Trip report. Ponta Malongane – Mozambique

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MontyPython

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Pretoria - South Africa
Trip report.
Ponta Malongane – Mozambique

Hi all.

I have just returned from my first dive trip to Ponta Malongane in Mozambique. Mozambique is situated on the South East coast of Africa. Feels like redundant info as it’s only a 7 hour drive from where I live – but it makes it sounds so much more exotic.

But, do not be fooled – Ponta Malongane is my Paradise; as I doubt I will ever see Fiji, or the great barrier reef, as there is quite a couple of years worth of sight seeing left for me in the waters of off the east coast of Africa. (the reefs of the east coast of Southern Africa has more fish species than the GBR – 93% to 74% if I remember correctly)

Ok, I think I just confused a lot of people here. I think I might have forgotten myself where I wanted to start, so I’ll start at the beginning. Again… I think…

Ponta Malongane is an easy, 7.5 hour drive from Johannesburg South Africa. Be warned though that the last 20 or so kilometers from the Kosi Bay border post (to cross into Mozambique) into the dive camp takes a further hour, and should ONLY be attempted with a 4x4 or 4x2 (diff lock). This 20km stretch is a bumpy 2 track sand road and chances of getting stuck is extremely high.
We got stuck 30 meters from the border post to the cheering of all the other divers crossing into the country. A big embarrassment but great fun as everybody, after making fun of us, helped to dig, pull and push the Bakkie (Afrikaans for pickup truck – Pronounced: bha’key) out of the sand. We were on our way again in 15 minutes. The rest of the way in you need to know your driving skills, as getting stuck in the sand here might mean quite a long wait for another car to come past and hopefully offer assistance or drive on to find someone that can tow you out. Cell phone reception is sparse and international roaming is highly recommended, even for South African Locals as the signal from across the border can only be picked up on top of signal hill. (between Ponta Do Ouro and Ponta Malongane – 4x4 again needed to get up here)

Arriving in the dive camp you again need to show your passport, more for formality sake than anything else, but make sure you did get it stamped at the border post, South Africans do not need visa’s, but all other countries currently still require a visa for entry. (things can get confusing at the border post and no one is really going to stop you if you just drive through. Do not get caught though and do not try to get back into South Africa as customs on the SA side are ever more thorough.)

The Malangane Camp lays nestled under lush trees between a +/- 40m high dune and the ocean. All camp sites and chalets are within 150m from the beach, and ample ablution facilities are provided for those not staying in the on-suite chalets. Hot showers and flush toilets – there is no roughing it here 

I brought along my own tent to camp in for the 3 nights, this is the cheapest option and with an inflatable mattress (my own), very comfortable. The only time I spent in the actual tent was for sleeping, so money well spent. Tent camp sites are booked at roughly 8 people per stand, being it 8 people in one tent or 8 tents with one person each. Stands are large and shaded by trees and have an electrical output that can be used for lights etc. No kettles or hairdryers allowed though, as this trips the power supply.

Other accommodation options include:
Renting a tent – these tents are pre-setup and have 2 mattresses supplied – bring your own bedding. Rented per person sharing.
Renting a log hut – small 2 person log huts with electricity and beds. I think there are 4 person huts as well.
Chalets – these if I remember correctly sleep up to 6 people and are available with on-suite bathrooms and without.

Security in the dive camp is not an issue at all. Although it is common sense not to have valuables lying around, the locals that work in the camp take pride in there work and undesirables are kept away from the area.
You can enlist the services of the locals as camp-help. They are extremely willing and trust worthy. They will do anything from carrying all your heavy gear around to making beds. By word of mouth I heard they ask R30.00 (30 South African Rand) per day, but for the amount of work they do I suggest no less than R50. for overseas visitors this should work out to about USD7 or GBP5 per day at current exchange rates. Not just a bargain but you are also creating a job.

The dive camp and communal area is a huge ‘Lapa’ (thatched roof wooden building). This houses the dive planning area – dive shop – recreational area and large communal kitchen.
The kitchen has all the pots, pans, cutlery and crockery that you might need to use, for free. Please do not take it back to your camp though as lots of tables are provided where you can have your meals in the Lapa, and there are only that many to go round. Gas stoves are provided in the kitchen where you can cook meals. Washing up the dishes is done by the locals, and for this, some help clearing up your table, a friendly smile and any leftover food (especially at the end of your trip) goes a long way to repay them. Monetary tips is just as much appreciated.

Oh, there is also a restaurant where the delicacies are prawns and really real Portuguese chicken. They also bake fresh bread daily but this should be picked up early as they go fast.

