Dive sites (Southern Mozambique): Three Sisters

Goldies and moorish idols on top of the reef

Three Sisters is located off Ponta Malongane and ranges in depth from 19 to 26 metres. It’s (surprisingly) comprised of three separate little reefs, with one much larger than the other two. We spent most of the dive on this larger sister, which stands high off the sand and is covered with beautiful, huge plate corals and hordes of fish.

The aquarium feel on top of Three Sisters

A rock cod hides under some plate coral at Three Sisters

I think this looks like the bow of a ship (it isn't) — I think this looks like the bow of a ship (it isn’t)

Unfortunately the current was probably too strong for this site on the day we did it – owing to the small size of each of the sisters, a strong current can push you off the reef very quickly and onto the surrounding sand. It was a bit of a struggle to stay on top of the reef, but I did spend a bit of time there because it was swirling with fish of all sizes and I felt as though I was in an unspoiled little underwater paradise. The corals there were also particularly gorgeous.

Raggy scorpion fish - look closely - at Three Sisters — Raggy scorpion fish – look closely – at Three Sisters

It was easier to shelter from the current behind the high wall on the side of the reef. There is a slight overhang, which made it a bit dark (it was also fairly deep), but lots to see. The wall rewarded careful study with a frog fish (angler fish), paper fish, moray eels, and other shy creatures. As we moved towards the second sister, we encountered a blue spotted stingray, which took off as we approached.

An anglerfish (frogfish) under the wall at the big sister

My picture of the frogfish above is rather over exposed – blame it on the new strobe, a confined space (lots of reflection) and not having enough time (because of the current) to fiddle with settings. But he’s there!

A guinea fowl blaasop checks out the camera

A giant cushion star on a sandy area of the reef

Because of the depth and the number of dives we’d been doing over the preceding days, we ran out of time before running out of air! This dive seemed to go very quickly. When I came close to running out of no decompression time, I joined a couple of the other divers who were following divemaster Hannes by swimming after his line at about 5 metres’ depth. The water was clear enough that we could see most of what was going on below us. Also, there’s no harm in long safety stops!