Anyone Have Experience Diving Mozambique and with Peri Peri Divers

[ABLAB]

Must be very cool to have such great access to amazing dives site and game reserves. I realize I'm short changing myself some with such a tight schedule but not sure when or if I'll be able to get back so thought this may be the best route. And, since it's a package there is no wiggle room. Other option is 4 days of diving at Aliwal and 4 days of diving at Ponta with 3 or 4 days at iSimangaliso through Blue Ocean Dive at Umkomaas.

My first impressions after a bit of research was that there wasn't much to keep myself occupied in the vicinity of Blue Ocean dive and it might make for long post dive evenings where as in Tofo there would cool little town to have a pint, a bite, and a bit of conversation. And, from what I've read Kruger is more my speed in terms of wildlife although iSimangaliso does look pretty stunning. Fyi, staying at Marloth in Kruger.

 

[uwgreg]

Must be very cool to have such great access to amazing dives site and game reserves. I realize I'm short changing myself some with such a tight schedule but not sure when or if I'll be able to get back so thought this may be the best route. And, since it's a package there is no wiggle room. Other option is 4 days of diving at Aliwal and 4 days of diving at Ponta with 3 or 4 days at iSimangaliso through Blue Ocean Dive at Umkomaas.

My first impressions after a bit of research was that there wasn't much to keep myself occupied in the vicinity of Blue Ocean dive and it might make for long post dive evenings where as in Tofo there would cool little town to have a pint, a bite, and a bit of conversation. And, from what I've read Kruger is more my speed in terms of wildlife although iSimangaliso does look pretty stunning. Fyi, staying at Marloth in Kruger.

As a first safari experience, Kruger is clearly superior to iSimangaliso.
Tofo/Ponta definitely have better town vibes & opportunities than Aliwal/Protea towns (or Sodwana for that matter).

 

[gwklein]

If you trip is being organized by a local tour operator, I wouldn't be worried about missing your pickup. My experience has been that the local operatives are well aware of any changes to your flights or or issues before you are and adjustments will be made for you. Don't expect things to go perfectly as planned, but go with the flow as the changes are made for you.

As a prior poster noted, Kruger park has specific hours of operation. If your accommodations are in the park proper, you will be allowed one hour before and one hour after outside visitor have to leave. The best game viewing is early morning and late afternoon/evening. Game drives are usually 3 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the eveninng. You mentioned an all day drive. I looked up the all day drives and this was how they were described:

All-Day Drives​

On request and availability at camp level, guests may hire the use of a vehicle and driver for the entire day. Trained officials take visitors to sections of the park that are usually inaccessible to tourists.

I don't remember this being available when I was there.

 

[ABLAB]

Certainly don't expect things to go perfectly. I'm pretty sure Peri Peri has dealt with delayed arrivals many times. Just need to make sure we're on the same page in case of any hiccups.

It looks like we're staying at Marloth outside the park and the drives begin at 5:00 am and go to 3 pm each day. We'll have our own car and private guide.

On paper they seem organized and pretty detailed and very responsive on email and Whats App. So all signs are good as to their reliability and professionalism.

I've never taken a tour before as it's not all my preferred way to travel. I like to plan and go as I please. But, thought on this one a guided tour maybe best given that I'm unfamiliar with the roads, the possible language barrier, lack of infrastructure if anything goes wrong especially since I'm traveling solo, and the recent troubles in Mozambique.

 

[ABLAB]

Tofo is a bit remote and based on what I've seen the roads aren't the best and in case of a break down not quite sure how that would work. And, it's a pretty long drive from Tofo to Ponta on what looks to be questionable roads for a good portion of the drive (at least based on what I've found on You Tube) so decided against driving or relying on buses and shuttles.

 

[uwgreg]

Certainly don't expect things to go perfectly. I'm pretty sure Peri Peri has dealt with delayed arrivals many times. Just need to make sure we're on the same page in case of any hiccups.

It looks like we're staying at Marloth outside the park and the drives begin at 5:00 am and go to 3 pm each day. We'll have our own car and private guide.

The drives are better, usually, after 3pm & in the evening (18-22h) and early (before/right at sunsrise) to ~9 am.
Under your circumstances, I would really push/ensure everyone is ready to start the drive in the park at opening (5am or whatever time it is).

Just spent more time at Ponta diving &, end of April/early May, the Shark dives at Pinnacles were much slower.
Peak shark diving season is October to March.
The reef diving remained excellent!

