Masimbwe Island

This site is a favourite of divers who visit Likoma. Situated off the northwest side of Likoma, a bit closer to Mozambique, Masimbwe is a small island which shoals to a shallow depth on its east side, and has deep drop-offs on its west side. We anchor the boat in about 5 metres of water on the south side of the island and do a backroll entry off the boat. The area we begin in often has a mild to stiff current flowing and because of this, the fish life here is abundant, and you’ll often find yourself surrounded by schools of brightly coloured cichlids. We swim towards the drop-off and at a certain point fly down the giant boulder steps that take you down to around 26 metres. As you sink down, giant fissures in the rocks hide large catfish and create interesting swim-throughs. You follow along the rock face as it gradually tapers down to more scattered boulders and after around 15 minutes, turn around and gradually ascend to 15 metres and head back towards the boat. An interesting point on the way is an apparent etching in one of the rocks which looks too linear to be natural…We gradually come up to our safety stop depth of 5 metres where we spend a pleasant 3 minutes once again enjoying the myriad colourful fish. Although this dive is a deeper dive, we can also follow the wall at 18 metres, the maximum depth for Open Water divers, so everyone can enjoy Masimbwe!