I am one with...the dolphins 9/16

June 23, 2003

Life in Nkhata Bay was chill. You’d wake every day to a warm, blue sky, sit by the lake enjoying a breakfast of fresh papaya, which was picked from the tree just beside your bungalow that morning. Usually breakfast managed to last minimum 2 hours, with a minimum 4 mugs of tea; it was the first time I had seen a big mug in too long a time. Following that, I would contemplate a swim across the bay and back for a good share of an hour. Then I’d actually do that, so half hour. By that time it would already be well past noon and I would need to be down in the ‘town’ to pick up fruit and fresh, fresh tomatoes…beautiful tomatoes…some of the best I’d had. Oh, and fresh bread…spending far too much on groceries: possibly 40 cents. Then it would be a wander over to Kupenja Lodge where my friends Daz and Ariel lived and worked. That would lead to a long tea session while we sat on the deck watching the traffic go by on the lake. If we were lucky the ferry (usually the Ilala but she was being fixed) would come in. That was fair excitement.

Dug out canoes rolled by, with fresh fish for sale. Daz was looking for his own dug out at the time, he had lost 2 previous canoes to Mozambique when he failed to tie them up properly, so was more than happy to indulge these fishermen in a bit of banter. Maybe one would know of a boat Daz could buy.

The sun would start setting and I’d have to decide if I should have a delicious dinner at Hot Spot for a mere 65 cents or go back to Mayoka for almost gourmet food. This was the big decision of the day. Man, what a hard life.

This town/village/whatever had no internet, often no power at night, few phones, and was very far on a bumpy road to the nearest town and main bus station. It was a wonderful place. As I’ve said it was easy filling the day with nonsense. There’s a prison in the middle of town, right across from Golden Dawg, the movie house. And I swear the prisoners were never locked up. They were playing football across the way.

And the locals; the carver boys. Oh the nicknames….Easy Tiger, Georgy Porgy, Richard, Diamond Geezer…ah, common. Richard, really?
I loved the fact that I’d have to greet the witch doctor who’s ‘office’ was by the side of the road on the way to Daz’s.
All in all, I’m not too upset that I had agreed to meet my friend Phil back there in the next 2 weeks.

Remember that evil bus journey I mentioned in my last email? The one that took Jess and I 19 hours to get from Nkhata Bay to Blantyre? So slow a lorry past us while we were going uphill? Well, I don’t think I mentioned what the bus drivers did. Ok, first, there were drivers. Like 4 of them. And then they decided they were thirsty at 2:30 in the morning and stopped for a very long amount of time to go to the local disco for a beer or 2. They never actually told us anything but I figured it out. And it really pissed off this Tanzanian bloke. He went off about how you’d never hear 2 radios blaring at once, babies shrieking and the drivers leaving the bus on the side of the road packed to overflow with customers and luggage to enjoy a few beers in Tanzania. The dalla dallas there would get you to your destination in record speed. Gotta say, I agree.

Jess and I finally made it out of Malawi at the beginning of June-ish to get some sand and sun in Southern Mozambique. We left our hostel early in the day only to wait for our minibus to leave for hours. Finally it was full and off we went. Just 20 km away from the border it broke down. Lucky for us a pickup truck picked us up. It was owned by a lovely Namibian family who were in Malawi on holiday and they took us safely to the border. The most interesting billboards I’ve seen were between the two countries. It was an ad for condoms, the sign saying you have now left Chisango country (Malawi) and entered ‘X’ country (don’t know the name of the Moz condom…not as many billboards as Malawi). We got a little lecture from the Moz. Customs for not having bought visas in our home countries, mainly because he was a lazy git and didn’t feel like doing anything. We ended up having to pay him a little extra for doing such a nice job.

Managed a lift with a very nice South African who was working in Malawi but was on his way to Zim. Got to Tete in record time thanks to the South Africans need for speed behind the wheel and had our first look around Mozambique. It’s amazing how different it is to other African countries. Its Portuguese influence is so evident, giving it an almost European flair. Ok, not a huge European flair, but it is bizarre seeing Africans chatting away in Portuguese. And it ain’t cheap either. Not European in that respect either but at least twice more expensive then Malawi and it’s just as poor. I mean the poor country has had a horrible past 20 odd years, with constant war, and droughts and famines. But the people are still warm and friendly.

We left our pensau at 3:45 am to catch our bus to Vilanculo. We were told we should be making it there by late afternoon. Right. We got to Vilanculo at 10:30 at night. Mozambique buses could have won the prize as the slowest and most painful.

Vilanculo is a lovely little town in Southern Mozambique. Very tropical with coconut palms and long white sand beaches. The tide goes out pretty far here and it seems like you can walk across the Indian Ocean. It’s so beautiful at that time…the dhows (sailboats) all have black sails and it always looks like one got stuck in a sand dune.