 

[ABLAB]

Thanks for the response. Yeah, per the schedule, we'll be hitting the Kruger gates as they open. I'm actually leaning toward end of April beginning of May because apparently conditions are good, still in shark season at Ponta, and it coincides with dry season in Kruger. When you say slow do you mean very small number of sharks at the site? Lack of diversity of species? Because if that's the case it may change my calculations since the schedule allows only two dive days at Ponta (so most likely only 4 dives total). Personally, I wish we spent less time at Tofo and Morrongulo and more time Ponta but as is it's 3 dive days Tofo, 3 dive days Morrongulo, 2 dive days Ponta, and 2 full days at Kruger.

 

[uwgreg]

Thanks for the response. Yeah, per the schedule, we'll be hitting the Kruger gates as they open. I'm actually leaning toward end of April beginning of May because apparently conditions are good, still in shark season at Ponta, and it coincides with dry season in Kruger. When you say slow do you mean very small number of sharks at the site? Lack of diversity of species? Because if that's the case it may change my calculations since the schedule allows only two dive days at Ponta (so most likely only 4 dives total). Personally, I wish we spent less time at Tofo and Morrongulo and more time Ponta but as is it's 3 dive days Tofo, 3 dive days Morrongulo, 2 dive days Ponta, and 2 full days at Kruger.

The expert local dive outfits at Ponta will say you can still see sharks and/or mantas in April, May (I think maybe year round) but the best sightings and seasons are Oct-Nov and Feb March (early April?)

The shark dives are always unbaited.
Slow --> they have days or weeks with very few sightings, farther, less activity.

Peak season --> we see multiple Bullsharks, Tigers, hammerheads, blacktips, silvertips, etc. We had multiple dives with 5 different species sightings on a single dive. We had 1 particular dive with 6 different species (clear view of multiple bulls, tigers, hammerheads, 2 blacktip, 2 silvertip & 1 dusky or grey reef... I forget) sightings on a single dive!
Multiple dives with many bullsharks, hammerheads, tiger and/or blacktips otherwise. Every dive we had were very interesting and active.

They also say most days are very good and active with lots of pelagics and sharks.


As a comparison, Aliwal Shoal or Protea banks (which are also famous for sharks) would pretty much never see 5-6 different species on unbaited dives AND you often need to do 8-10 dives to have 2 excellent/incredible dives in season and the rest are very quiet, sometimes see nothing... (from my personal experience & from other experienced divers, not from dive shop reports)


Obviously your experience may vary and a late April/May might be excellent (especially without a basis for comparison), but our direct conversations with the local experts that dive Pinnacles 3-7 days a week is that they dive it all the time in October-early April and then stop recommending it or dive it a lot less the other months because of the quality of sightings. They charge more for Pinnacle than reef dives, they would be incentivized to sell "only" Pinnacle dives, but they recommend against it)

 

[ABLAB]

The expert local dive outfits at Ponta will say you can still see sharks and/or mantas in April, May (I think maybe year round) but the best sightings and seasons are Oct-Nov and Feb March (early April?)

The shark dives are always unbaited.
Slow --> they have days or weeks with very few sightings, farther, less activity.

Peak season --> we see multiple Bullsharks, Tigers, hammerheads, blacktips, silvertips, etc. We had multiple dives with 5 different species sightings on a single dive. We had 1 particular dive with 6 different species (clear view of multiple bulls, tigers, hammerheads, 2 blacktip, 2 silvertip & 1 dusky or grey reef... I forget) sightings on a single dive!
Multiple dives with many bullsharks, hammerheads, tiger and/or blacktips otherwise. Every dive we had were very interesting and active.

They also say most days are very good and active with lots of pelagics and sharks.


As a comparison, Aliwal Shoal or Protea banks (which are also famous for sharks) would pretty much never see 5-6 different species on unbaited dives AND you often need to do 8-10 dives to have 2 excellent/incredible dives in season and the rest are very quiet, sometimes see nothing... (from my personal experience & from other experienced divers, not from dive shop reports)


Obviously your experience may vary and a late April/May might be excellent (especially without a basis for comparison), but our direct conversations with the local experts that dive Pinnacles 3-7 days a week is that they dive it all the time in October-early April and then stop recommending it or dive it a lot less the other months because of the quality of sightings. They charge more for Pinnacle than reef dives, they would be incentivized to sell "only" Pinnacle dives, but they recommend against it)

Appreciate this info. It's very helpful. Seems like a good idea to reconfigure dates.