Vilanculos Diving

The Dive Centre is situated in the small town of Vilanculos in the South of Mozambique, 700 kms north of the capital, Maputo. Looking over the crystal waters of the Indian Ocean, the islands of the Bazaruto Archipelago are just a short dhow journey away. It is here that we take you on dive trips to see our underwater wonders.
The Dive Centre is a PADI dive centre catering for all levels of experience including the beginner who can join in on the discovery of the underwater world, to people wishing to gain more experience and qualifications. The setting is an ideal location for obtaining your open water or advanced PADI diving qualification. Extensive experience and the search for exciting and relatively unexplored diving led the Odyssea crew to Mozambique. After many months of planning we were ready to finally take our first guests out at the end of July 2003. We are currently in the midst of constructing a dive centre and pool so that we can provide a complete range of diving services based in relaxed and comfortable surroundings. However, for now you are going to have to settle for a beer around the bar whilst completing logbooks. Together we have over 22 years diving experience, safety being our number one priority. Diving from our 8 metre R.I.B you will see along with us what the reefs of the Bazaruto Archipelago can offer curious divers…
We aim to go out everyday if possible (min 2 pax) to one of the several locations in the area. We generally meet at 7:45am and tides permitting depart around 8:30am. Most sites take around 45min to 1 hour to reach. After the first dive we have lunch on one of the islands or the many sandbars. Following a relaxing surface interval sunning ourselves we then return to the sea for our 2nd dive, returning to Vilanculos around 3.30pm.
Non-divers have the option of either enjoying the islands during the day, or kitted out with our snorkeling gear exploring the inner reef of 2 mile, probably the best snorkeling spot along the coast of Mozambique.

The islands of the Bazaruto are a diverse home for both land and marine creatures including red duiker, bushbuck, samango monkey, aswell as the elegant manta rays, whalesharks and the mermaids of the sea, the dugong.
The islands habitats include formidable sand dunes, freshwater lakes, and patches of natural forest, but it really is the unspoilt white beaches, warm azure water and pristine coral reef that draws people to the coastline. Below the water an immense variety of hard and soft corals flourish providing a diverse and productive ecosystem. Marine life includes many brightly coloured tropical fish, sea horses, triggerfish, wrass, many species of gamefish, sharks and rays.

Two Mile Reef
It is neither 2 miles long or 2 miles from Vilanculos, but it is the name that has been given to the reef lying outside Benguerra Island and Bazaruto. 2 Mile is also our most popular dive location. The site is actually a long barrier reef that breaks the water at low tide and can be dived at various depths down to around 20 meters. Due to its length there are numerous dive locations offering many different environments, swim throughs and coral outcrops. There is a great chance of seeing one of the 5 species of turtle that live in the area along with a friendly reef shark or skulking nurse shark. There is a wide abundance of reef fish, such as long tail banners, Surgeon, Moorish Idols, Parrot, Angel and Butterfly fish to name but a few. Game fish and Devil rays regularly swim in from the blue and there is always a chance of seeing that elusive Dugong.

The Aquarium: 1m - 9m. Top snorkeling site, ideal training ground or a place to just take it easy and watch life on the reef pass you by. Best encountered at low tide offering a complete cross section of reef life from fields of staghorn coral in the shallows to the curious octopus deeper down. The Surgery: 9m - 21m. Named after the abundance of Surgeon fish that reside between the large corals and rocky outcrops. There is a good chance of seeing Honeycomb Morays, Devil Rays cruising by and huge Potato and Camouflage Grouper keeping a watchful eye over a myriad of reef fish.

The Powder Box: 6m - 16m. For variety and colourful coral this site has it all. Expansive table tops, towering whip coral and vibrant soft corals all inundated with Powder Blue Tangs. It is here that clown fish make their home in the many swaying anenomes and often hidden on the sea floor you will spot a crocodile fish or two. Explore the many channels with a large abundance of macro life clinging to it's encrusted walls.

Coral Gardens: 8m - 19m. On the boundary between the sandy bottom where the blue spotted rays live and the reef, there are many coral heads with masses of green branching coral full of Damsel fish, Bat and King fish swimming overhead along with the occasional reef shark out on patrol.

Stingray Alley: 12m - 20m. The sandy floor of the reef is home to many large stingray which are more than happy to pose for the cameras, Should the stingrays be away on vacation you can always head back to the reef for more fish and coral activity.

South Point Reef: This is a shallow rocky reef on the southern tip of Bazaruto which is usually a snorkelling site and also ideal for resort courses. The rocky recesses are famous for being home to moray eels.

Cabo St Sabastian: For the more adventurous diver there is always a trip south through the surf down to Cabo Sao Sebastian. As if the boat ride out was not enough, there is always the chance of seeing breaching whales defy gravity, even a close encounter with a meandering whale shark before you reach the dive site. At present we drop in along one site that we have split into 2 dives. There is a main pinnacle where we regularly see Mantas feeding before descending onto a long finger that stretches down to around 30m. Here we have seen many sharks including Hammerheads and various reef sharks. On the second dive you will explore various swim throughs, before dropping off the top wall of a large crescent shaped reef, dodging the giant groupers along the way. The whole site is covered in many schools of fish from top to bottom. Due to the exposed nature of the site conditions can change quickly and so diving here very much depends on the weather....

Vilanculos (or Vilankulos) is a relatively large town on the mainland of Mozambique in the province of Inhambane. Vilanculos serves as the gateway to the Bazaruto Archipelago which is world renowned for its excellent diving. Whilst on holiday here you can relax on the gorgeous white sandy beaches or go diving to experience a top class underwater adventure. Even though Vilanculos is a third world style town it offers great restaurants, hotels and an exciting night life.

Vilanculos (or Vilankulos) is a relatively large town on the mainland of Mozambique in the province of Inhambane. Vilanculos serves as the gateway to the Bazaruto Archipelago which is world renowned for its excellent diving. Whilst on holiday here you can relax on the gorgeous white sandy beaches or go diving to experience a top class underwater adventure. Even though Vilanculos is a third world style town it offers great restaurants, hotels and an exciting night life.

Vilanculos (or Vilankulos) is a relatively large town on the mainland of Mozambique in the province of Inhambane. Vilanculos serves as the gateway to the Bazaruto Archipelago which is world renowned for its excellent diving. Whilst on holiday here you can relax on the gorgeous white sandy beaches or go diving to experience a top class underwater adventure. Even though Vilanculos is a third world style town it offers great restaurants, hotels and an exciting night life.

Zangarema Point
The reef drops to 30 metres, the first 17 metres provide a habitat for spectacular reef fish including frogfish, crocodile-fish, stonefish, scorpion-fish, lionfish, parrotfish and pipefish. A large anemone with attentive clownfish is also home to transparent shrimps and porcelain crabs. There's also a wealth of larger fish such as brindle bass, barracuda and big-eyed kingfish.
Because it's also a shore dive, this site is ideal for night dives and is one of the few without the threat of Zambezi sharks, which hunt along the outer eastern sites.

Deep Reef
This is an adventurous dive of 30 metres to a flat coral reef in the gap between Bazaruto and Benguerra. It's a gathering point for large gamefish such as ignobilis kingfish. However, the area can be dangerous during strong currents so only for the experienced diver.