Larger than Germany, equatorial Kenya has five neighbours and three major water bodies, the azure Indian Ocean, Lake Victoria and Lake Turkana. Kenya's cultural mosaic is Africa in miniature, with almost every main African tongue spoken and over forty distinct ethnic groups. Kenya is one of the only places in Africa where you can watch a lion-kill in the morning, then drift over coral reefs in a glass-bottomed boat off tropical Mombasa in the afternoon.

Along the entire Kenyan coast stretches a vast fringing coral reef protected from overfishing and development in many places by Marine Park laws. Parts of this reef have been visibly damaged by el Nino, however, rumours of slack policing within the Marine Parks is another possible contributing factor. But even in the affected areas, once you get past 10m depth there lies a wealth of colourful hard and soft corals together with a tremendously diverse marine fauna. The positive signs of regrowth are definately in place. Don't arrive expecting boundless landscapes of luxurious coral carpeting draped over the seabed. A fringing reef tends to stretch along a coastline and is mainly patchy areas of coral with some stunningly active coral heads teeming with life.

If you're looking for the big blue experience, dramatic walls, with a constant 30m visibility and large pelagics on every dive, you will be dissappointed. Whalesharks can be spotted in the season but not often. If you can accept that these encounters are rare, and you are interested enough to content yourself with 'smaller' reef life, Kenya has much to offer.

Perhaps it is your starting point already, but combining your diving adventure with a safari to one of the beautiful national parks such as the Masai Mara is an absolute must. Visit CC Africa for the best lodges and itineraries you can imagine.

East Africa has a lot to offer if you like nature. The incredible topside and underwater adventures are sure to provide you with an exhilarating and enriching experience that will create a lifetime of memories




Shimoni National Marine Reserve
The neighboring islands of Shimoni, Wasini Island, Kisite Island, Upper Pengutti and Lower Pengutti all fall under the protection of Shimoni National Marine Reserve. Kisite Island is the heart of the marine reserve, and unique diving can be found there. Around the Pengutti Islands, the diving is between 30-70ft (10-22m), and this area has several resident families of dolphins which are commonly seen during dives. This is a high point for many divers who have not experienced interactions with these friendly mammals. The reefs around Pengutti Islands are excellent for drift diving. The bottom is a combination of sand flats and reef outgrowths. Stingrays and turtles are commonly seen in this area. There is a general concentration of brilliant coral fish following the reefs around Pengutti. Parrotfish, trumpetfish, batfish, grouper, napoleon wrasse, clown fish, lion fish, and spanish dancers are commonly seen here. Pengutti and Kisite are the main night diving areas.

Shimoni & Wasini Island
The diving on the South Coast of Kenya encompasses Tiwi & Diani Beaches, Shimoni and Wasini Island near the Tanzanian border. The main reef here is a continuation of the large fringing reef that stretches along Kenya's coastline and to save unecessary repetition, the majority of diving is very similar to the fringing reefs of Shanzu in Mombasa.

As with the other regions further north, this area also has little pockets of glorious diving. Some of the top 5 recommended dives in Kenya are Nyulli Reef and Pink Reef, a must dive for advanced divers ('advanced' meaning content at depth in strong currents) visiting this area.

Nyulli Reef
Nyulli Reef (also known as the Rock Cod Reef) is the second reef surrounding the entrance to Shimoni. It begins at 60ft (18m) and drops down to 140ft (42m). This reef is spectacularly long, and a concentration of pelagics as well as reef fish can be found here. This is also home to a family of giant grouper up to 400lbs (180kg) in size. The fish here are friendly and accessible to divers. Yellow and Blue striped Snapper, Barracuda, suddenly surround you in their hundreds and it is hard to know where to look first. Soft corals, Gorgonian Fans, outcrops of coral delicately laced with white and purple whispy anemones swaying with the surge. The visibility on this dive is sometimes bad due to the Kaskazi wind and also the tide movement at that time of day. An unfortunate method of dive planning has been forced upon the dive bases in hotels along this coastline. Many centres tend to plan the diving around Hotel meal schedules which sometimes results in missing the best opportunity of the day to view the reef. This is a crazy notion to avid divers as usually one would expect that the day is planned to ensure the best diving possible on each reef.

Pink Reef
As its name sounds, the whole reef is covered in beautiful, pink, purple, blue, lavender, burgandy soft corals. Multitudes of glass fish amongst the plush royal carpets. Oranges and Golds of the Anthias so bright against the soft pink-blue hazy backdrop. Warm, soft and fluffy descriptives spring to mind when trying to conjure up a written image of this reef.

Kinondo, Galu and Tiwi Reefs are less dramatic but still very beautiful and coral is in good condition. On Kinondo Reef you can spot Red Tooth Triggerfish, sometimes hundreds of them. Why they are in such proliferation on this particular reef, one can only guess. You'll see them in black, yellow, white, purple and green. Tiwi Reef is the prettiest dive on the Tiwi Beach stretch but visibility can often be affected by the outflow of the river as it is situated in the channel.
Kitagumwe
Kitamgumwe is an atoll, two hours from Shimoni. The island is semi-submerged and surrounded on the Eastern side with reefs. The diving depths range between 60-120ft (18-40m). This area is home to large swarms of fish, and reef sharks can be seen during the dives. Of special interest here are the huge, approachable moray eels.

