Just returned from Bazaruto where I spent 7 days at Indigo Bay Lodge (
http://www.indigobayonline.com/).
Lets start on a positive note: Bazaruto Island is a real jewel, sand dunes diving straight into the clear blue water (although not as clear blue as what you can get in the Maldives, the Bahamas or in certain areas of Thailand and Mauritius, but still quite nice). The only other place in the world that I know with similar sand dunes landscapes (although the colour of the water is somehow not as clear
) is Natal (in Brazil). Further to the dunes you also get sandy lanes/beaches in the middle of the water or desert islands where you can have rest between two dives, really stunning and a feeling of being alone in the world! What a nice part of the world, not (yet?) swamped by thousands of tourists
Diving spots: two reefs: « Two miles » and « Five Miles » with several diving spots. We did 6 dives over 3 days.
Water temperature: 23-24°C.
Reef depth: 14-25m.
Our best dives were those were we stayed at 14-15 meters since the deeper you go the worst the visibility gets
What can be seen there
- Beautiful green turtles (the biggest weve seen was close to 1.5m),
- Nice sting rays
- Nice/big leopard moray eels
- Huge Grouper (as well as something else which looks like a grouper but which is not, the one we saw was c. 2.5m long
)
- As well as the usual suspects of the tropical fishes beautiful big parrot fish, trigger fish, cow fish, several species of Angel fish, clown fishes etc
- No sharks
but dolphins and humpback whale
from the boat !
At 5 miles reef there seems to be a spot called « Portholes » (I believe) where there are 3 big holes in which you can see a lot of sharks
we unfortunately have not been able to dive there since it was too rough the day we were due to dive there.
All this sounds great
BUT
the visibility was not good (at least at this tiem of year last week of July)
5m maximum and a lot of sand and plankton due to strong currents and fairly rough sea (depends on the wind, fairly strong in the morning but which tends to come down as the day goes by)
I am probably not an experienced enough diver, but the quality of dives does not seem to justify the trip especially since it is a pretty long way and a pretty remote area with dives that are not better than some of the locations mentioned above easier to reach from Europe
As far as the Lodge is concerned please see below, but at Indigo Bay, diving is clearly not good value for money (as for everything else by the way) if you only want to do 1 dive per day
it is possible but you have to stay on the boat / beach while the others are doing their second dive
no way to come back and « enjoy » the expensive Lodge that you booked to have a relaxing holiday. In addition dives are quite expensive US$ 50 per dive at « 2miles » and US$ 60 at « 5 miles ». Adding to that the cost of the sandwich (sorry the name they use is picnic) or barbecue which is better but fairly unusual
- this gets your to a range of US$ 110 - US$ 140 per person for two dives
and you do not know where you go (and therefore the price) before you go ! Having said that this include all equipment
but what kind of equipment? Old and not very well maintained
(Used and very old BC, depth controller not working very well, Old regulators etc
which does not seems in line with the price paid and far from the expectations one can have from a five star resort of that price)
Indigo Bay Lodge If diving is not good value for money
the lodge is even worse!
I believe that I have travelled a fair bit in hotels and resort of various categories but at Indigo Bay you get a 3 star holiday resort (Club Med style at best) for the price of a real 5 star luxury hotel (over US$ 500 per night !). What I mean by 3 star club med style is usually a very good location (i.e. the site is top quartile in the area) rooms and amenities are average (although we had the beach bungalow which is supposed to be the best
) and average to DIY service. One even more disappointing thing
The food (only buffets in the evening) was really bad (especially lunches, and diners)! As far as beverages are concerned : un-tasty cocktails, with wine and alcohol very expensive compared to what you get and pay in real 5 stars luxury lodges in South Africa (2-5 times more expansive). I can probably understand for beverages that Mozambique have custom stamp duties on wine and alcohol (to be checked) and that shipping to the island is expansive, but with all the fishermens on the island and the diversity of fishes I do not understand how one cannot get a nice grilled fish / seafood every night? More details on the Lodge? I will try to post something in the coming days on concierge.com (site linked to Condenast travellers, which is one of my reference in hotel critiques rarely disappointed, and which ranked Indigo Bay on its 2003 yearly Hotel Hot list)
If I had know this before booking would I choose Bazaruto?
I definitely would go there but only for 3-4 days and not for diving, just to enjoy the island which is of and exceptionally rare beauty (personal call). From what I can read, Tofo in Mozambique sounds great for diving and I heard when I was there of a spot (cannot remember its name) in South Africa, close to Richards Bay (Kwazulu Natal) were diving is apparently excellent at this time of year.
