When you think of Africa you can’t help but picture the luscious green jungles with their wild beauty and the vast grasslands and safaris. While its true Africa is teeming with wildlife, what we often take for granted are its majestic and colorful coastlines. Africa has some of the longest and most pristine coastlines in the world. On Africa’s coast, the ocean wildlife and underwater scenery are like nowhere else in the world. With its warm waters, shipwrecks and coral reefs, Africa’s coast has a lot to offer divers. With many great diving destinations, here is a list of the top dive spots in Africa.
Mahe, Seychelles
This tiny island nation may be best known for relaxation and white sandy beaches, but if you venture out past the waves you will find one of the best dive spots in the world. Here the corals have recovered from the large scale bleaching the region experienced in the early 90s and the reefs are not too crowded by other divers. The reefs are well populated and during the spring months, you can see migrating rays and whale sharks. There are also plenty of ancient shipwrecks you can dive and explore.
Gunner’s Quoin, Mauritius
The island of Mauritius is almost entirely encircled by a massive reef that offers divers of different skill levels fantastic dive opportunities. On the inside of the reefs, the waters are more protected and offer the perfect dive spots for novice divers. Here the reefs are beautiful and the shallow lagoons are bursting with color. On the outer reefs, there are plunging drop-offs, caverns, and caves which are best explored by the more experienced diver. The island has several divable wracks that offer hours of fun.
Zanzibar and Pemba island, Tanzania
While the warm shallow waters off the island of Zanzibar are perfect for novice divers, the corals, and wildlife that can be found in the deeper waters off Pemba Island are perfect for those who are more experienced.
Here off the coast, marine diversity is remarkable and the soft and hard corals are free from bleaching. This underwater paradise is also home to the migrating whale shark during the months of October and March.