Mombassa
The fringing reefs along this part of the coast are very similar to other areas in Kenya. The usual diving reefs are a choice of inner shallow reef or outer deeper reef known as Shanzu. Parts of this reef, as with many others, have several coral heads teeming with life - morays, glass fish, all the usual tropical reef fish. The area does have very interesting possibilities for challenging diving. It seems that this thriving port and the inherent detritus attract large tiger sharks. The other attraction is Birthday Reef. Birthday Reef, however good or bad the visibility, is still a spectacular dive. Converging currents meet at a large bloomer shaped reef starting at 27m and dropping to beyond 50m. At the end where currents swirl and change direction, you will find a mass of large schools. You'll see jacks, bannerfish, barracuda and snapper, not just a few but in their hundreds. On these dives you can also encounter green turtles, eagle rays are regularly spotted resting in the sand, huge potato bass, tuna and wahoo can be seen in the blue. As for small macro life, this reef is also full to burst; moray eels, nudibranchs, beautiful dark green soft corals with bright contrasting coloured damsels and chromis are living amongst the branches.

Watamu
The Watamu diving Area benefits from being within a Marine Reserve and National Marine Park as well as a UN Biosphere Area - i.e. an area so environmentally diverse and special that it is worthy of special protection/interest from the UN (though Watamu has yet to see what the UN actually do to help the conservation in the area!!). Although the area is policed, it is unsure as to whether the police are just park fee collectors or they actually make a difference. The Marine Park's future seems to rely on pillars of the community. Locals are allowed to fish using traditional methods (but how traditional is a spear gun?).

The dive sites are between 10-20 minutes boat ride from the base. The top of the reef is covered with a wide variety of both soft & hard corals. The signs of recovery from the damage El Nino caused are apparent in this area. The marine fauna includes the usual species of colourful reef fish such as Butterfly & Angel fish, Damsel fish, schools of Anthias, especially around Deep Place' Reef Surgeon fish, Snappers and Groupers . Then there are the tiny critters such as Nudibranchs, Flatworms, Frogfish, Shrimps, Leaf fish & Sole. There is the chance of seeing the bigger attractions such as White & Black-tip Reef Sharks, Napoleon Wrasse, Great Barracuda, Turtles and of course the tantalising possibility of seeing Dolphins, Whale Sharks & Manta Rays. One of the major hazards in this area is the Titan Triggerfish who during nesting season (January) become agressively territorial and tend to attack anything or anyone that comes within the nesting zone (a conical shaped area opening out and upwards from the nest to the surface).

One particular dive site The Canyon was reminiscent of the Red Sea. A sandy channel with sloping walls rising on both sides from around 20 m. We saw many lagoon rays cruising down this channel. Adjoining sites provide a series of overhangs, soft corals and an arch jammed with glass fish, mantis shrimps and colourful soft corals.

The Chakwe Wreck.
This is an ex shrimp trawler providing a pretty little dive for all levels. The boat, lying on its port side in sand at 14m. The boat sank in the late eighties and a lot of life has established itself around it. We saw a large grouper lurking around the old refrigeration rooms. The wreck is not suitable for penetration but great for photography in good visibility.

Moray Reef is the home of 'GEORGE' the semi tame giant Moray - "not to be confused with his not so tame grandfather further along the same reef!" The top reef covered in hard and soft corals drops off to 30m. George is usually to be found at around 22m inside a rocky outcrop of coral with many holes. This particular area of coral is incredibly busy and you could probably spend an entire dive, depending on the current, inspecting George's territory letting him get to know you and perhaps get some great interaction on film.

Vuma Cavesand Blowholes
A must for any serious diver. The caves are at the bottom of some shoreline cliffs, where you descend to a sandy bottom at approximately 20 m, swim along the reef for a bit looking at the reef fish, and not forgetting to look out to the deep sea where you may have a chance to glimpse dolphins, sharks and barracuda.There's only one cave entrance that tapers to a narrow tunnel which branches off in a few places. The main tunnel leads round a blind bend where the light is cut out both sides to a vertical sink hole in the reef. If you ascend vertically, you will come out back on the top reef at 5m. Judge the tide well or you could easily be spat out the top by surge pushing through the cave. The Blowholes, presumably caused by a constant pummelling from the seas over thousands of years, are dotted along the rock wall which descends to 18m and runs parallel and quite close to the shoreline.

Diving Vuma Caves
The entrance to the cave is a 'jaw-dropper' of an entrance not for spectacular cathedral like structure at all, but purely for the marine life that it houses. Moving around by torchlight, the beam is attracted immediately to bright flashes of red and then yellow. The big-eyed soldier fish sit in large schools gleaming red in the dark corners of the rock while the entrance is filled with yellow striped snapper. Large Potato Bass sit sulking in the dim recesses. Outside the cave, you swim south along the wall to find the blowholes. These holes are tunnels leading diagonally upwards from 18 m to the top of the rock. On approach, the beams of sunlight shooting through the holes is similar to the strong shafts of light that penetrate a tall dense rainforest or the stained glass window of a church. Diving on slack tide, you are able to get in close to the bottom of the holes and look up to these rays blasting through.

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