From Maputo I headed up the coast to Tofo, which is supposed to be the best Scuba diving location in Mozambique. I ended up meeting two Germans and a Swiss guy, who I would end up becoming pretty good friends with. The one German was a 22 year old girl and the other who was her friend who was 35 and had just gotten out of a 5 year marriage after finding out his wife was cheating on him. Ouch!

But the diving there was really cool! You take this rubber dinghy and you need a tractor to push it out into the water, and then you really have to battle the waves to get out past the surf into the open ocean. And even then its choppy as hell! But we saw quite a few sharks, eagle rays, devil rays, massive morays and lobsters, etc. Not mind blowing, but pretty good stuff.












football matches every night along the beach




dive boat coming in


tractor getting ready to pull in the dive boat


we had some nice sunsets

Overland W Africa to South Africa to E Africa would be so epic. The cycling company is working on a W Africa cycling trip to do starting in 2018, but motorbike sounds better. Although with the company, eating huge meals and sleeping a lot was pretty standard, so I guess we were lucky (and/or paid a huge amount) in that regard.

And yeah, 4 months was pretty short -- long cycling days and even though 1/4 of the days were for resting, most of the time I literally just wanted to rest, and so didn't spend a huge amount of time seeing sights (for me this was ok because I had seen lots of the touristy things on the route already and most others were happy to catch the biggest highlights).

I'm from Buffalo Grove and will be around in Sept for about a month, would be cool to meet up!

This must have been one memorable trip. You took some oustanding shots, did National Geographic call you yet?

Ridiculously amazing pictures.

Yea, that sounds good man

Ha still waiting on that call! I don't really know how to get my work out there very much

Thanks a lot! Glad you've enjoyed the thread!

Lets see here, next up on the list is Vilanculos, Mozambique. Nice beaches, islands, markets, and a very homely small village type atmosphere.


rainbow at the pier on our way to Vilanculos


my traveling companions and I, hitching a ride in a truck


beach at low tide




we 'chartered' a traditional dhow to get to one of the islands. No motor, just wind power! The locals rode with us as well.


the sail certainly had character










walking around town




















bazaruto island


bringing in the nets




bus ride to maputo


boardwalk in maputo

And that's it for Mozambique! Good beaches, good diving, interesting village life, although slightly tougher to get around/communicate being that people speak Portuguese. I wish I had more time to explore the northern section of this country, but what can you do? I'll finish this thread up with some more South Africa photos this weekend.

Some of these photos are unreal


Where do you rank Raja Ampat as far as the places you've dived and snorkeled? I spent a couple of weeks there on Kri. Easily blows away any other place I've been for snorkeling.

Will be heading to Africa in a month or so for what will likely be a Cape Town to Cairo backpacking type trip with no fixed timeframe. Thank you for the detailed writeups in addition to the photos.

Cardshark

Unreal Pics so envious as I went to South Africa, Swaziland and Botswana in 73 and loved the place especially The Valley of a Thousand Hills outside of Durban and Capetown. Nice Poison available 1 Rand per Greedy Handful or buy Sticks at 10cent Times.

Got into a bit of Drama in Durban and while waiting the 3 weeks till Trial me and m8 hitchhiked to Capetown and back. Unreal Trip and met some really genuine Local people. Worked in Swaziland and Botswana and Jeffries Bay north of Durban it was a Blast.

The joke in Botswana was at least you couldnt get hung as there were No Trees high enough but Local Girls were great. Keep those Pics coming Pls.

Outstanding pics & thread OP--thx 4 sharing!!

Beautiful! Glad this got bumped.