after reaching the bottom, I felt a tap on my shoulder, and someone pointed to my right. I turned my head, and from the distance saw a huge manta ray emerge. It was easily the size of a car, with a massive fin span, and a lonnng tail. It did a mini-dance as it opened its mouth and started filtering. I widened my eyes and really couldn't believe what I was seeing. It felt like I was watching Animal Planet, but no, on IMAX, except it was actually happening. Here is a video of it.


Other notable sights included a leopard shark that was sitting on the bottom waiting for us when we finished our descent, lots of colorful fish including Nemo and a blowfish (that I gently made puff up with my fin), a disgustingly archaic moray eel, sea urchins, varying types of weird starfish, schools of hundreds and hundreds of fish, and other things that looked cool but I had no idea what they were. :-)

After our second dive, we were headed back to shore on the boat. I was thinking that the excitement was over, but the skipper spotted the tell-tale shadow of a whale shark in the water nearby. I've heard that Tofo, Mozambique is one of the only places in the world where you're guaranteed to see a whale shark year round, and scientists aren't entirely sure why the population is so concentrated in this area. Sean shouted "Masks and fins on!" We quietly approached the whale shark, and the excitement began to build as we were told to make a quiet entry to the water. I forgot for a brief second that I didn't actually have a scuba kit on, and took a mouthful of water. Whoops. I recovered, and began powering with my fins and snorkel after it.

Jessica was trailing with her camera (remember mine was lost to King Neptune):

The whale shark is the largest fish and the largest shark. It's a friendly, gentle giant that is only called a whale because of its feeding technique of filtering. They get up to 12 meters long, but this one was about 6 meters (20 feet). Around the middle of the video, you'll see me at the surface swimming further up alongside it (with the blue fins). I managed to either stay above it, next to it, or in front of it for a full five minutes. It was moving so slow, just about 20 feet below the surface. I was able to swim ahead, and look back as it opened its mouth, and also took a look at me through its eyes on the side of its head. I just couldn't believe it was happening, that I was somewhere out in the ocean, successfully swimming alongside a whale shark. It began to surface, and I didn't really have enough time to get out of its way as it came up. I just kept my pace, and swam with it a bit more. We were quite a ways from the boat, and Jamie and I were the only ones very close to it at this point. It got within a few feet of me, and although I shouldn't have... I thought "this is like a once in a lifetime opportunity... I have to touch it." I reached out, and touched its somewhat rough, spotted skin.

He didn't really like that, and tried to take off. He bent and smacked me with the blunt side of his body as he began to swim off. Jamie, who can be seen diving in the video, was next to him and jumped back. He powered off once more, but this time struck me with his strong, firm back fin. Now that I review the video, it looks quite ominous. I came to the surface, looked at Jamie, and began laughing so hard. I had a huge smile on my face, wasn't hurt, and was laughing about one of the coolest experiences of my life. I rumbled a deep laugh as I whispered "Shhh! Don't tell anyone." We got back on the boat and looked at one another while laughing the whole way back, and I had a smile on my face for hours. So cool.

My whale shark friend. Note Jamie below it.

A bit later, another ocean safari was headed out from the dive shop. Still euphoric about my whale shark experience, I eagerly jumped on board to see another, and maybe a dolphin. I said on the way out on the boat, "Nothing will be able to sour this day for me now." Shortly later, the skipper shouted about another whale shark. We dove in, and I lead the way in the general direction again, searching underwater for the big dark figure to emerge. Suddenly, I felt something like a bug bite on the back of my neck, but quickly realized it was something much more as it starting to hurt on the side of my neck, my cheek, and my neck, as well. I started to swat at whatever it was, knocking off my mask and snorkel in the process. It was about now that I realized I had jellyfish tentacles all over my face and neck. I started pulling them off, while my fingers and face were being stung. Once they were off, I looked into the water to see my mask sinking to the bottom. Feeling like my face was on fire, I gave a distress signal the boat to come pick me up. I fell into the boat, trying to make sense of what had happened, and whether it was going to get worse or better. Luckily, I found that I probably would not need to have my face peed on, and that it would be getting better over the course of the next fifteen minutes.

Shortly after being attacked! Not pleased.

I was told that it was a blue bottle jellyfish, but it wasn't until I did the research that I found it to also be the famed Portuguese Man O' War jellyfish that we talked about so much in biology class in high school. Sure enough, they hurt, and have barbs that attach to you to spread their poison. I still have a line on my hand, a week and a half later, from where a tentacle had me. A few other people in the boat ended up getting stung as well. At first, I felt corrected in a big way, that there actually was something that could sour the day. But after the 10 minutes of pain, I decided it actually made the day better. Not many people can check the life list box of being attacked in the face by Portuguese Man O' War jellyfish. And although a bit tender that night, it didn't last very long.

For those that have made it this far, thanks for reading. Too many big things happened to condense this post, but hopefully I was able to convey how exciting these days of diving were. I also want to send a huge thank you to Jess for letting me use her underwater photos and videos. Much less of this would have made sense without them.

All in all, I did four full dives of the five that I attempted. In my next Moz post, I'll be covering what happens when a combination of things going wrong makes a dive go just as wrong. That would be my fifth dive.