Misfits Mid Life Crisis Adventures in ………….. Mozambique.

Week 23, Saturday 22 to Friday 28 November 2014.

This week I have mainly been listening to….. Morrissey, Alanis Morrisette, Arcade Fire, Lana Del Ray,

And have been watching…. The Apprentice (Season 10, eps 7), The Fall (Season 2, eps 2), Citizen Khan (Season 2, eps 3), Not Going Out (eps 5), Atlantis (Season 2, eps 2), Fringe (Season 3)

Saturday, started with a double tanks to our northern dive sites Reggie’s and the Office, hardly any current great viz 15 plus metres. White tip reef sharks on both dives (2 on Reggie’s and 1 on Office). Just after we dropped on Reggie’s a huge and I mean HUGE turtle came swimming out of the blue and straight up to Chris it got within a couple of feet from his face, after eyeballing other diver it swam past us. When we were leaving the dive site a turtle was spotted having a rest on the surface, our boat was just passing it as it took a gulp of air and dived, I’d like to think that was Chris Turtle. Office was spectacular as ever full of great marine life, pity there were no Mantas today. I could have gone on a 3^rd dive in the afternoon, but I decided to stay at the shop as I had some painting to do. Lockers have arrived for our customers belongings; I needed to give them a lick of paint. I have started to plan the wall painting I have been asked to do, must draw some designs. This evening Jenny rang to say she was not far away and will be home in a couple of hours, cold beers in the fridge all ready.

Sunday, got to dive shop Jari (one of the bosses) said to me “Manta Reef and Marble Arch”, I said “I’ll draw on the white board”. He said no could I lead the dives because Nadia was not well. So we kitted up, I did the briefing and off we went, yes I was a little nervous inside but I also knew I could do it. The diving sprits were with us as the viz was great and there was no current. Manta lived up to its name with deffo 2 possibly 3 mantas, and a huge turtle (in fact we had a turtle swim away from us just as a manta appeared overhead, so beautiful) we were so lucky. Marble Arch was lovely, I love that site lots of nooks and crannies, the clients were happy which the main thing is. A third enjoyable double tank in three days. Tomorrow I’m leading again, will report after the dive. The rest of the day was spent on a slight high with Pizza from Brankos and working on fun facts for Ocean Safaris. Spent the evening Skyping with Hel and mum and catching up on some rubbish TV I enjoy. A really good day, however I always worry when I have a good day and im on a high I worry about the bad day to follow this is why I try never to be too happy if you get me. I’m just going to enjoy today for what it was and see what tomorrow brings.

Monday started with another lead to Giants Castle, however this didn’t go as planned. There was a strong current on the drop and one customer had problems getting down so myself and Satu (one of the bosses) and the customer ended up separated from the group which is not a prob as Satu is an instructor I’m a DM. But then the customer started to panic due to a flooded mask, both Satu and my regulators were knocked out, we then decided that we had to ascend. I reeled in my safely sausage (an inflatable marker buoy that goes to the surface so that the boat can see where you are) that I had deployed and Satu keeping the customer happy. All ended well and in fact the customer got in the pool to practise mask clearing which is good. The New Liquid T-shirts arrived today they look great, I stupidly picked a black one and roasted all day as black absorbs the sun, stupid me. A number of people in the market commented on the shirts so I think they will be a great advert for the dive shop. Tonight we had Cindy and her boys over for a meal very nice. Next week I have to do my visa run, I have to go to South Africa again, this time I’m going to get a totally new 3 month visa. If I get the visa this will mean that when I leave in March and I will have been here 9 months, to be totally honest I never want to go back but I have to be realistic I suppose. I Skyped with SAZ and had a lovely chat, our brothers little boy Nico is staying was nice to see him.

Tuesday, I lead a lovely dive round the mighty Salon a shallow dive site, great 50 minutes underwater with Nemo and friends. Once on land I just changed from my full wetsuit into my shortie one as I lead an ocean safari for 7 customers. We hadn’t been out long when Pedro (the captain) informed us that there were a number of Mantas around us, we were in the water like a flash. I managed to see them for a moment until one of the customers got tired and I helped her back to the boat. A little later we had another group of Manta’s but these were then upstaged by a Whale Shark. Turning round to see the world’s biggest fish just cruising under the surface coming directly towards me is a site to remember. That was not the end of our adventure as soon after we came across another Whale Shark, what an amazing safari we were so spoiled. We ended the trip a little early after a group decision as a couple of punters were not well. The rest of the day was spent at the centre until Jenny arrived who was going to collect various children from the local international school. I went with her, what a beautiful place in the middle of nowhere this little school with a view to kill overlooking a large river, the wind blowing beautiful place, I can only imagine how lovely it must be to go to school like that. I got home and had a nap on the sofa listening to music what a lovely day

