TOFO ARTICLE

Published Submerge magazine August/September 2010. Writer Adam Cruise

TOFO – Mozambique’s Hottest Spot

Everyone knows Mozambique is hot. The weather is hot, the peri-peri is hot, the vibe is hot and the scuba diving is hot. But there are degrees of hot and the hottest spot in Mozambique is Tofo. This is a vibrant, pulsating little town  - if you can call an incongruous jumble of old concrete buildings, wooden holiday shacks and a reed village a town. It’s a place that nestles among the dunes on a placid bay not more than a dozen kilometres from Inhambane, a Palm and Casuarina-lined setting that exudes a funkiness like no other in Mozambique. It is a place for people who love the good life, those laid-back individuals who enjoy good food, good vibrations and, above all, a great adventure.

Tofo is not a place of plush resorts where uniformed staff tip-toe across manicured lawns with trays of colourful cocktails and guests, usually couples, converse in hushed tones in air-conditioned chalets. Instead this is somewhere all together more authentic, more interactive where drifters from all over the globe wander among locals in the market, where open air restaurants and cafes advertise Laurentina and Dois-M Beer, where seasoned sun-dwellers lie prone on the shimmering sand while fishermen drive their little wooden boats into the shore break and divers walk, wetsuits rolled halfway down their torsos, to and from dive boats among young touts jostling with each other to sell small coconut bread-rolls to any willing customer. Part of Tofo’s character is the collection of old concrete buildings in the town centre that have been renovated in degrees to house colourful cafés that serve surprisingly good food while most of the accommodation tends to be in newer wooden chalets called casitas. The most popular of the many places to stay is Casa Barry, situated right on the beach and protected by a Casuarina-clad dune. Casa Barry has casitas to suit various budgets and group sizes and has a great restaurant over-looking the bay where the staff are happy to teach you a few words in Portuguese.

Most of the travellers have come primarily for the diving and there are half a dozen dive centres scattered along the bay, but the newly arrived is not really spoilt for choice since only one dive centre stands out. Literally. Their garish orange boat, in bold contrast to the soft turquoise of the bay, yanks the attention from the others and like a moth to a flame the viewer is naturally drawn toward it. This is a company that mirrors what Tofo is all about. It is little wonder that they go by the name Peri-peri Divers - the hottest dive centre in Mozambique, and the dynamic owners Steve and Nick sizzle with gushing exuberance. The guys and their crew bring a joie de vivre to an already lively town. They have rated each of the two-dozen or so reefs humorously in terms of spiciness – easy shallow reefs, ideal for beginners and learner divers, are classified as “lemon & herb” while the more advanced reefs are “mild” with the deepest and most difficult rated “hot”. Their bold orange dive boat is called Malagueta after an intensely fiery pepper that is often used in peri-peri.

While the play on words revolves around the red-hot pepper, the guys at Peri-peri Divers are genuinely warm, with an approachable, friendly personality. Steve Counsel, an endearing Mank (that’s what you are called when you come from Manchester) with a comical Jim Carrey-look, was the dive leader for our first dive. His dive briefing was thorough yet light-hearted and apart from covering the usual points like depth, time, limits and buddy separation, Steve added two of his own customised ones – T.T.T and P.V.G.E.V=smiles. T.T.T is an interesting spin on the “no-touch” rule underwater - no Tantalising, Tickling, or Touching. P.V.G.E.V, says Steve in his broad Mank accent and even broader grin, is his diving version of Einstein’s Energy Theory. He says that if divers can generate Positivity, Vitality, Good Energy and Vibrance it will result in fun diving and smiles all around.