Dinner time is actually a very fun time as everybody congregates in the kitchen and communal area and swap stories. After diner especially, groups and strangers alike normally get together to play board or card games.
There is also a well stocked bar with a deck overlooking the ocean, the Mozambique beer compares vary favorably in both taste and price to those available in the SA market. Spirits and wine is also served. Payment is cash only. SA Rand is accepted throughout this southern part of Mozambique and is the preferred currency.

vv .....Continued in Next Thread…… vv
 
Continued from previous thread…

Ok, now to the nitty gritty. The diving.
As this was my first ocean dives please excuse me if I’m overly biased, but WOW. The organization here is superb. Every night at around 4 or 5 ‘o clock dive planning takes place in the Lapa. Here boats and dive sites are discussed, boats are allocated to time slots and reefs, and lastly you put your name down for the time and reef you wish to dive.

Fast forward to the next day.
All your diving equipment is stored on wooden decks by the kit-up area at the back of the lapa. All equipment gets color coded with ribbons to facilitate delivering your gear (BC – REG and Cylinder) back to your area after the dive. The locals again take charge here to load/unload the boat – rinse your equipment and have all cylinders filled. All you ever carry around is your wetsuit, mask and fins.

As a reminder, private diving is not allowed and signing up with a charter or dive school going there is highly recommended. This should also bring down costs as you can group in on for instance the food bill and travel and petrol expenses.

Back to diving. You do your own kit up and setup of your BC, REG and Cylinder. Check if the cylinder has been filled, with tens of cylinders standing around the odd mistake does regrettably happen.
Once kited up, you leave your gear and weight belt on the deck, in line with the skipper’s name who will be piloting the boat to the reef you are going to. The Staff will then make sure your gear gets loaded on the boat. All you have to do is take your mask, fins and any other soft gear you might want to take with you, down to the beach (a 50m walk) for the dive briefing.

There aren’t any reefs that you can reach via a shore dive, thus all dives are done from 4m to 8m “rubber duck” boats. All with hard keel and seating between 8 and 16 divers. The trip out to one of the many reefs in the area is a breeze. In good weather, there basically is no surf, although in bad weather, a boat or two has capsized. This is very uncommon though. Mozambique is known for its flat oceans. Oh, and the warm current flowing south from the equator. This weekend basically marked the middle of winter for southern Africa (21june = winter solstice) and water temperatures were 21degrees Celsius and land temp at 25-26 the whole weekend. Marvelous!!!

The skippers are amazingly well trained and all are Oxygen providers in case an emergency should occur. Here I’ll punt DAN (Divers Assist Network) as a must have, for evacuation might be a problem with the bad road conditions and the closest chambers are in Pretoria or Durban in South Africa, both a couple of hours travel away by road.

Diving is awesome!! As a first timer I was speechless, even after the dive :wink: I still can not find words to describe the amount and variety and species of fish there is. Being a noob to the ocean I can say that I found Nemo, and Dory and angelfish and starfish, and sting rays and other rays. My prize finds were the Moray Eels, it is amazing realizing that you are not looking at it through the glass window of an aquarium. Here you are, in earths aquarium. Pass the tissues… I wanna go back.

Some notable points on some of the reefs I dived:
Shallow Malongane: At max 14m depth – this reef has some amazing coral and smaller fish species, some nice gullies add to the excitement of the dive as it creates some nice drift diving.

Texas: the largest Reef at a max depth of 16m. The name says it all. This site is large. You can dive it over and over and still see something new every time.

Paradise Ledge: Max 18m depth. I saw my first Moray Eel here so I’ll remember it always. Amazing gullies and overhangs again. Spectacular variety of fish.

Bass City: at Max 25m, this was by far the most fun dive I had – (I did this reef twice)
5 reef outcroppings make up this dive and it is full of Potato Bass, scorpion fish, moray eels and rays. The Bass, ranging up to about 1.5 meters in length, are non-fussed by the divers and will frequently swim alongside you or allow you to pose with them for a photo. Something to look out for though is the scorpion fish as they are posted like sentries around these reefs and do not move for anything. Basically because they don’t have too. Careful not to accidentally drift backwards into one of these as they are quite poisonous.

After the dives you can generally just, hang around. At low tide a little lagoon is formed right of the beach where snorkeling is quite fun, but some surge does make it a bit of a tough swim (or float).

Other fun thins to do, is to take a quad bike with and do some racing on the sand – PLASE NOTE – NO vehicles on the beach – this is Turtle breading area. There are however amazing tracks, dunes and gullies to go ride around in away from the beach. As a matter of fact it starts right outside the gate. Also, driving to the town of Ponta Do Ouro for some local shopping, and trying to get up signal hill (so called because of the cell phone reception) with your 4x4, makes for a fun afternoon out.

Bookings for Malongane can be made directly from their central reservations at
+27 (0)13 741 1975. www.malongane.co.za
I would however suggest for international tourist (and locals) to contact and book through a dive shop, in so doing you can arrange an all inclusive package including gear rental, shared transport, meals and a friendly crowd of people to enjoy your holiday with.

