Scuba Adventures Mozambique was formed purely as a result of a driving navigation error and a duck hunting expedition:
The story starts some 10 years ago, in Maputo, on the verandah of the Costa do Sol restaurant.
We were sitting having a beer, thoroughly pissed off with diving in Mozambique, and trying to find out the quickest route back to Sodwana.
I had spent the previous evening in the Polana Hotel, paying for 1 night’s accommodation more than my monthly bond repayment in SA.
We had also just aborted, long before schedule, a disastrous diving trip to Inhaca Island, marred by boats not working, $50.00 air fills, and hung over skippers who only launched when they got out of bed late and felt like it.
All we wanted to do was get back to Sodwana as soon as possible and enjoy some good, old-fashioned South African diving – comfortable, reliable and organized.
Attempting to reach the Kosi border post, which we heard had just opened, we took a wrong turn on the sand track which was then the "main road" down from Maputo, and which eventually brought us to the resort at Malongane, which had apparently also only just opened.
That night sitting in the pub and talking to Dave, the original dive operator there, I realized this was the same place I had heard about 15 years prior, on a duck hunt in Underberg, in the Natal Midlands.
One of the hunters, a very distinguished gentleman well into his seventies, noticed my dive watch and asked me if I was a diver. When I confirmed this, he told me he also used to dive and proceeded to relate to me his dive exploits and expeditions to the Red Sea, Barrier Reef and Mozambique.
It was an education and a truly remarkable story, especially if you consider that 30 – 40 years ago the dive industry was in its infancy and the domain of a few hardcore "Rambo’s" with largely homemade equipment.
Merely to dive in those days must have been a daunting undertaking. To travel the world to remote dive destinations that to day most of us can only dream about, an even greater and more noteworthy achievement.
During the conversation, I remember asking him which he considered the best dive site.
He gave me the name, which I had never heard before, and which I promptly discarded.
He explained that it was on the Mozambique coast just 5 kilometers North of the Kosi Bay Border, and urged me if at all possible to visit it – with the war it was obviously not possible.
Sitting in the bar with Dave that humid Mozambican night the realization suddenly struck – this place II had mistakenly arrived at, and the name I had heard so many years ago, were the same - Malongane.
With the Old mans recommendations in my head, and hoping to experience what he had experienced so many years before, I decided to put the Sodwana dash on hold, and booked on a dive with Dave. The next day dawned a typical Mozambique Summers day – hot, calm and with the sea like the proverbial lake.
Our first dive was to Riana’s Reef, aptly named after parts on the anatomy of a well-endowed lady DM that bore a similarity to the round coral reef clumps.
On descending it was immediately apparent the old man had not exaggerated. – This was definitely world class diving.
With our enthusiasm rekindled, and thoughts of Sodwana rapidly fading, we booked for the afternoon dive.
It was just as amazing as the morning dive. Towards the end of the dive I noticed a buddy pair had drifted far from the rest of the group, and were swimming over the sand. I swam over to call them and in the distance, rising from the sand, saw a huge dark shadow.
On closer inspection I found it was an isolated clump of Reef, encrusted with soft sponges and corals, and with more nudibranchs and egg cowries than I had evert seen before in one place.
A huge Brindle Bass skulked in a side arch, which, after finally swimming away, revealed a chimney column through the center of the reef. A pair of potato bass eyed us inquisitively from the opposite side, whilst their more colorful cousins, yellow belly and lyre tail rock cod slipped shyly between the ledges. Brightly colored tropical reef fish formed a living, shimmering halo over the entire outcrop.
At least 4 species of morays protruded from the cracks, mouths agape as if in shocked surprise at my rude invasion of this serene setting.
On my ascent a small black fin shark swam by, adding a dramatic ending to what must be one of the most exiting days of my life. (We called the site then Cathedral – regular Ponta divers today know it as 3 Sisters)
The day’s events made me start thinking of ways and opportunities to expand my dive travel business to Southern Mozambique.
After the holiday – with each dive as memorable as the previous – I was convinced that this area had a huge, unexploited tourism and business potential.
To cut a very long story very short as they say, and after much heartache, effort and money, Scuba Adventures Mozambique commenced operating from a reed hut at the back of the Motel do Mar, in Ponta do Ouro. .
Ponta in those days basically consisted of the Motel, Campsite, and 2 shops. The local population was a fraction of the size it is today, and very few people had skills, or could speak English.
The area had been ravaged, as had the whole of Mozambique, by 26 long years of bloody civil war, and which devastated this once vibrant holiday town. We found rifle grenades stuck in trees, and heard of landmine detonations in the village
There was a pioneering atmosphere then, a "wild west" feeling that was exciting and almost tangible.
As Ponta’s magnificent dive sites became known, and the pot holed road on the South African side to the border tarred, so did the influx of tourists increase. The local population grew dramatically and learnt English and new skills. Young people learnt to drive and repair vehicles, clean dive equipment and boats, and operate compressors. The average wages increased nearly ten fold. To support the growing demands of these tourists, and burgeoning population, infrastructure developed, - a shopping complex was built, with a bank, a supermarket, beach shops and Restaurant.
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