With positive energy abounding our intended dive site was described, one of Tofo’s finest, called Giants Castle. Giant’s is rated “hot” on account of its depth and ripping current, so divers need to be fairly advanced and able to perform a negative entry, a rapid decent where there is no time to bob to the surface after the backward roll off the boat. It’s called Giant’s Castle for a reason as it is home to Tofo’s famous megafauna - Whale Sharks, Manta Rays, and on occasion during the winter months, Humpback Whales. These animals are the reason divers gravitate to Tofo and Giants Castle did not fail to deliver, perhaps due to Steve’s penchant for exuding positive energy. From the pontoons of the bright orange dive-boat the water was a deep Indigo-blue promising phenomenal underwater visibility and when we got to the bottom no fewer than four Mantas were encountered as we drifted along the ridge at a depth of 30m, while a seven-metre Whale Shark cruised by, mouth agape funnelling large quantities of plankton into its cavenous mouth while the blue backdrop was detailed by a resident shoal of Big-eye Kingfish that swirlled like a silver tornados in mid-water. Giants is one of those dives that is hard to beat, but the crew from Peri-peri Divers did beat it, with a follow-up dive to what the world now knows as Manta Reef.

Manta Reef’s infamy has grown steadily over the years thanks in part to the close attention of Tofo’s renowned personality, resident scientist Dr. Andrea Marshall. Andrea has been researching Manta’s on this reef since 2004 and is now the world’s leading authority on Manta Rays due to the constant but tenuous presence of the winged giants on this reef. From her research centre based at Casa Barry called The Foundation for the Protection of Marine Megafauna, Andrea has almost single-handedly taken on the plight of Mantas from over-fishing by Asian trawling-vessels who are threatening the existence of Mozambique’s population and is championing their cause for formal protection in that country. She is also the subject of a moving BBC documentary on Tofo’s Mantas that is scheduled to air in South Africa sometime in mid-2010.

Diving Manta Reef is one of the great privileges for any diver. It has to be one of the top 10 dive sites in the world not only because of the abundance of Mantas but also because some are colossal. The reef itself is an extensive Manta cleaning station where certain species of damsels, wrasses and butterfly-fish wait in eager anticipation for the Mantas to cruise in. Like Stealth-bombers the Manta’s line up in formation, moving in one-by-one where they hover inches above the reef long enough for the cleaner fish to glean the parasites from them. For a diver to just float, a small distance away, and watch one of nature’s most interesting spectacles is a special experience that transcends imagination. What makes the experience that much more extraordinary is that some of the Mantas are considerably bigger than others, some reaching a staggering seven-metre wingspan. Andrea has identified these mega-Mantas as a separate species since their colouration and physiology are somewhat different. This rare and newly described species now goes by the name of Manta alfredi - the Giant Manta.

Unbelievably after a number of dives to this hottest of dive spots, divers eventually become so accustomed to the presence of Mantas that they begin to look at other animals on the reef. Manta Reef is blessed with a rich abundance of other marine life – big schools of snapper drift by like curtains swaying in a gentle breeze, five separate species of Moray Eel including the rare and extremely colourful Dragon Moray reside among the cracks and crevices, while a cave provides a commune for dozens of Lionfish. Manta Reef is also home to the world’s largest stingray, the Small-eyed Stingray that is found nowhere else in the world but here. Take away the Mantas this reef will still be one of the best dive spots in Mozambique.

The beauty about Tofo is that almost before and after every dive there is a chance to snorkel with Whale Sharks that, like the Mantas, reside here in numbers greater than usual. On the longer boat rides it’s almost a guarantee and the crew from Peri-peri are experts at spotting the dark shapes beneath the water where they brief you on the intricacies and etiquette with snorkelling alongside these docile behemoths, emphasising once again the T.T.T rule. There were so many Whale Sharks around that I noticed the divers become overly blasé, at one stage refusing another offer to snorkel with a shark and stating dismissively that they would rather see something else!

With marine life such as this, Tofo is unquestionably the hottest place to be in Mozambique. The food is spicy, the beach-life terrific, the atmosphere is addictive and thanks to a dive operation like Peri-peri Divers who augment Tofo’s superlative dive sites with their own sizzling brand of diving, divers would be crazy not to add Tofo to the top of their long Bucket-list.

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