Africa's Indian Ocean - where to dive next?

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Nami

Registered
Messages
35
Reaction score
10
Location
Chile
# of dives
500 - 999
My dive buddy and I looking for our next 10 day dive trip to Africa's Indian Ocean. Planned timing is anytime between September to mid- November. We have been diving in Mozambique, South Africa and Zanzibar and are now searching for a new destination. I have been trying to find out about Seychelles, Mauritius, Reunión, Rodrigues Is. but it seems I am "search challenged" since I cannot find much on scuba diving.

Any suggestions and recommendations? Specifically:

1. Diving in Mauritius vs. Reunión vs. Seychelles vs. RS - where do you like best in regards to reef life, coral health, large pelagics?
2. Any other places you could recommend?
3. Cost not (quite) important
4. We prefer places that have a more laid back feel (not looking for all inclusive resorts or "I could be anywhere in the world" places)
5. Hopefully good vis and water temp above 25 C
6. Our main activity would be diving - diving -diving
7. Any dive operator that you could recommend that does NOT have cattle boats.

Thanks!
 
1. IMO Seychelles is better than Mauritius and Réunion for diving, marine life is much richer.
I haven't dived yet myself in Rodrigues but am planning to, I've heard good things about diving there, plus it's very laid back.

2. I'm just back from 2 weeks diving in Mayotte (French-owned island in the Mozambique Channel) and the diving there was much better than Mauritius or Réunion.
Also don't forget Madagascar as a diving destination, in particular (but not only) Nosy Be.

5. Temperature-wise it would be better to travel in November as in September the southern hemisphere is still coming out of 'winter' (water temps in Réunion are only 23°C in September for example).

I'm not a specialist, but let me know if you have any more questions, I'll try to help.
 
Envious of your options!
 
Champacs, thank you very much for the information and your additional recommendations. We will look into Mayotte and Nosy Be and preliminary it looks like we could dive both places if we choose those islands. It will come to depend mostly where we can get the best flight connections. Since we will be travelling from Chile, our starting point in Africa is Johannesburg.

Once we have a better idea of where to go, I will try to reach out to you again for further details. Thanks again.
 
Hi Nami

Just my two cent's worth....
i have dived in Mauritius west and NW and the diving is beautiful with great reefs, nice (but smaller) wrecks and a lovely assortment of sea life. If you are going to dive in Mauritius Eurodivers have dive centres at Albion (west) and Grand Baie (NW) on the Club Med premises so you can just walk from your room to the dive centre ( you have lockers in the dive centre so you don't even carry your gear every day and golf carts run around the resort all day and night so you don't even have to walk). I highly recommend this setup-it is awesome. Also the Albion resort is much better than the Grand Baie (5 tridents vs 4) but there is a daily boat between resorts so you can travel this way.

I also dived Nosy Be in August last year and it was fantastic, especially around the Nosy Tanikely and Sakatia areas. Madagascar is very, shall we say, rustic and my wife made us change hotels 3 times in 3 days so I have experience when I say stay only at the Royal Beach resort because we tried Andilana, Hotel Vanile etc. and Royal Beach is the only one to stay at. Also tried 2 dive operators but IMO the only one to go with is Erwan Boulvais of Scuba Nosy Be Plongée Nosy Be, club de plongée madagascar, Club de plongée Nosy Be, Centre de Plongée Nosy Be, Site de Plongée Nosy Be. They speak English and are one of the best operations I have ever dived with-medical doctor part of crew, oxygen on board, contingency plans in place etc.they also dive a wide range of sites around Nosy Be and you just have to stumble out of bed at Royal Beach and walk onto the beach in front of the hotel where they will be launching (they also keep your gear for you, wash it and load on the boat every morning). August /Sep is a perfect time for Nosy Be and Mauritius- low rain, great viz.

I dived Grand Bahama a few weeks ago and was disappointed- the two islands above offer so much more in terms of diverse sea life although the shark feeding on Grand Bahama was exceptional.a

For flying you could fly with Air Madagascar from Johannesburg to Antananarivo and then on to Nosy Be and direct from Nosy Be to Mayotte (stand to be corrected on this) or else on to Mayotte via Antananarivo. Be patient though, Air Madagascarvhas it's own timetable which can change literally overnight but they will get you there.

I am going to do Mayotte in two week's time and will let you know how this goes.

Hope this helps
 
Hey Mavric, thank you very much for the detailed information on places, accomodation and operators. Just great info that we needed in order to plan accordingly. Just another quick question - how soon do we need to reserve if we travel Sept/Oct.? I rather do it later than sooner since my business travel dates change constantly and I rather not cancel last minute any trips to Africa due to those changes. Thanks again!
 
Just back from a week of diving in Chole Bay, Mafia Island (Tanzania) with Sea Point Dive Centre. Very healthy reefs, plentiful marine life, an exceptionally well-run dive operation and several distinctive options for accommodation. We chose Chole Mjini, and I'd strongly recommend it. If you choose the right time of year, there's also an opportunity to swim with whale sharks.
 
Hi,

Was wondering if whale sharks would still be there in Mafia Islands or Zanzibar?

Some forums mentioned since mid Feburary last seen at Tazanian coast. Anyone??
 
I expect the season is done on Mafia. I did the whale shark excursion on Mafia Island with Kitu Kiblu on Feb. 5. We had four or five encounters, but over the previous two weeks, only two or three excursions had been successful. We considered ourselves extremely fortunate. I was just in touch with them and was told that the season will resume in October.

I'll put in a plug for Kitu Kiblu (I'm not affiliated with them at all, by the way): Whale Shark tourism is starting to take off on Mafia, and Kitu Kiblu seems to be leading the charge to have all operators adopt a code of conduct for low-impact encounters with the sharks. Kitu Kiblu is still a start-up, so their website (kitukiblu.com) isn't live yet, but the do have a FB page at http://www.facebook.com/#!/KituKibluWhaleSharks?fref=ts

Hi,

Was wondering if whale sharks would still be there in Mafia Islands or Zanzibar?

Some forums mentioned since mid Feburary last seen at Tazanian coast. Anyone??
 
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