Wednesday, Anna has told us that she has to leave early which is really sad as a result she is looking to leave this Friday (was due to leave next week). My dive today didn’t go as planned my regulator has been slightly free flowing (Scuba regulators are demand value, you breathe in and you get air otherwise the air doesn’t come out), my regulator has a very slight continuous hiss of air leaking from it which has not had any impact on my air consumption. Today’s dive to Mikes Cupboard I was on the line waiting for everyone to descend, my regulator was really free flowing, I took it out of my mouth and sure enough there were lots of bubbles so when Nadia descended I handed the reel to her and went back to the surface, my dive was over. In the evening I went with Jenny to visit Cindy’s new house that’s being constructed, what a beautiful place on lovely land with a wonderful view of the sun setting we stood there drinking Savannah watching the sun go down. After this I went to the cinema Tofo style, on a Wednesday at Mozembeats bar they show a film on a big screen tonight’s was Guardians of the Galaxy, of course I loved it.

Thursday, I went on a Kayak trip with Michael, the actual kayaking took a good couple of hours constantly changing course but we were mostly pointing in the right direction most of the time. The guide didn’t speak much English so it was tough finding info out. Later Michael tells me he was dangling his legs over the side of the kayak, I would have killed him if we had capsized. The island is pretty much as I remember it (from a previous trip in October) it’s very basic a lot of people live there, they have solar panels as there not connected to the grid, the toilets are grim, they collect rain water, in many ways it’s a tranquil life but in others it’s a tough one. We went on a tour and saw the church, the corrugated metal roof made the interior feel like an oven. The school which was empty, but the medical centre which was busy (we didn’t get in the way of the Doctor). I personally felt a little bad, it was like I was being shown round an exhibit. Once back at the central part of the island we were treated to a lovely meal consisting of Matapa, Crab, other fish, chips, rice and veggies very nice. We sat there feeling a little lost really there was no interaction so once the meal was done we decided the best thing was to leave. They did try to charge us a hell of a lot more then it was supposed to be, we knew the real price so they didn’t get away with it. Because we were early our Dhow ride back was not ready, instead we rode back on the boat with the Kayak’s strapped to the middle of it. The ride was slow and pleasant I managed to be shaded a lot by the sail; every now and then the captain would ask for to people to move from one side to another to balance the boat. On our journey we saw a few Flamingo’s and lots of fisherman working in tough conditions out in the open under the scorching sun. The main thing is the customers I believe were happy. Jenny made a beautiful meal with fresh fish this evening, wow.. I Skyped with family as my sisters are going to Sri-Lanka for their birthday so I wished them well, chatted to mum and my little niece.

Friday, Anna’s last dives with us. The weather looked like it was going to pour the clouds were dark the sea was big and the waves bashed us about a lot. But we got to the dive site a new one for me called “Hogwarts” on the drop we had 2 Small eye Stingrays (the world’s largest Rays) one came straight at me I had to move out of the way in a hurry. I was on the reel so didn’t get to go thru the swim thru’s but next time. The surface interval between dives was bumpy and windy we eat biscuit (getting soggier all the time from the splashing salt water) and bread while most people were trying to keep out of the wind crouched down in the boat. The best part about the dive at Manta was on the drop a huge Potato Grouper came up close and personal to many of us. Especially Nadia, she hadn’t seen him when she did she let out a shriek which was clearly audible through the water. But the fun didn’t end there, as Nadia in her shock had turned around again and hadn’t realised that the grouper was now under her, she was in essence she was sitting on it. Again there was much mirth at depth when she saw him under her just floating there. Coming back it was bumpy, but we stopped when Pedro spotted a Whale Shark. Had a great snorkel with it, it wasn’t huge maybe 5 metres long. I’m so glad that Anna enjoyed her final dives with us, we will miss her lots. Had fish and chips as a Friday treat and did a little painting adding dive site names to the map. But it was decided to make a change so I have had to do some turquoise repainting and touching up before I can finish the dive site names. No one said it was going to be easy.

A busy week, Diving, Ocean Safaris, Kayaking with Manta’s, Whale Sharks and Turtles. What’s not to love bout a mid-life crisis. Worrying a little about the coming visa run, but I’m sure all will be ok.