End of the Road

After a nice 7-8 hours of taking bus - boat - minibus combo up north from Tofo we'd end up in Vilanculos, the main tourism destination in the country, and got to be with a backpacker crowd again at the awesome Baobab Beach Backpackers camp. We got a nice hut right at the beach and just mingled with the people for days before embarking on our first diving trip to the local main site 2 Mile Reef. Slight improvement over Tofo in visibility, the reef is facing the open seas and proved quite nice place for a day of sand and diving. And sand there is enough of; huge dunes cover the islands of the Bazaruto Archipelago, famous for its resident Dugong population.

Some days later we met Dave from Sailaway Dhow Safaris at our bar and got talking about the snorkeling daytrips to the islands and another day later we'd sail across the lagoon once more and spend a very pleasant day on the sand enjoying cold Manica lagers and a tasty seafood lunch. Despite our efforts, no Dugongs yet :/ Elusive creatures as they are, they are not very commonly seen as they are quite wary of us noisy humans. But several huge Potato Groupers did make their appearance, and they're just a sight to see with their enormous heads and thick lips. The boat crew stay busy while we're diving, driving the dive boat out to meet the fishing vessels and they buy heaps of fish to sell back at the shore to various establishments.

Another couple days down the road we finally got a group together to visit the flagship reef of the area, the Sao Sebastian Amphitheatre. Right at the open sea, it's the best place to view large pelagics as well as a dense reef fish population. And here we got to see a giant guitarfish rather close up. Great diving with good visibility, and the trip to the site was exciting, with having to push through what the locals call "the washing machine", a channel where the huge ocean swells meet the sand banks and come crashing down at 3 meters tall or more. And that night would continue with a Full Moon Party down the beach.

On our last day we of course went out to dive some more, visiting 2 Mile Reef once more with very nice British and German people taking their Open Water Course. And with that, our trip of almost 7 months is coming to an end. Today we'll hope to catch a Federale Air flight down to Joburg and from there make our way back home through Madrid. Cold and dark of Finland await us once more, but certainly few places on the planet would have been nicer pick for spending the last days of the adventure than the Bazaruto Islands. The mental image of the azure ocean within the enormous sandbanks should get us through what little is left of the winter. And seeing all the friends again doesn't sound too shabby either :) We're on our way!

See all the Mozambique photos here!