Tofo - Diving Holiday Destination

Tofo (Mozambique)

Mozambique is in Southeastern Africa, bordering the Mozambique Channel, between South Africa and Tanzania. Mozambique offers world class diving in the clear, warm waters of the Indian Ocean.

Along Mozambique's 2500 kilometres of beautiful, unspoilt coastline lie rich, colourful coral reefs which are host to some of the most amazing marine life the world has to offer.

Tofo Beach is 20 minutes' drive from Inhambane City, Inhambane Province, on the south east coast of Mozambique. The closest international airports is at Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. The road to Tofo is tarmac all the way to the beach and is reachable in any vehicle – a 4x4 is not necessary.

Tofo is one of the more developed resorts in the region. The beach is a broad expanse of clean sand and it is safe to swim there, although there is much traffic on the beach in the form of quad bikes and vehicles towing boats. This spot is reputed to have some of the best surf on the Mozambique coast. Praia do Tofo is a long, lovely beach with some big, and a few fun, beach breaks.
Tofo Beach has been described as "the next Goa", and while this may be pushing it a bit, Tofo has definitely become a traveler's mecca on the Eastern coast of Africa. The reasons are not hard to discern: beautiful stretches of beach, a friendly laid-back vibe, a small but pumping nightlife, great diving and snorkeling and a few good restaurants, too.

Tofo and surrounds have some truly excellent diving, with nice reefs and excellent large marine life. Whale sharks and Humpback Whales in season, reef sharks and much more. Don't miss Manta Reef, home of three cleaning stations where the critters really throng. Most of the better dive sites are at around 25-30 meters, requiring deep-dive certification (which you can get through one of the dive shops if you don't have it already).

Climate

Summer months are October to April. Winter months are May to September. Windy months are usually February (when there is a higher chance of cyclones) and August, although, again this is not always the case. When winds are strong, the sea can become rough but diving is still possible.

The temperature in Tofo rarely drops below 20°C, even at night, so opt for light clothes, t-shirts, shorts and sandals. During the winter months you might need a sweatshirt or at least long-sleeve t-shirt to keep the chill off. During January and February and also a little in June and July, you might need a light rain jacket

Dive Facts

Water temperatures range from 29 degrees celcius in summer months to 22 degrees celcius in winter. Visibility ranges from 8m to 40m, depending on how much plankton there is in the water, but is usually pretty good at around 20 meters.

Brace yourself for the unique landing upon return from diving - the shops here all gun it and beach the inflatable speed boats at full speed

Dive Attractions

Tofo's biggest attractions are the abundance of Manta Rays and Whale Sharks which can be seen on most of the reefs.

The reefs around Tofo offer varying depths from 10 - 40 metres. Conditions are ideal for some of the larger pelagics. Whale Shark and Manta Ray sightings are very common, especially on beautiful Manta Reef, The Oasis and Galleria dive sites ranging in depth from 10 meters to 37 meters, catering for all experience levels.

Whalesharks are mostly summer visitors with the best time of year to see them here being November until March. Whalesharks are gentle creatures, non-aggressive plankton feeders that can reach up to 12m in length with average lengths of 8-9m. During November and March, numbers of whalesharks are high with up to 20 individual sharks being spotted during 30 minute boat journeys. The whalesharks cruise along, at or just below the surface so its best to simply snorkel with them.

Humpback Whales visit the area from as early as June until as late as October. The whales spend the summer months in Antarctic waters feeding on large amounts of krill, then migrate up the east coast of Africa to mate and give birth. The whales often jump fully out of the water (breaching) and slap their tails and fins on the surface which is behaviour associated with mating. While diving, it is possible to hear them 'singing' to one another - a sound that can be heard from up to 2km away!.

Dolphins can be seen in Mozambican waters most of the year but June, July and August are very good months for them. There are various species of dolphins in this area including bottlenose dolphins, common and humpback dolphins. Dolphins are rarely seen alone but usually in groups known as pods - sometimes in very large numbers. Female dolphins slap the water with their tails to encourage younger dolphins to keep up with the pod. Dolphins have been seen riding the waves almost in to shore and playing at the bows of diving and fishing boas.

Manta Rays are almost a guaranteed sighting off this part of the Mozambique coastline because of the abundance of Manta cleaning stations in this area.

Dive Sites Include:

Manta Reef :Manta Reef is probably one of the finest dive sites in Africa. The reef offers a huge diversity of marine life including numerous giant mantas (up to 6m in width) which give the reef its name. The reef has north and south walls with adjacent pinnacles of rocks creating gullies at depths of 24m to 28m. The top of the reef is quite flat with beautiful soft corals. The walls provide shelter for large schools of yellow snapper, barracuda, bigeyes, fusiliers, hundreds of bright blue, red-tooth trigger fish, tiny goldies, fairy basslets and so on. Large potato and other groupers inhabit overhangs and small caverns, along with large trumpet fish, green turtles, sweetlips and so on. The list of marine life is endless. The cracks and crevices are home to scorpion fish, morays (giant, honeycomb, geometric, yellow-edge and white mouth...), crocodile fish, Spanish dancers and a whole array of nudibranches and cowries. There are three main cleaning stations where huge manta rays circle and hover to allow small fish to remove parasites from their bodies. Playful devil rays and sometimes eagle rays swim above the reef and on occasion its possible to see white tip reef sharks and other rays.

Crocodile Rock: is named for its many large crocodile fish that lie on the bottom on flat rocks and sandy areas. The top of the ref is at around 14m with large craters going down to around 16m. The craters provide excellent shelter to all manner of marine life - schools of snappers and bigeyes hang almost motionless, various types of angel fish, butterfly fish, large bright yellow trumpet fish, clown trigger fish, large common lionfish and so on. There are many types of box fish and puffer fish. Overhangs and crevices provide shelter for lobster and banded coral shrimp. Blue spotted Kuhl's stingrays and scorpion fish lie still on the bottom next to egg and tiger cowries

Other

Currency: metical (MZM)

Language: Various Mozambique languages, with Portugese spoken as 2nd language by a quarter of the population.

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