Visibility TOFO & BARRA ?

[bvanstek]

Hi, i am thinking about traveling to Inhambane. I have soem questions:

1) can anyone describe the visibility in that area?

2) is febr/march a good period to travel? I have read there is a good chance for watching whalesharks, but it is in the rainy season...

 

[drew52]

Hi

It really depends I guess. My experience was good. I was there for 2 weeks in January last year. Visibility was around 10 - 15m most days. Water was about 28 degrees C. We did however have a few days when we couldn't dive due to onshore winds but all in all it was great.

Snorkeld with whale sharks on every dive. Dived manta reef with manta's, devil rays and reef sharks. It was awesome and worth the trip.

I dived out of Guinjata Bay. You can stay in their resort and do fly in packages.

Good Luck

Andrew

 

[AndyT]

Went there last November and had 10 - 15m viz , but two groups who went both before and after us had 20m+ Guess it's just luck of the draw that time of year , but I believe April / May is the best for viz and Whalesharks .

Safe Diving

Andrew

 

[tzeyap]

Went there last November and had 10 - 15m viz , but two groups who went both before and after us had 20m+ Guess it's just luck of the draw that time of year , but I believe April / May is the best for viz and Whalesharks .

Safe Diving

Andrew

I spent a week at Guinjata Bay about a month ago. Viz was about 10-15 and water temperature was on average 22-23 degrees except for one deep dive when the temp. was 20 degress. Derek of Guinjata was a little apologetic that I got to see only one whale shark and said that the best time would be April. Mantas at Manta reef is almost a sure thing. I f I were to do this again , I would spent between 3-4 days at Guinjata and perhaps the same no. of days at Tofu ; perhaps Barra Lodge.

 

[omnio]

Hello Bvanstek,

I just got back from Tofo yesterday. I spent 10 days at Barra Lodge and dove with Tofo and Diversity. Here is a quick recap of my trip.

- Spent the first 5 days diving with Tofo. Perfect weather for the first 5 days. Good operation, but it was very busy. They are definately the biggest operation in the area. Although in this case big didn't correlate into best. With Tofo I always felt a little rushed. The biggest advantage with Tofo is they have the Manta Ray and Whale Shark research center. The two scientist Andrea Marshall and Simon where wondeful source of information.

- Last 5 days were with Diversity Scuba. Rained every day. Since we were staying at Barra Lodge the convince of waking up and having the dive center right on the premiss was hard to give up. Diversity was worth it. I found the operation to be much more personable. While Tofo had instructors who had only been in the area for a few months, the newest one at Diversity had been there for over 20 months. Both operations ran smoothly, but Diversity had a much more relaxed atmosphere.

- Dove Manta Point 3 times and saw Mantas every time. On the very first dive of the trip we went to Manta Point and saw over 10 Mantas. A truely amazing site to watch them line up at the cleaning station. Vis on that dive was around 15-30 feet. Andrea (resident Manta Ray scientist) was on that dive with us and said with she has rarely seen high vis and large amount of Mantas on the same dive. Vis is really hard to generalize in Tofo. On one trip out I did a two tank dive. First dive vis was wonderful, about 80+. After a surface interval of 1 1/2 hours the vis on the second dive was complete **** at arund 15+.

Let me know if you have any specific questions.

 

[omnio]

Hello Bvanstek,

I just got back from Tofo yesterday. I spent 10 days at Barra Lodge and dove with Tofo and Diversity. Here is a quick recap of my trip.

- Spent the first 5 days diving with Tofo. Perfect weather for the first 5 days. Good operation, but it was very busy. They are definitely the biggest operation in the area. Although in this case big didn't correlate into best. With Tofo I always felt a little rushed. The biggest advantage with Tofo is they have the Manta Ray and Whale Shark research center. The two scientist Andrea Marshall and Simon where wondeful source of information.

- Last 5 days were with Diversity Scuba. Rained every day. Since we were staying at Barra Lodge the convenience of waking up and having the dive center right on the premise was hard to give up. Diversity was worth it. I found the operation to be much more personable. While Tofo had instructors who had only been in the area for a few months, the newest one at Diversity had been there for over 20 months. Both operations ran smoothly, but Diversity had a much more relaxed atmosphere.

- Dove Manta Point 3 times and saw Mantas every time. On the very first dive of the trip we went to Manta Point and saw over 10 Mantas. A truly amazing site to watch them line up at the cleaning station. Vis on that dive was around 15-30 feet. Andrea (resident Manta Ray scientist) was on that dive with us and said with she has rarely seen high vis and large amount of Mantas on the same dive. Vis is really hard to generalize in Tofo. On one trip out I did a two tank dive. First dive vis was wonderful, about 80+. After a surface interval of 1 1/2 hours the vis on the second dive was complete **** at around 15+.

Let me know if you have any specific questions.