Mixed reports, mixed experiences - that sums up my personal experience of dive spots in South Africa and Mozambique. They can be very exciting, or not that exciting at all. Visibility can be gin-clear, or like mulligatawny soup.
The winner of this year's Photosub competition triumphed with a magnificently clear shot of a whale shark and diver that evoked the idea of masses of space under water. I was less lucky on my own visit to Mozambique.
My memories of a visit to Port Elizabeth in South Africa are laced with vivid images from Shamwari and Ado rather than of anything
I saw under water. Knysna, False Bay and Boulder Beach were also reasonably spectacular - on land, if not in the sea.
However, with two oceans to choose from and lots of lakes and caves, you can't say that southern Africa has no diving variety. So I was intrigued to see what the authors had made of it all when putting together this diving guide-book.
It's telling that the dive site Giant's Castle, near Tofo (Inhambane) in Mozambique, is described as having "a big wall almost 4m high". Not the Red Sea then!
If you want something spectacular, there is always Boesmansgat, with its notorious cave Komati Springs, a flooded former asbestos mine; or cage-diving with white pointers off the Western Cape.
I can't comment about the diving in land-locked Zimbabwe, though I guess you'd need to duck 'n' dive to get there nowadays. Diving in Namibia is almost an afterthought.
Of course, the coast of Kwazulu-Natal is well covered, with details of Indian Ocean sites from Protea Banks north to Mabibi.
If you are lured to South Africa for the Sardine Run, be sure it's at the right time of year and that you have the time to wait for it.
A nicely written section pleads the case for shark conservation. It's by Matthew Potenski, with whom I spent a short time as he tagged whale sharks in the murky Mafia Channel.
This book is well constructed. It has facts on accommodation, shops and service stations as well as the diving and diving facilities. It has appropriate maps, and diagrams of some of the inland sites. In fact its 256 pages are crammed with useful information. I'm not aware of anything better available.
John Bantin
Central Books
ISBN: 9780620403269
Softback, 256pp, £23
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