Playing catch-up!

Wow, am I bad at this or what?! It’s been over a month since I last wrote- shame on me. I apologize to those who have tuned into this blog to see the latest news and been disappointed in my lack of updates. Things have been more hectic than usual around this part of the world and I only now finally have the time to sit and think about all that’s happened over the past month.

First things first, Mozambique was absolutely amazing. Even the treck there, over a period of three days, sitting in the back of a Quantum with 12 people, was amazing. The countryside is beautiful, the people are extremely interesting and inspiring, and the lifestyle is laid back and relaxing. We spent most of our time in Tofo, where the focus was diving, enjoying the sun and sand and socializing at the main meeting point, a bar called Dino’s. I did three dives with a dive shop called Liquid Adventures (which is located right next to the lodge where we all stayed, called Bamboozi Beach Lodge), and each and every one was incredible. The first, on a reef called Sherwood Forest, was my favorite, since within five minutes of being on the reef we spotted an absolutely massive Giant Manta at a cleaning station. The manta was being cleaned by small fish and also feeding at the same time. It had to have a wingspan of at least three meters and swam right up and over my head. Just after that we came across a massive sea turtle, who swam up and over me, got spooked by my bubbles and went straight for the Dive Master, Bula. He didn’t take a chomp, but came close. There were dozens of beautiful reef fish and lots of lobster and nudibranchs as well. Ah, I wish I could remember all the names, but I am so bad with this stuff. Beyond the diving we had lots of rest and relaxation, a really nice braai with everyone one night, and plenty of fun drinking on the beach. I am planning on heading back to Moz in a few weeks for another week or so of diving and fun in the sun with my friend Jason who is visiting from the States. I am really excited to now have my new little GoPro underwater video camera to bring to Moz, thanks to Mom and Dad and my 25th birthday! Hoping to get some good shots on that.

After Moz I spent a week or so back in Cape Town at Save Our Seas, where I continued to work on projects for their educational section and was also lucky enough to get out on the boat with Steve to do some more seal diving. The weather continues to improve around here, despite the wind, and we’ve had plenty of clear, sunny days. My parents, as well as my Aunt Cathy, Uncle Tom, Aunt Minda and Uncle Gary all came to visit me on the 30th of November, and it was a wonderful time. We spent the first few days at a private game reserve called Inyati, and it is most definitely one of the highlights of my time in South Africa. Each day involved getting up at 5 am, eating breakfast, embarking on a morning game drive of about three hours, followed by three or four hours of rest and relaxation (which I spent in the pool and on the lawn), followed by more food, an afternoon game drive, and sundowners before an hour or so of a night game drive. Our guide’s name was George, and he had been at Inyati for over 25 years and knew the place like the back of his hand. We were in an uncovered land rover that literally drove over trees, down into ditches and through rivers with crocs swimming in them. Within the first few hours of driving on our first day we saw a pride of lions, leopard, rhino, elephant and buffalo. Throughout the week we sat among a herd of buffalo (literally within three feet of them), next to a hippo in a river, watched a pride of lion feed on their previous night’s kill within 10 feet of our vehicle, and also tracked a leopard while she was fleeing from a male leopard. Unbelievable.

PS… just to throw this out there.. I am currently watching a show called Sharkman on Animal Planet, featuring a man named Mike Rutzen. Mike is the uncle of my friend Morne Hardenburg, who is in the water filming Mike while he dives with the White sharks. The footage is incredible, and they are diving with 8 large White sharks surrounding them. They are trying to test a theory about the state of tonic immobility, which happens to sharks when they turn upside down in the water. Some of them can be put into tonic immobility by having their ampullae of Lorenzini stroked, which are the sensory pits found on all sharks’ snouts. Anyway, just wanted to plug the show because it’s AMAZING and anyone who’s reading this should tune into Animal Planet to see it.

Following Inyati the fam and I did some sightseeing around Cape Town for a couple days, which was a lot of fun but VERY windy! We were able to get out on the boat with Stevo to do some diving with the seals, which was wonderful as usual (despite the seal bite I endured on my left leg- apparently I was getting a little too close with my new camera? Who knows!) We did the usual stuff.. ate on Kloof street, walked around Table Mountain, went to Cape Point, went to Signal Hill. It was all beautiful, as expected, but I wish we would have had a little more time so they could see the REAL Cape Town, more as I’ve experienced. BUT it all comes down to time, and we had to get to the Garden Route as well, so we took off the following Monday and trekked it along the East coast for a few days (in a VW bus, of course :). The mountain passes and winelands were absolutely gorgeous, as was Tsitsikamma National Park and even Oudtshoorn, which is located inland and specializes in ostrich farming. All of the B&B’s we stayed in were super luxurious, and I felt oh so spoiled (but I’m not complaining!). Such a nice time to spend with family… if only the rest of the crew could have been there!

Since the fam left, I have been hanging in Cape Town and took a nice long weekend to Plett with some new friends from Cape Town. Plett is short for Plettenberg Bay, and it is near the end of the Garden Route on the East coast from Cape Town. It’s about a 6-hour road trip, but oh so worth it. Plett is a gorgeous town on the beach, surrounded by rainforest and rocky, craggy shoreline. We did some waterskiing, beach walking, cliff jumping, and lots of cricket watching (due to a day and a half of rain :) Definitely interesting hanging out with a group of South Africans and having to defend my American ways (on my own this time!) for a few days, but so much fun. I am so lucky to have met the people I have met here- everyone’s been so good to me.

Whew! So that is a SERIOUS summary of the last month or so- I wish I was better at keeping a journal or at least keeping a blog, but I have come to terms with being terrible at it. Hope this helps give a semi-update to those who care and I will do my very best to be better about it throughout my last month and a half here (although that may be tough considering I’ll be traveling for the entire month of January…)

Happy Holidays to all! Hope everyone is surviving the snow (MN) and the rain (Seattle)!! Love to each and every one of you!! (I will add some more pictures later!)

Love, av