Miles in Moz!!!!!!!
Hiya
Just came back from a 6 day diving trip to Mozambique. Unfortunately my new digital camera didn't arrive in time, so no underwater pic's!!! :waterwork :waterwork
August is generally a bad time for Mozambique, in terms of pelagics, but my wife INSISTED on going. She hasn't been to Moz. yet and badly wanted to go........so who am i to argue?
Trip started with a 1800km drive, done in 18hours. From there, a further 400km's which took 8 hours, due to the sandy track that requires a 4x4. We stayed in tents about 20m away from the beach, in a camp in the Elephant reserve in Mozambique. Place is called Ponta Milibangalala. Really remote, with the closest shop being over 2 hours drive away.
Day1
Horrible viz!!!!! 18degrees water AND 3m viz!!!!! Did some inshore diving, 5-6m depth, but with very little fish action. The howling wind didn't improve the situation either. My wife managed to lose her one fin and i couldn't find it in the dirty water with a current running.
Day2
Wife started her Open Water 1 scuba course. She had middle ear problems before the trip and batte to equalize. Aborted the dive after too much ear ache. Things were starting to look grim........
Day3
8-15m viz and 21degrees water. Wife's ears are fine now and she does a 45minute dive up to 21m deep. She's ECSTATIC with the amount of fish life she saw!!! The reefs are filled with reef fish, making it an AWESOME place to scuba dive.
Day4
Even cleaner water, 21degrees water and 30m+ viz!!!! The group dived a 30m deep pinnacle, whilst my wife and i speared on the same pinnacle. It's about 20-30m deep, rising out of 60m of water!!! Only saw ONE small 'cuda and the wife saw a small hammerhead that was keen on out flasher. After the 30m dive, the group went to a shallower reef, were every-one dived, after the hour needed to outgas. Once again, stunning corals, loads of fish, a sea turtle and a HUGE potato bass of about 40kg's that followed the scuba divers around.
Day 5
Last diving day. 30m+viz again and 21 degrees water. Finally i start seeing some pelagics. A school of Kingfish(Yellowfin Trevally's) and some Pick-handle barracuda (sea-pike) came to say hello to my flasher. My wife did her two scuba dives and then worked the flasher for me. We had two turtles take an interest in the flasher, as well as a big Potato Bass of about 40-50kg's that swam with us for probably more than 20minutes before losing interest.
Highlights of the trip was lifting my head out of the water to see a flock of pink flamingoes flying overhead. Later a fish eagle was hunting in the same area as me!!! We found 3 scorpions hiding away in the fire-wood and happily released them in a safe place.
One of the best experiences was when i saw 8 Potato Bass (Grouper type fish) of between 10-60kg's on one dive. They would follow me around the reef, much like puppy dogs!!! Diving in that clear water with loads of reef fish and HUGE Potato bass and not shooting anything, yet having one of the best dives of my life, was AWESOME!!!
My wife has already started making plans for the next trip which will be in summer, when gamefish like Dorado (mahi-mahi), wahoo, 'cuda, jobfish, sailfish and marlin are plentiful.
Regards
miles
ps. Potato Bass is a protected specie in South Africa. In some locations they are even worse than sharks, when it comes to stealing your speared fish!! Fortunately for these bold fish, the spearfishing fraternatity requested to make them a protected specie.