Jess and I ended up meeting two wicked Swedes, Hans and Anna and a fellow Torontonian, Jeremy (who happens to live just blocks away from my folks) and decided to go on a dhow safari for 2 days and 2 nights to the Bazaruto Archipelago, 5 islands that are protected as a national park.

My mission: see some frikin dolphins! Everywhere I go people brag about seeing dolphins riding alongside the boat or riding the waves nearby. I want some of that. What is it about me that dolphins don’t want to know? And how do they all know that there’s a ban on me?

I got my wish. Oh yeah. We saw some dolphins. They were as beautiful as people have said. And now my curse is gone! I’m good again. I am one with the dolphins. And it doesn’t stop there. We even got to see the endangered dugong, which, for obvious reasons (that whole almost being extinct thing) is very rare to see.

We all then headed down to Tofo, a famous beach just down from Inhambane town, one of the oldest towns in Mozambique. Tofo’s known for not just the beach but also surfing and most importantly, diving. I’d heard about the diving in Tofo months before in Zanzibar. Apparently you could dive with Manta Rays and Whale sharks. Cool, the only problem being I don’t know how to dive. And you can’t snorkel with the Mantas. There’re 30 m down.

The stupid thing is I could have learnt to dive anywhere in Africa. Zanzibar was cheap and a pretty sweet environment. Lake Malawi even. Ten minute walk from where I stayed for 3.5 weeks. But no. I have to procrastinate and be cheap. You, all who know me, must have known what kind of internal struggle I was having, trying to decide if I should part with my hard earned coin to take the most expensive Open water course I had come across. I think I annoyed every person that I encountered trying to get them to decide for me. Lucky, my friend Emma who wanted to take the course with me, talked me into it. Now I can’t believe I haven’t done diving sooner.

I’m a water baby. I can stay in the water for days. Everyone said I would love diving, being able to breathe underwater and see the life under the water. They were so right. It’s amazing. I had been so worried about everything, my ears, the bends, and all kinds of bad stuff you hear you can do to yourself at great depths under the water. It’s just ridiculous though. It’s one of the most relaxing, serene experiences I’ve had. I love hanging upside down over the coral trying to find some crazy looking shrimp or eel or whatever. Or just floating above the ocean floor, watching schools of fish swim by.

We were heading back to land after my final dive (to complete the course) when we hit something with the rudder of the speedboat. We stopped the boat and turned to see the enormous fin of a whale shark submerging into the water. We didn’t hurt him but stunned him enough for him to realize he should swim a little deeper. We turned the boat to see if there were any more whale sharks and then noticed some fins in the distance. That was one of the really cool things about booting over the waves of the ocean. You would often see a couple of very large fins or a devil ray popping out with a wave. Anyway, we drove on and the fins rode in our direction and we saw they belonged to 2 dolphins. They seemed to like our boat and we went into the water with our snorkel gear on the very unlikely chance that the dolphins come closer. We began to swim as gently as possible (dolphins don’t like splashing) and they came closer. They came closer and closer until they were a mere meter away. It was unbelievable! They reminded me of those really tacky airbrushing of dolphins. These smiling creatures that just seem to float in the water.

My new name is EEEEEEEE (to be sung in the tone of a dolphin).

Time for my first deep dive, the whole reason for the dive course, 30 meters down to the Mantas. It was unbelievable. We had to descend head first to get down as fast as possible because the currents are so strong. That was cool. Then we started the dive. We went over top this one reef and entered an aquarium. It seemed like we were surrounded by thousands of fish. Looking down you’d see all the crazy things that live in the reef. Moray eels, although dangerous look like Muppets with their mouths constantly trying to snap up food. Barracuda, Tiger fish, stingrays, all you could imagine, surround you. Then you turn a bend and see your first Manta coming out of the mist. The best description I heard was they look like Star Trek ships coming in for a landing. And they are huge! 30 times bigger than me at least. Like a small car. They just coast along, gently gliding on a flap of their wings, pausing once in a while in mid wave to have a look at you, then floating upwards and away giving you a view of their white underbellies and the fish that live beneath them. So majestic and gentle.

A dive master then pointed to the distance and a school of devil rays, 15, some babies flew slowly by. It’s an astounding world at the bottom of the ocean. Now the humpback whales are moving through Tofo, migrating north where they’ll breed then head back through Tofo. The one downfall to this is they chase away the gentle giant whale sharks which I still have not managed to see, but there are a few around. But no worries, I have time…

I was offered one of the coolest jobs to date. The lovely people that own Tofo Scuba, Nikki and John asked me to do reception work for them in exchange for accommodations, base wage and the kicker: free dives! It’s like they knew it was my new obsession. And since Nikki was my instructor that wouldn’t be too far off. Needless to say, I will be taking this job, after I do a bit more travel. I’ll just hope it’s still there when I return in a month or 2, which Nikki guaranteed. Inshallah.

