Waking up to the sight of the beach of Tofo makes the long drive worth every minute. The empty wide beach of perfectly soft sand is met by the deep blue of the Indian Ocean in a medley of shades. The professional staff of Tofo Scuba arrive, they gather equipment and we listen to our briefing for our 3 days of diving.

Whilst we are unfortunately unlucky with Whale Sharks on this visit we nevertheless are kept busy under the water. Massive honeycomb, giant and the elusive dragon morays are found dotted around the reefs. Large schools of trevally, yellow snapper and big-eyed soldier fish congregate in the shelter of pinnacles and rocks as the currents stream by. Macro delights are everywhere, frogfish, paper-fish and the stunning moth-fish to name just a few. Our dives range from gentle drifts to strong currents where we bounce from rock to rock in an adventurous underwater theme park ride style.

On the surface, dolphins, usually bottlenose, often visit us but on some days the shy humpback dolphins swim past, and then a large pod of particularly playful individuals race our boat and breach all around us. Masks and fins are donned in a hurry and over the side we go. The sounds reach us first and then the dolphins race in, their intelligent and interested eyes meeting ours as they swim underneath and around us.

During our stay we attend the first of our conservational talks, given by the Foundation for the Protection of Marine Megafauna. Simon Pierce and Andrea Marshall update us on their latest research and provide an educational and amusing presentation to the group.

After 4 nights and 3 days in Tofo the group are feeling relaxed, tanned (or in some cases a little on the burnt side) and ready to make our way back south to Swaziland for another terrestrial encounter.