Ocean Safari

There is a dive center in Tofo called Liquid Adventures.  Their slogan is "wet your dreams" haha.  Anyways, they operated out of Bamboozi for a long time and only just started moving to a new location in town when we arrived.  There were still people around the Bamboozi office though so we had a direct line to ocean activities.  On Tuesday we did the ocean safari.  This is pretty much like any other safari except better.  And on the water.  We got to the dive shop around 10:00 or so and were fitted with flippers and snorkel gear.  We then went out in a boat with a driver and a tracker.  We drove around until we saw things, then we jumped in the water and swam with whatever we saw.  We saw a humpback whale, but people aren't allowed to swim with those because they're too big and fast.  However, I did get to swim with dolphins, jellyfish (scarily) and 2 whale sharks!!!!  It was spectacular.

Dolphins

These were the first things we saw.  They were out deep so we didn't get to see them too well.  I jumped in the water and just started swimming as fast as I could out towards them.  I saw a couple, but they get spooked and dive down if you're in the deeper water.  One did come up from the depths right in front of me though and that was really cool.  Even if you can't see them though you can hear them.  That was the coolest thing for me.  I just sat with my ears in the water listening.

Whale Sharks

This isn't my photo, but so you get an idea of what I was doing

This was the craziest thing.  Tofo area has the largest population of adolescent whale sharks in the world and seeing them is not too hard.  They tell you there's an 80% chance, but the two days before we went no one had seen one.  We saw 2!  The first time it was just out boat around it.  Jim and I jumped in really fast and just started swimming.  They don't go too fast so you can keep up with it.  I tried to get some shots of Jim with it with his underwater camera - hopefully those turn out.  We just followed it for a while until a boat of researches got in and a woman tagged it.  It dove straight down after that.  It was so breathtaking though.  I was completely amped.  They are truly beautiful.

The second one we saw was in the shallow water - like maybe 15 feet deep water or so.  There were a bunch of people already in the water swimming with it.  Jim and I jumped in and swam around the boat to see it coming towards us, a bit to our side.  We got to see it's mouth and it's eye and everything.  We started swimming with it, but there were so many people that it was a little distracting.  I got kicked and pushed a couple times and the shark hit me with its tale.  I resigned to following it from behind and I just swam and swam following it.  I have no idea how long it was.  I just kept swimming until I almost ran into a jelly fish.  I then saw a bunch of jellyfish ahead of me so I quit.  The boat was brought around and that was that. 

When we decided to do this trip I knew there was  a chance that I could do something like this, but I didn't think that it would actually happen.  It was the coolest experience.  And I was swimming in the deep ocean.  That was a first and a little scary when I think about it.  I was just happy I didn't get stung by a jelly fish. 

After the trip we stopped on our way home at a restaurant called Bread Shack.  We had amazing curry and chatted with a total Rasta as Bob Marley played over the speakers.  We decided to take the beach back (our fist time walking this way) and an adventure ensued.  For some reason we thought that Bamboozi was much further from town that it was.  We had received a ride in the morning from the dive center so we were just guessing.  We passed our hostel and then when we started looking for it, it was already behind us.  As a result we just kept walking and walking.  Somehow we managed to walk all the way to the lighthouse at the tip of the peninsula.  We finally asked a security guard at a lodge how to get to Bamboozi and he just started laughing at us.  He said by road it was 12km.  We had been walking for about 2 hours.  It was quite comical.  He helped us out though and called a friend who came to pick us up and drive us back.  The boys hopped in the back of this strangers pick-up and I sat in the cabin with him.  He was actually really nice and we chatted as he drove though the villages at sunset back to Tofo.

 

We walked back into town (using the road) to have dinner at a restaurant - fish burgers and then went to a bar on the beach.  Dinos had a full moon party that we attended.  It was quite fun and we met some people.  One of the guys we befriended on the dance floor actually worked in the market and we got some good deals from him the next day.  The funny part was that every local who we talked to would ask us if we had gone to this party.  We would say yes and then they would mention how there were too many Afrikaans rugby guys.  Haha!  No one likes them.

Wednesday was relaxing.  Jim did a dive, but Will and I just chilled.  I woke up at 11:00.  This was strange because every other day of the trip and even today as I am writing this I was awake by 8:00.  Low tide = great beach run.  Anyways, I woke up and the boys waited for me to have breakfast before we went into town to visit the market.  A lot of the stuff is similar to what you can find in PE, but they do more color work with the wood and there is much more fabric.  I picked up some things for gift giving.  Will and I walked back to Bamboozi after dropping Jim at the dive center.  The rest of the day I just read my book, swam in the ocean, sat in the sun, and went to sleep early.  We had dinner in town, but didn't hang around too long.  This was our low-key day and I glad because Thursday was one of the greatest days of my life!