Diving Bilene - the lesser-known Mozambican diving destination

Bilene is located approximately 180 km north of Maputo, making it one of the closest Mozambican resorts to Johannesburg. Known by the locals as Praia do Bilene, it is a small town adjacent to a massive salt water lagoon flowing into the Indian ocean. The lagoon is called Uembje, and is blessed with picture-perfect white, sandy beaches, calm waters and spectacular views. This lagoon destination is actually known as a beach resort. The lagoon itself is a dream playground for water sport fanatics and is perfect for swimming, kayaking, sailing, jet skis, fishing, snorkelling and of course diving - both in the lagoon and ocean. Scattered sparingly along the beach of the lagoon are various resorts catering for all types of accommodation, from backpackers to more luxurious resorts. Uembje is rumoured to be roughly 27 km long and 8 km wide, hence there is more than enough space between these minor resorts to ensure a distinct sense of privacy and solitude. And if your intention is to rest and break away from the craziness of the rat race, this is definitely a place you would want to be. My intention behind going to Bilene was indeed to get away from that very same rat race, and do as much diving as possible and as little as possible of anything else.

To dive at Bilene you really only have one option, and that is to go through the Palmeiras Water Sport Centre, situated at the Palmeiras Resort. This is currently the only dive operation running in Bilene, which is well managed by a very pleasant and humorous French character named Daniel. The diving operation is further supported and co-owned by Divetek. Besides diving, the centre has a variety of items for hire to choose from including kayaks, underwater scooters, snorkelling gear, paddle boards, and mini sailboats.

But enough about the location - although I could go on and on - and let me tell you about the diving. You are spoilt for choice when it comes to diving in the lagoon and ocean. The lagoon offers two artificial reefs called ‘Lego Land’ and ‘The Graveyard’, as well as snorkelling at a reef within the lagoon. Both artificial reefs are relatively new, and the remaining fish of the lagoon have concentrated within the relative safety of these structures to protect themselves from the local fisherman, who sadly overfish the lagoon. The viz is surprisingly good in the lagoon, that is if you don’t kick up the silt at the bottom, then the viz quickly resembles Bass Lake. If you like free diving then you can have a lot of fun at these lagoon sites. On two occasions I took my kayak and paddled to Lego Land and free dived amongst the scuba divers. The Graveyard site is made up of actual tombstone-like concrete structures that have been inscribed with personal phrases from divers. The novelty of this dive site is that you can buy your own tombstone and inscribe it with whatever you please at a minimal fee. The tombstone will then be added to the graveyard and forms part of the dive site. This dive spot makes for a particularly eerie yet unique night dive.

The reef of the lagoon hosts a large variety of creatures including lionfish, honeycomb eels, pipefish, boxfish, pencil eels and scorpionfish, to mention a few. But the real rock stars of the lagoon are the seahorses! These amazing creatures were once flourishing in the lagoon, but sadly their numbers have drastically dropped in the last year alone. The local fishermen use nets that mercilessly scoop up every creature in their path, and then simply discard the creatures they can’t sell. Daniel is desperately trying to raise awareness of the dire seahorse situation and is looking for a Marine Biology student who is willing to do a study on the declining seahorse population to get them on the endangered/protected species list. The sea horses in this area are the Hippocampus Camelopardalis (for more info go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giraffe_seahorse), and anyone who would like to assist in this cause is urged to please contact Daniel.