Through the Eyes of a Whale Shark

After a wonderful and adventure-packed two weeks of nomadism, I have finally returned to "real life" here in Cape Town. The sun is out and having just celebrated the official first day of spring in South Africa, everyone and everything feels electric. I'm looking forward to settling in again, approaching my volunteer work here from a slightly new angle, and continuing to explore this truly amazing place.

My Mozambique adventure began on Friday night (Sept 3rd) when 12 mismatched students and interns- mostly American, mostly female- met at the Joburg airport and filed our sleepy selves into a huge van. We set off North in the direction of Kruger National Park, one of the most renowned game viewing parks in South Africa. This was a super last minute plan, devised when the program organizers (bless them) decided it would be best to avoid the mob fights and stray bullets we might be faced with in the capitol city of Maputo, Mozambique. I've always been told I am "scrappy," but something tells me that the self defense stills I acquired when I was a Girl Scout might be no match for an African civil dispute. We set off in the van around 11pm and I almost instantly fell into an uncomfortable, drool-running-down-the-car-window, completely konked out sleep. I wasn't the first one or the only one sleeping, but it turned out my slumber was the most detrimental to the group. That's because I was the one- out of everyone- who should have noticed that my dear little friend Zoe, who had innocently gotten out to buy popcorn while we refueled, had been left at the petrol station in Joburg. FAIL! By the time I woke up, everything had been sorted, she had borrowed someone's phone (in exchange for some of her popcorn) to call the states, retrieved a phone number of one of our group leaders, and phoned him to let him know that the dumbasses in the big van had forgotten her. The other car turned around in her rescue and with only about 45 minutes lost, we were back in business and on our way.

We arrived in the morning at Kruger park and set off on a self-guided safari at sunrise. Although we were all impossibly tired and grumpy from shitty van sleep, we really did see some incredible sights that morning. First, was an elephant encounter of great proportion. When we spotted him, he was tranquilly standing there and enjoying his breakfast of leaves and branches and swinging his tale like a happy little puppy might. Soon, however, something intrigued him and without even a moment's notice he was charging the road and essentially heading directly toward the small car behind us (the Zoe rescue committee). He reached his long trunk toward the car window right as Sean (program director) put the car in gear and high tailed it out of the way. Had Sean not reacted so fast, this seemingly docile animal could have put itself on the list among some of the most vicious car vandals ever to exist.


After the park, we drove the rest of the day. After spending about 2 hours waiting for the Mozambican visas at the boarder post (African time at its finest), we spent the night in a small town near Xai Xai. Another full day of driving, two speeding tickets, a 150 song iPod playlist on repeat, consumption of about 5 million cashews, and a rough ride later, we arrived in paradise- Tofo, Mozambique. It was amazing to watch the terrain morph as we descended toward the beach that day. Flat, dusty planes gave way to countless palm trees and tropical birds. The air seemed to become both thicker and lighter at the same time. The sky seemed to be stuck in perma-sunset, like you would see in a magazine.

Our accommodation at Bamboozi Lodge was an enormous, open grass hut filled with twelve beds, all in a circle. There were mesh mosquito nets draping over every bed that made me feel like a tropical African version of the Little Princess. Lizards wiggled around in there in the mornings and bats circled at night. Up the sand road from our hut was the dive shop, the restaurant / bar and the most beautiful, expansive beach I've ever seen. It was completely undeveloped and almost no one was there besides our group, a few travelers and some locals. This was insane, given how beautiful it is.


On our second day in Tofo, the group of us set out to do a service project painting a school on a local island. We pilled into the bed of a truck and flew down the bumpy sand road, around to the other side of the coast. It was like a video game, standing on the bed of the truck, holding onto the metal beam. 3 points for ducking out of the way of a low tree branch, 2 points for avoiding getting a bird to the face, 1 point for getting a child to wave at you, Extra Life (!!!) for encouraging a local to run and latch onto the back of the truck while in motion. When we arrived at the next beach over, we boarded a Dhow (Mozambican sailboat) and set off into the waves. The island community's chief greeted us, as well as about a million snot-nosed, squirrelly, adorable kids. We set out on a tour of the church, the hospital, and the school, but I was distracted by the giggly one year old that I had kidnapped along the way. "Borrowed" might be a more appropriate term. Either way, I navigated down the sandy trails that wove through the little island, stepped over chickens, and dodged palm trees with this little girl in my arms and her siblings trailing close behind. It seemed strikingly odd that there were dozens and dozens of children running around this tiny island, but I only spotted about 3 or 4 adults. I found out later that due to the newness of the island, about 50% of the its population was under the age of 10. After teaching the kids the hand-jive and eating a feast of mussels and crabs prepared by the chief himself, we boarded our Dhow again and sailed into multicolored sky with a wall of children waving at the shore. It was a fantastic afternoon.


Days were mellow and nights were generally full of star gazing (you could see both Mars and Jupiter), Tipo Tinto drinking (the local Mozambican rum), and beach bar dancing. Each day blurred into the next. It was a cycle of waking up with the sun, enjoying leisurely breakfasts at the Bamboozi restaurant, swimming in the lukewarm Indian Ocean, hiking up the beach to the street market, dodging the bracelet boys (I really didn't need to be accessorized up to each elbow in hippie wristware), and tanning (read: freckling).


By far the most amazing and worthwhile thing I did while in Tofo was going on Ocean Safari. After being fitted in a mask, snorkel and flippers and flinging my body into the inflatable-type boat like a sea loin onto the dock, we set off zipping through the waves in no particular pattern or direction. In no more than 5 minutes, the skipper killed the engine, the guide announced that a whale shark was near, and everyone bailed backwards off the boat and into the ocean. So I, having basically flunked out of "Polly's Puddle" swim lessons at the age of seven and never quite developing a knack for the ocean (understatement), got in the water and flailed like an idiot at first. I missed the shark, found my way back in the boat, and set out to do better the next time. Soon enough, we were alongside the shark again. I took a deep breath and hopped in. As soon as the water commotion cleared, I found myself face to face with this enormous and majestic animal. Its gaping mouth was probably about 4 feet across and as I navigated around the side, I realized his torso was no less that three times the length of my body. We swam together side by side for some time, and it was this incredible suspension of reality where nothing else in the world mattered. In no more than a few minutes, he got bored of his newfound companion and burrowed down into the ocean's darkness. Back on the boat, 20 minutes later, we got in the water again with another whale shark- this time accompanied by 4 babies. We also witnessed enormous humpback whales which were closer to the boat than even the guide had ever seen them. Manta rays and dolphins made an appearance as well, but both were in much more of a hurry than the sharks. In all, it's difficult to describe how unreal it was to be in the water that close to a gigantic shark and be able to calmly swim alongside it, checking out the details in his fins and the color variation of his white, spotted body. It was surely one of the coolest things I've done in my lifetime.


This week it's back to reality here in lovely Cape Town, and I'm glad to be home. I aim to start some new projects this week, work wise and continue plugging away on my things-to-do-before-I-leave list. Now that summer is in the air, the energy in the city has certainly started to ramp up. It's all very exciting. Thank you for the blog support and for reading all the way to the end of this long post! I love hearing from you all, so please, don't be shy. :-) Miss everyone!!

Ciao,
Leah