How to get there

We had arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa, a little over a week before, where we were met by our guides from The Mozambique Experience, and started our drive up to Tofo. Roy Cougle, together with his wife Lucie and their partners Bruno Liebi and Henri Cooper, own and operate “The Mozambique Experience”, a company that provides dive tours to Tofo. Roy was to be our guide in Mozambique. Having first come to Mozambique as a journalist more than 10 years before, he began diving in the area in 1998, when the diving was just getting started, and proved to be a valuable source of information on the diving and of history the area.

After spending our first night at the very pleasant Casa Lisa Lodge just north of Maputo, we arrived in Tofo the next day ready for our first dive on Manta Reef and our first chance to see Whale Sharks. Our expectations were raised even more during the dive briefing, when Roy was explaining the procedure for snorkeling with Whale Sharks and instead of saying "If we see Whale Sharks..", emphasizing "When we see the Whale Sharks..."

Less than an hour later, on our way to Manta Reef, we were already in the water with our first Whale Shark (ever!). Nothing could have prepared us for the unbelievable experience of seeing a nine meter whale shark just meters from us. We were able to swim alongside this beautiful creature for a few minutes before it slowly moved away. As we watched it disappear into the blue, we were overwhelmed by the size, the beauty and the grace of this gentle giant. It was to be the first of many... Back on the boat, grinning from ear to ear, and just moments later another Whale Shark was spotted and we were back in the water again.

Our first dive on Manta Reef was to prove no less extraordinary. Dropping on the northern pinnacles, we descended into clouds of Trigger Fish, Big Eyes and Snappers and were greeted by enormous resident Potato Bass. As we slowly moved along the edge of the reef, seeing numerous Moray Eels and Spanish Dancers, we arrived at the first cleaning station. With visibility of less than five meters, we stared into the water and the unmistakable forms of Mantas took shape before our eyes.

We spent nearly fifteen minutes hovering just off of the cleaning station with numerous four and five meter Mantas circling just in front of us and passing right over our heads. We could have finished our dive quite happily right there, but our guides beckoned us to follow. We soon found out why. We finished our dive on the southern cleaning station watching the biggest Mantas we have ever seen, with wing spans of up to six meters, slowly circling right in front of us.

We could not have asked for a better start, although for photography, we were more than a little concerned about the visibility. However, our guides assured us that the poor visibility was well below average, would certainly be changing and was actually a good sign, as the increased amount of plankton in the water would most likely mean more Mantas and more Whale Sharks. The rest of our week was to prove them to be correct on all counts.