Diving in Pemba

In Malawi I had saved about $400 dollars on the budget I had made for myself (the benefits of not eating… jokes! But seriously) so I decided that, given Mozambique is one of the best places in the world to dive, as well as one of the cheapest, that I would spend my hunger-inducing savings (jokes jokes! Well…) on learning to dive!

So I did!  And, Oh Em Gee, diving is amazing and underwater Pemba is simply incredible. There isn’t an abundance of big fish, but the corral blew me away.  It kind of reminded me of a French patisserie in all the shapes, textures, colors… It looked kind of like Salvador Dalí had vomited underwater… sort of like LSD should be renamed Corral Reef… Tie dye is kind of like a plain black and white suit in comparison…The colors are so vivid that HD TV would cry.  The TV would literally cry.  And then, oh yeah, IT’S ALIVE. This… thing (I won’t use any more similes or metaphors) is a living organism. Heavens. There were purples and yellows and they waved back and forth with the water.  Some were spikey, others were brain-shaped.  It was simply amazing.

The best part was saved for last. On my last dive, as I had proved myself to be an adequate diver (i.e. I had not died or gotten the bends) we went to the dive wall. This is a wall that extends downwards from one plateau to another, about 150m. Obviously, we couldn’t dive all the way down (nor would we want to) but we could dive to 18m (legally by PADI standards. We may have drifted to 20m. Shhhh!) and face the wall. It was overwhelming and terrifying. Below me, I could not see the seabed. It’s a very intimidating feeling to not see what’s underneath you – in fact, not even be able to see it. I suddenly felt very small and vulnerable. But in front of me was one of the most magnificent displays of nature that exists. The corral on the wall is bigger and there are loads of fish that, like me, are petrified of not seeing the bottom and so cling to the wall.  These fish were beautiful as well.  None were Nino (tear) but they were still gorgeous, colorful and numerous. At one point, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something bigger drifting behind us and then dive deep… but I couldn’t be sure what it was (eek).

I could go on and on about the diving, but I don’t think I’d ever express myself as accurate or poetically as the corral deserves.  I’ll leave it at saying that you’ll just have to go there.

Thanks for reading!