Whalesharks!!!

Easter is a long holiday weekend over here. 16 friends from Swaziland and surroundings decided to make a 12 hour journey north into Mozambique. This journey was over bumpy potholes, crazy traffic and even some sand driving. The drive was of course much more enjoyable with the cashews sold at the side of the road and the fresh Portugese bread we ate along the way. We headed to Tofo beach, where there was some awesome scuba diving and snorkeling. The diving took us to beautiful reefs with beautiful, huge rays plus large colorful schools of fish. But the snorkeling was the absolute highlight of the trip.

Our snorkeling trip was in search of one specific fish: whale sharks. These are the largest fish in the ocean, and there are only 1000 left worldwide. They live off this part of the coast of Mozambique. We headed out in a boat and as soon as a whaleshark was spotted they yelled for us to jump in. Of course I wanted to see the whaleshark and having just been diving I felt no apprehension about immediately jumping in...I managed to lose a fin and find myself literally face to face with a 6 meter long whaleshark. Despite knowing they are not at all interested in humans I couldn't help but feel a bit of uneasiness, especially since I was the only one in the water at this point. After backing away just slightly I managed to swim alongside this creature and see the amazing markings, shape and speed that these animals have in the water. 3 more whalesharks swam by us that afternoon, an amazing treat.

Heading back to our rented house we had folks already waiting to sell us prawns and fish for our delicious barbecue, complete with one of my favorite drinks in Africa, Laurentina beer....All in all, well worth the drive.