September in Mozambique?

[Renz]

Hello everyone
myself and partner (we live in london) have only two weeks in september and we'd like to go SA for a change to SE Asia..
we are thinking about Mozambique, possibly combine diving and national park trip, if money allows it!
please give us some advice..is this a good move?
any tips on flights and tour- accomodation?

thank you all

 

[scottyb]

Renz,

Any luck with your trip? I'm also searching for some ANY info about working/divingtraveling through mozambique. A trip summary would be nice to read.

thanks

 

[jongles]

Hi guys, I did my OW in Moz in Sept 2007. I'm in work at the moment(shhh) so I don't have the finer details at hand.
I flew Dublin-Joburg and then caught a bus to Maputo. From there I caught an internal flight up to Pemba Bay( Not to be confused with Pemba Island Tanzania) where I spent a good week doing my OW and generally relaxing. Then flew down to Vilanculus for some more diving. My Gf joined me there and we spent just over 2 weeks making our way down the coast with diving at Tofu and then back to Maputo before catching a bus to Joburg.
In general the further north you go the calmer the waters are but the further south you are the higher the odds are of seeing the big stuff. So higher visibility better coral and calmer waters up north and whale sharks and rays down south. The best example is the whale sharks at Tofu. We came across a couple of whale sharks when we where returning from a dive and got a chance to snorkel with them, one of the most memorable days I've had. Tofu is widely regarded as one of the best places to see whale sharks. That’s a very rough generalistaion of dive conditions.

I think 2 weeks is a bit tight but do-able. I'm pretty sure you could fly to Joburg and then pay a visit to Kruger national park on route to Maputo. You could do some diving in Inhambane/Tofu.You might even make it up to Vilanculus. I can't imagine you making it further north then that in your time frame.

Scottyb you don't obviously have the time constraints.My info is a few years out of date and things may have changed radically. Alot of South Africans where buying up areas around Tofu and the place gets jam packed during school holidays (december I think). I was very impressed with one of the dive operators at Tofu and there where guys doing their internship there not sure about working though. There was also a French couple running a nice shop up in Vilanculus and at that time they where short handed. I can't imagine you'll earn a fortune in Moz but survival money perhaps.The country is still rebuilding.

I received my OW training at CI Divers in Pemba which is run by Pieter Jacobs (its almost a one man show). Pieter knows his stuff and he knows Pemba,
In Vilanculus I dove with Odyssea Dive run by a French couple. Sabrine and Denis I think
And in Tofu I dove with Tofo Dive a much larger organization who I found to be very professional. They must have had 6/7 instructors.
I would recommend all of the above.

Hope I’ve been of some help to you all

PS Renz - I’m planning my own break at the moment and heavily considering Tanzania. Not knocking Mozambique I loved my time there and its definitely worth a visit I found the people very open and its not swamped with tourists . Its just that Tanzania looks to be far more developed and has been dealing with tourists for far longer. I’m sure you could fit in a 2 week Safari/dive holiday.Flights seem reasonable too