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READ
JUDY'S ACCOUNT OF HER FABULOUS TRIP TO |
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The operators said that we were the guinea pigs, but I reckon that we were privileged to be the first group at Ponta Mamoli – not only that, but we hold the position of the first official launch at Mamoli.
The accommodation at Mamoli is in more than comfortable chalets, all en suite with towels and linen provided. The chalets and dining / deck area are all linked by wooden walkways, this helps in the protection of the dunes and dune flora. The resort has a wooden deck around the swimming pool; this all overlooks the beautiful bay of Mamoli. The dining room also overlooks the bay, with a full bar area on one side. The meal package is full board and thanks to Debbie, we ate fantastic meals. The Dive Centre is situated away from the main resort area. The Dive Centre has shelves for the divers towels and belongings, a kit rack for wetsuits and BCs and a washing tank where all the gear is washed. Transfers to the beach are on a game viewing jeep, and Barry and Simon – great skippers – do a fantastic job. As the reefs are still mainly undived, our guys thoroughly enjoyed the fact that they got to explore virgin reefs! The coral is absolutely pristine, no marks or gashes from divers fins, and the marine life is very curious about these bubble blowing creatures on their turf.
The first reef that we dived was G Spot - a very pretty reef, lots of nooks and crannies filled with a variety of gobies, blennies and the usual wrasse and butterfly fish. We saw an enormous honeycomb moray having his teeth cleaned and an even bigger bass came in for a closer look, and then decided he didn’t fancy what he saw! An orange and white nudibranch. I saw a juvenile white blotch razor wrasse, while others in our group spotted the juvenile blue razor wrasse. This wary little fish disappears like a flash into the sand if he is startled. At the end of the dive a large remora came to visit and everyone was peering into the blue to spot his “buddy”.
The reef for our afternoon dive was Brothers. Depth from 8 – 12 m One
of those reefs where you don’t know where to look, as divers are madly
calling (in underwater language) from all directions! Huge white cowries
with their black and gold mantles, plenty large hermit crabs, nudibranchs
with blue ridges, green frills, orange and blue stripes… eventually one
cannot remember all the different shapes and colours that we saw!
Boulders Reef is a fair boat ride from Mamoli but more than worth the trip. Depth ranges from 20 – 30m. As we got to about 25m we were greeted by a leopard shark that circled under the divers and came to rest next to one of the huge boulders. The rocks are covered with a yellow & blue tree type coral, and long nose hawkfish and gobies and crabs are quite visible among the “branches”. The coral trees are also covered in feather stars. We saw two huge honeycomb morays, one had a fair piece of his tail removed. At one stage in the dive, our dive leader signaled us to look up. There was top to bottom visibility and wall to wall fish life – amazing. There were schools of fusiliers and snappers and the Trapeze Angelfish (Old Maidens) were even getting as brave as to nibble on my hair! We spotted an enormous parrotfish, a clown trigger and a bass resting next to a boulder. Playground Reef is literally that, a playground of all the colourful reef
fish. This close inshore reef teems with fish. It ranges in depth from 6 –
11 meters and needs to be dived on a calm day. After 45 minutes of being
tugged around on the end of the buoy line, I decided to call it a day. ,
There is a large cave filled with glassfish and lionfish and for the more
careful diver, a big enough swim through can be negotiated. The next dive, the A team had the honour of naming the reef and after suggesting and discarding plenty names, Ken said, “Well what describes a paella of sea life?” and that’s how Paella Reef got it’s name. Again, this was a reef where there was not enough time or eyes to see everything. We spotted a stonefish and pink and green bearded scorpion fish, honeycomb, zebra, painted, white mouth and geometric morays. Many host anemones with blue and green colouring. One anemone was inhabited by a red and white shrimp, which we later found out, was a squat shrimp. The pristine corals were covered in coral crabs and shrimp. There was a camouflaged trumpet fish in some tree coral, not the usual yellow colour, but brown and white to blend in with the coral, eyeing some unsuspecting morsel on the sand below. I was really pleased to spot a juvenile rock mover wrasse, something I had been wanting to see for a long time. All too soon, the gauges were at 50 bar and we were heading upwards. Our last dive at Mamoli was the perfect dive to end off. We dived another close reef called Idols, named after the 12 juvenile Moorish Idols that live in a cave in the reef. A very fitting name. The dive site is a mixture of small sandy patches and coral bommies that have nooks and crannies. These are inhabited by a large variety of nudibranchs – one that we named the Chinese Dragon. We saw a Club Anemone that was white with blue tips, a community of disc anemones, something new for a lot of us. There were Durban Dancing Shrimp in many of the crevices and while we were looking at a thin white tentacle, I spotted a minute brown and yellow pipefish! Apart from all the small fish, we also saw an enormous honeycomb whiptail ray and a big bass. The perfect way to round off an amazing dive holiday.
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