The contact details for my LDS: -- yes, I’m punting them as they are awesome guys and really made my trip as great as it was –
at http://www.ahadivecentre.co.za
Telephone: +27(0)12 663-3870
Fax: +27(0)12 663-3920
Email: ahaseal@global.co.za
Corner Heuwel and South - Centurion (opposite Tiger Wheel and Tyre).
AHA Dive Centre
P.O. Box 8276,
Centurion, 0046
South Africa

ANDRE NAUDE
Instructor Trainer 224SA
Cell +27 (0)82 578 1553

DENTON KING
Advanced Open Water Instructor 236SA
Cell +27 (0)82 559 8087

Disclaimer - ‘Please note that all views expressed in this article is my own - experiences may differ’
 
Sounds great. Mozambique is on my list for future dives so I thank you for this report.
 
Hey SA

I posted this report later than I wanted to.
I was there 16-19 June, chances are you got there as we were leaving.
I heard Last week had relatively Bad Weather all up the Moz Coast. Did you get much diving done? Friends of mine went up to Xai-Xai last week and could not dive the whole time.
 
MontyPython:
Hey SA

I posted this report later than I wanted to.
I was there 16-19 June, chances are you got there as we were leaving.
I heard Last week had relatively Bad Weather all up the Moz Coast. Did you get much diving done? Friends of mine went up to Xai-Xai last week and could not dive the whole time.

I was there 25/6 - 10/7.

We only had bad weather (rain early morning) on one day which caused the 7:00 launch to be cancelled because the skippers wouldn't be able to see their landmarks.
The 9:00 launch (ours) and the 11:00 launch had great dives.

Other than that the weather was fine - had a bit of rain three other nights, but the days were great.

I did 14 dives over the 15 days we were there (one dive a day by choice as I had my kids there and wanted to spend time with them as well).
Was fortunate in the sense that Malongane needed DM's who know the reefs while we were there and thus did not pay for my dives.
 
Hi srbsep.

Prices vary with the seasons, and if it falls over school or public holidays. Considering that your details say that you are in the USA, the currency conversion is in your favor.
The variances will be miniscule in Dollar terms.

I do not have the actual price list at the moment, but below is an estimate.

My complete trip, 4 days – 3 nights and 5 dives, accommodation (in my own tent), food, traveling costs (shared petrol expenses) and gear rental (BC – REG and Cylinder) cost me R3500.00 (South African Rand). – This was all done through my LDS
At current exchange rates that is $530.00 US.

Add the cost of your Return Air Ticket to Johannesburg (assuming you use my LDS) and some extra spending money for incidental cost – i.e. reef tax – border taxes and most importantly - local beer
Also you might need to stay over in SA a couple of days before commencing the trip to Moz, so there might be hotel costs. And then there is outside costs like Visas that I do not know. (you will need a VISA For Moz – not sure about SA)

All in all for less than $5000.00 US, I think you can have the Holliday of a lifetime. Probably much less. It is hard to compare what is cheap and what is expensive in terms of other currency’s. 3500.00 Rand is quite a Bit of money, (in SA Terms) but still one of the cheapest vacations around

OH!! And Mozambique is a Malaria area – Precautions must be taken.

SA-Diver had a much longer stay there than I had, and as he says he had his family there. He can maybe give a rough price breakdown on how much a family holiday there would cost.
 
Rough cost breakdown of our trip (15 days, 2 adults, 2 children, 20 dives booked)

Accomodation (we camped with our own gear) R3750.00
Fuel (own 4x4) R1000.00
Dives (@ R170.00 per dive - using own dive gear) R3400.00
Marine Tax (for the 2 divers) R60.00
3rd Party Insurance in Moz (4x4 and trailer) R285.00
Food and drinks (taken along) R2500.00
Food and drinks bought in Moz (restaurants) R1500.00

We met two Capetownians who did a different trip - I can give a good estimate of their costs.

Accomodation (luxury tented camp - self catering) R400.00 pppn sharing
Dives (@ R170.00 per dive and R200 per dive for rental gear - tank, BC, regulator, weightbelt - using own fins, mask, wetsuit, booties etc.)
Meals (about R200.00 per day if self catering, about R200.00 per meal for two if using the restaurant)
Rental car from Durban to Moz border (car stays at border - not 4x4) R110.00 per day
Border transfer (resort transfers by 4x4 from border to Malongane and back) R70.00 per person per transfer

Add to that flights to JHB, then to Durban as well as acccomodation along the way.

We also met a group from the UK doing a fully catered trip diving first Protea Banks on the Kwazulu Natal South coast (Bull sharks, Hammerheads, Rays, Tiger sharks etc.), then Aliwal Shoal just South of Durban (Spotted Ragged Tooth sharks, Dolphins etc.), then Mozambique.

A few usefull links:

www.divesouthafrica.co.za (the group from the UK used them)
www.malongane.co.za (general Malongane info)
www.tartaruga.co.za (luxury tented camp)
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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