It may surprise some that South Africa and northern neighbor Mozambique are amazing dive destinations with myriad opportunities to see and photograph sea creatures great and small. And after the diving, the ever-evolving geography and safari animals never fail to bring even more eye-popping photo ops. Authors JP Botha, a Gansbaai, South Africa, resident, and Guam resident and Lonely Planet author Tim Rock have spent many years visiting and photographing these diverse areas and exploring and pioneering unique dive sites off South Africa and Southern Mozambique coasts. Nature blessed the continent of Africa both with incredible natural resources and an amazing wealth of animal life. This is especially true of South Africa, where its superb national parks and noteworthy game management plans have put it in the forefront of world travel destinations.

To write this, we initially embarked on a scuba safari that would take us 1900 miles (3,000+km) up South Africa’s eastern coast into Mozambique. On the way we would experience cold water diving around the Cape, where kelp forests swayed in the currents, pass through temperate waters rich with diverse marine life, and finally finish in the luxuriant tropical reefs off south central Mozambique.

Over the years we have returned to many spots on this route. Here are our latest findings of the rich marine life in this fantastic dive destination. In this guide, we suggest some great dives and wonderful spots in waters temperate to tropical. New, 2022 Edition.