This had been my plan. Amazingly, yes, I had formed a somewhat plan. Jess was to leave me, sadly, from Maputo where we would enjoy her bday and buy final curios. Then I would spend a few days there before taking the long journey back to Malawi. Our time that was meant to be in Maputo was cut short because of my dive course and then we cancelled it all together to stay in Tofo for the Full Moon party on the beach. Then it was decided it was only fitting that Jess and I parted ways on a beach. After all we had met on the North beach in Zanzibar, 3 full moons ago. Too perfect. Beach to beach, full moon to full moon.

Then I was meant to leave Tofo with Anna, the Swedish girl we were travelling with. The day before we were meant to leave I was chatting with Tom, another member our travel tribe, who was thinking of heading up to the North. I knew I wanted to see it, go to Pemba and Mozambique Island, but travel was long and drawn-out and I wasn’t keen on doing it alone. Phil and I were meant to see it together after I had reunited with him in Nkhata Bay. As usual, plans are never set in stone with me and we decided to head north the next day as opposed to south, which would get me further and further away from Malawi.

We’re currently in Beira, central Mozambique. I, along with my travel partner for the moment, Tom, are staying with 2 English teachers, Camille and Lester, who have taken us in for the past few days. We met Lester in Tofo and ran into him on our way north. Not only was Lester heading up to Ilha de Mocambique, but we could stay with him along the way. Which takes about 3 days. You have to travel in stages. For some reason it’s against the law for buses to travel at night and the roads are shit so 40 km could take like 8 hours. That means, from Vilanculos in the south, it would take about 3 stopovers to get there. We’re in stop one now, trying to get our visas extended before heading north. Apparently each day you’re past your due date, you pay $100. I need to not find that out.

The beautiful thing is Lester and Camille knows a great group of expats and locals in Beira and has made our time here really nice. Many of them are professional musicians and they entertain us for hours with tunes. We were at dinner parties for the past 2 nights stuffing our greedy little faces. And I get to use Lester’s laptop which is how I’m managed to spew out all this rubbish…it’s free. And he’s managed to get us 3 free accommodations all the way up to Ilha. Rock on.

To brag I’m currently listening to Helio, Lester’s friend and popular musician playing the drums and singing outdoors, entertaining the children in the neighbourhood.

Tom and I have discovered a Brazilian culture here as well. Ok, Tom did. He plays Capoeira, the Brazilian Martial Art that resembles a dance. Throughout our journey north we’ve found kids and adults playing in various places, on the beach, in the square and in our current frontyard. It’s pretty amazing. I think it’s interesting that Africa on the whole is so into martial arts and that Mozambique is into the Brazilian form. In the rest of Eastern and Southern Africa you would see people play fighting using kung fu or kickboxing and the Africans love Kung Fu movies. But here in Mozambique you find their own culture’s martial art. Yet another difference. Cool bananas.

Now you’d think we’d be living in the lap of luxury here in Beira, and in some respects we are. As mentioned I have use of a laptop and internet during cheap hours, the use of a kitchen, a lady who did our laundry for free, a comfy bed but we have no running water. Really. Sometimes it comes on for a few odd hours, freezing cold and trickling out of the shower head (spout, really). We’ve taken to boiling a couple litres of water then bucket showering with it. To me luxury is a hot shower but now I realize running water in general is pretty luxurious to some. The things you take for granted, they’re living like this for 2 years. As I speak Lester is heating up his shower bag (a camping sac filled with water that has a shower head attached) by the heat of the sun. Lukewarm is better than freezing, as he said.

As for me and my health, I’m all good. Got some killer meds to get rid of Wanker 2nd today. The little bastard kept me up itching all night. So now he must die. I had warned him…if he was good he could come to Ilha and enjoy its first music festival but no, he wanted more blood and grew bigger. Now he’s an irritant so…. On the plus side, the horse pill I took should also take out some of the other worms that are probably living in me…from food. We all have them, I think you just get more in Africa.

I’ve decided to go off my anti-malarial when I return home to Mayoka. I’ve now been on Doxy, an antibiotic, for close to 6 months which is bad. I need my body to be able to fight bacteria and shit naturally. Also, there’s the possibility I am carrying malaria (long boring story that involves a medical advisor) but it’s being kept at bay by Doxy and I’d like it to come out so I can treat it proper. Plus I know the staff at Mayoka and I know they’d take care of me. We’ll see in a few weeks!

I’m still in love with Africa. Every country seems to look different…like they noticed a change in the landscape and drew a dividing line there. Obviously that’s not true but…

Hope everyone is happy and healthy! You are all in my thoughts and I honestly wish I could be sharing my time in Africa with all of you.
Love thi