We spent three days diving from Muscat, capital of Oman, in November 2019. It took a while to write it up with pandemic taking inspiration away.

Oman is a beautiful country: infrastructure is excellent, it is safe, people are friendly and food is delicious. More on our wonderings around Muscat top side is here.

Diving around Muscat was very good even though we were not very lucky with the weather. The first day was perfect around Daymaniyat islands which are about 20km offshore. Then the wind and waves picked up and visibility dropped. On the second day we made it to Daymaniyat islands but with pretty bad vis and a bumpy ride back. By the third day we could not make it that far out. We still were able to go to Fahal island though where we did some really nice diving. So, the good thing is that even if the weather is not cooperating, one is still likely to be able to dive because of the dive site locations and wind direction. Water was nice and warm 28C. Visibility varied depending on a site and a day between 7 to 20m. Here is the video from diving around Daymaniyat and Fahal.

Daymaniyat archipelago is a protected nature reserve consisting of limestone islands with perfect sandy beaches, and shallow waters with corals all around. Dive depth is up to 25m. Corals were good in deeper areas but one could see signs of bleaching in shallow areas. Seeing all the mating cuttlefish was quite special. Leopard shark was another great siting.

Fahal island is on the other side of Muscat so getting to it involves cruising past the old part of the city which was nice. Here visibility was quite good again with lots of fish life and more mating cuttlefish.

Logistics

We stayed in one of the hotels along the Qurum beach and dove with Mola Mola diving center. The dive boat departs from Al Mouj Marina. On the first day we brought our dive gear with us by car to the marina, parked and carried it to the boat. Because we dove multiple days the guys from Mola Mola kept the gear overnight which was great. Most other people were using hired dive gear. The boat had a mixed group of divers and snorkelers. The trips included two dives and a tasty bbq lunch.

Mouj Marina is a beautiful new development with several nice restaurants and coffee places.

All in all the diving was really good.This was a short trip though. We spent 3 days diving and went for a day trip to Wadi Shab. A longer trip is definitely worth it – after all there is a 2000km coast line to explore, and all the wadis and deserts to discover!

back to Oman

Sardine run off the coast of South Africa is one of the largest marine migrations in the world. Between May and July billions of sardines move along the coast of South Africa towards Mozambique. Dolphins, sharks, and birds that eat sardines move along with them. At the same time whales also migrate in the same direction. We spent 6 days chasing sardines based out of Port St John in July of 2019.

Port St. John is a small town at the mouth of the river with cliffs on both sides making it look like some spectacular Lord of the Rings place. We did sardine run with Blue Ocean Dive who we also dove Aliwal Shoal from Umkomaas. Most operators actually offer a day or two of Aliwal Shoal diving as part of the sardine run package. We flew to Durban, dove one day on Aliwal Shoal in Unkomaas and then went to Port St John – about 4 hour drive.

Wild coast is spectacularly beautiful and spending a day on the boat watching whales, dolphins and birds was great fun. After watching all the amazing videos with huge bait balls where all kinds of sharks attack thousands of sardines in crystal clear blue water we kind of expected to dive on bait balls every day of our sardine run trip. Turns out it is not quite like that. The experience is more like going on a safari. While one hopes to see a kill one kind of knows it is not certain at all. Same thing with the bait ball. We saw lots of dolphins, “raining birds”, and tried to chase scattering “micro bait balls” of sardines but did not find a big stable bait ball. Perhaps sardines were late or maybe water was a bit too warm and they were further out. There seems to be a lot of variability from year to year and every sardine run season is different we hear.

There was lots of surface action though and in retrospect bringing the proper camera for surface photos would have been a good idea. The sea can be rough though so would definitely need a water proof bag for the camera to keep it dry. The dolphins, diving birds and all the breaching whales we saw would make for some fantastic pictures.

There are several short hikes around Port St John that one can do after the day of sardine chasing. We also went for sun downers on top of the hill where landing strip is to enjoy stunning view of the river, ocean and the cliffs.

After 6 days of chasing sardines we then went back to Unkomaas and did a couple more days of diving on Aliwal Shoal. There were lots of ragged tooth sharks on the shoal, we did a bated dive again and even here we saw whales breaching on the way to dive sites!

Praslin is the second biggest island in Seychelles and the home of coco de mer. It is a smaller and much quieter island than Mahe with beautiful beaches and lots of good dive sites nearby.

We were diving in April. Visibility was excellent with 20 plus meters on most sites and water warm at 28-29C. We dove with a very professionally run Octopus diving center. We went to most of the dive sites around Praslin and nearby islands. There are really cool rock formations, lots of reef fish and turtles, lots of eagle rays and ribbon tail rays, and a few sharks.

Seychelles corrals suffered a major damage during bleaching event in 1998 when an estimated 90% of coral died. There was also bleaching in 2016. We found that on many sites coral has been recovering well from 1998 events. It seems corals are doing better on the sites where current pushes cooler water through. Interestingly inside of the bay corals did not suffer as much bleaching. Coral garden site actually does have some reasonably healthy coral and fantastic fish life.

It is clear that coral is suffering with repeated bleaching events hitting it. In the picture below you can see the coral destroyed by 1998 bleaching, then some new coral growth (the brown on the left) and also new coral bleached in more recent time (the white one on the right)

The diving is still spectacular especially due to the topography of the islands with huge boulders and all sorts of rocks covered in sponges and in many places recovering coral growth. Macro is very good and the night dive was excellent.

Logistics

We flew to Mahe and then took a ferry boat Cat Cocos over to Praslin island which takes about an hour. On the way back we took the plane which takes about 10 minutes. Both are good ways to connect though if time is limited plane is definitely worth it. We stayed on the quieter western side of the island to enjoy the sunset and also because this is when the seaweed was supposed to be on the east side.

We had a rented car and it only took about 10 minutes to drive to the Cote D’Or beach side of the island which has more tourist accommodation and where the dive centers are. There are a few restaurants on the island but we mostly bought fresh fish from fishermen and cooked it at our self catering cottage. It was a great trip and a chance to see more of Seychelles archipelago following our exploration of Mahe earlier.

Diving Aliwal Shoal in South Africa we saw lots of oceanic black tip sharks and ragged tooth sharks, also known as sand tiger shark or grey nurse shark (depending which part of the world you are in), and many huge stingrays.

Aliwal shoal is a reef about 5km offshore and has really cool rock formations with coral growth and all sorts of critters, nudibranchs and fish life if you care to look – hard task given the distraction of the big stuff – sharks, rays and turtles.

We were there at the end of December when conditions were supposed to be nice with warm(er) water and good visibility. We got some rough sea, visibility deteriorated from very nice 15-20m on the first day to about 2m on the last day and water temps at about 20C. Despite imperfect conditions diving was superb and we saw sharks and rays on every dive and very close.

Logistics

We were diving Aliwal Shoal from a small town of Umkomaas about 50km south of Durban in KwaZulu Natal in South Africa. We stayed and dove and mostly ate at Blue Ocean Dive. They run a very professional operation, efficient yet easy going and friendly. It is nice to have the resort, the dive operation and a good restaurant all in one place. Diving is on rubber duckies which are launched from the river mouth – which is nice since you do not have to push the boat into the ocean and try to hop into it as we did in Mozambique. Dive sites were mostly 15-20 minutes by boat and would be less if we did not have as much wave action. They do two dives out but also have one of the boats going back after one dive – which gives flexibility. We dove on air as most sites were about 20m or less. Water temps were 22C at the warmest and 19C lowest. We had 5mm wetsuits which was ok for 22C but not quite enough for 19C.

From Umkomaas we headed further down the coast – as part of our long trip from Durban to Cape Town – to dive at Protea banks. Bad weather followed us with wind, big waves, rain, and poor viz. We persevered and still did two dives and saw some ragged tooth sharks and rays. Bottom line is there is some amazing diving at Aliwal shoal and Protea banks – we just have to get better weather next time. And, there is the sardine run to aspire to!

Diving around northern tip of Zanzibar island in Tanzania we saw excellent macro including rare weedy scorpion fish, variety of leaf scorpion fish, lots on nudibranches and all sorts of reef fish.  In October visibility was not spectacular at about 10 up to 15 meters – somewhat better at Mnemba – and water temperature 24C. We did not see any sharks or other big stuff but hear dolphins are sited frequently. 

Logistics

We stayed in Nungwi which is about 2 hour drive north of Stonetown on a reasonably good road. Nungwi has a range of hotels from all inclusive big resorts to smaller but very nice hotels on the beach.  There are quite a few restaurants and bars overlooking the ocean and several basic grill places with tables right on the sand offering fresh seafood. 

We dove with Spanish Dancer located right on the main beach in Nungwi, professionally run with large traditional boats and offering daily trips to Mnemba Atoll.  Fishing in the area is very active and you see literally hundreds of fishing boats – sail powered traditional dhows-  going out to see around sunset time.

Nungwi area definitely got lots of new development in the past 10 years and the entire coast on western and northern side is dotted with resorts. The beach is very wide on low tide but nearly disappears at high tide – useful to keep in mind if you decide to go for a beach walk to make sure you do not end up swimming or attempting spiderman maneuvers on rocky cliffs to get back. Despite all the developments the atmosphere is still very laid back. On Saturday as sun starts to go down all the locals come out to play football on the beach and enjoy the sunset.  It is a nice place to relax and good to combine with safari to Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Lake Manyara or Tarangire.

Back to Tanzania